Version 2 of Google Consent Mode introduces two additional bits / storage types (ad_user_data & ad_personalization) within the consent mode updates.
How Google Tag Manager (GTM) handles consent
Feature | Basic consent mode | Advanced consent mode |
|---|---|---|
Tag loading | Blocked until user interaction with a consent banner. | Loads with defaults set to denied, unless configured otherwise. |
Data transmission | No data is sent before a user consents - not even the default consent status. | When consent is denied, consent state and cookieless pings are sent. |
Consent states | Set after user interaction. | Defaults set to denied, unless configured otherwise; updates based on user choice. |
Tag behavior after user interaction | Loads and executes consent mode APIs only when a user grants consent. | Adjusts tag behavior based on user consent choice. |
Conversion modeling | General model (less detailed modeling). | Advertiser-specific model (more detailed modeling). |
Basic Google Consent Mode
Google tags are initially blocked until consent is granted.
Using the Usercentrics CMP, tags within the Google Tag Manager (GTM) will need to be triggered only when consent for the correlating Data Processing Service (DPS) is given.
How we recommend setting up variables & triggers for this purpose in the GTM is documented.
Alternatively to using our recommended variable & trigger setup that can fire specific tags based on the consent status of specific Data Processing Services (DPS) in the Usercentrics CMP Configuration / SettingID, there are also other options of handling the triggering of tags, f.ex.
Triggering tags based on the consent state(s) of Google Consent Mode storage types (i.e. ad_storage) is possible for individual tags.
Third party templates may be used to “translate” the consent_status event of the Usercentrics CMP into signals for the Google Consent Mode storage types inside the GTM.
While these alternative approaches are possible to set up in connection with the Usercentrics CMP, they are not part of the generally recommended setup. They often require the assistance of a GTM expert.
Advanced Google Consent Mode
Google tags of relevant Google services are loaded before consent is collected.
They will not be adjusted like we recommend for other non-essential tags. Instead they will trigger “normally”, i.e. like so in the GTM:
The Google tags have built-in consent checks for one or more of the following Google Consent Mode storage types:
ad_storagead_user_dataad_personalizationanalytics_storage
Example:
The tags will adjust their behavior accordingly.- Important: Tags corresponding to non-essential, non-Google Data Processing Services (DPS) should continue to be adjusted as generally documented. The Advanced Google Consent Mode implementation described above is specifically for Google tags of relevant Google services.
Is Consent Mode v2 enabled?
We assume you've added the Consent Mode script before the Google Tag Manager script as instructed in our Adjust the existing Google Tag Manager code .
Checking the preview in Google Tag Manager
You can also inspect the preview to confirm that Consent is enabled, and if you're on version 2.
Start the preview and take the following steps:
Select "Consent"
Select the "Consent" tab
Ensure that the "On-page Defaults" are set and that they include the two new parameters;
ad_personalizationandad_user_data.
Checking the Consent Mode settings
When a page loads prior consent, the consent mode settings should be correctly registered in Google Tag Manager.
If you've implemented Usercentrics using the Usercentrics CMP template, you don’t need to add the default values for the Consent Mode as they’re present in the UC temple.
Checking the dataLayer
Checking the contents of the dataLayer can be done by simply executing the command dataLayer. After consent has been given for all types of cookies:
