Setting Up Google Consent Mode v2

Google Consent Mode v2 is the way your site tells Google services whether a visitor has consented, so Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Tag Manager adjust how they behave. When you turn it on, SureCookie sends these consent signals automatically based on each visitor’s banner choices.

Google requires Consent Mode v2 for any site that uses Google services with visitors in the European Economic Area (mandatory since March 2024). Setting it up keeps your Google tags compliant without extra code.

Before you begin: SureCookie sends the consent signals, but it does not install your Google tags. Your Google tags (GA4, Google Ads, Tag Manager, and so on) must already be on your site for Consent Mode to have any effect.

What Consent Mode v2 Does

Consent Mode is a signal layer between your visitors and Google. Your Google tags read the signals and decide whether to use cookies, collect analytics, or personalize ads. SureCookie sets the signals to denied by default, before your tags run, then updates them the moment a visitor accepts or declines a category on your banner.

Because the signals follow your cookie categories, make sure your banner is set up and your cookies are categorized first.

What Consent Mode Does Not Block

Consent Mode is a signal, not a block. It tells Google tags what they may do with data. It does not stop a tag from running, and it does nothing at all for a non-Google tracker.

That has one consequence worth knowing before you turn it on. While Enable Google Consent Mode and Block Scripts Until Consent are both on, SureCookie exempts Consent Mode compatible Google services from file blocking, so each tag can load and receive the signal. On SureCookie > Tracking Manager > Scripts and Embeds those rows carry a Managed by GCM badge instead of Blocked until consent. Everything else on your site stays blocked by category until the visitor accepts, apart from Essential, which is the one category released without consent.

This is Google’s Advanced Consent Mode: the tag loads with every non-essential signal denied, rather than being held back until consent. Turn Enable Google Consent Mode off and the exemption ends, so those Google files are blocked like any other tracker and no consent signals are sent at all.

Note: Google Tag Manager is on the exempt list, and Consent Mode does not reach the non-Google tags you deploy through it. Each of those needs its own consent check inside Tag Manager.

For the full picture of what loads before consent and why, see Why Trackers Still Fire Before Consent.

Step 1: Enable Google Consent Mode

1. Go to SureCookie → Settings → Consent Frameworks → Google Consent Mode.
2. Turn on Enable Google Consent Mode.

This covers the supported Google services: Analytics 4, Google Ads, Tag Manager, Campaign Manager 360, Ad Manager, Floodlight, and DV360.

Step 2: Set the Wait Time

The wait time is how long Google services pause for a consent update before sending their first requests. A longer wait gives the banner more time to report a choice; a shorter wait reduces any delay.

1. In Wait Time (milliseconds), enter a value.
2. Leave it at the default of 500 unless you have a reason to change it. The range is 0 to 2000.

How Consent Maps to Google Signals

SureCookie translates each visitor’s category choices into Google’s consent signals:

SureCookie Category	Google Consent Signals
Marketing	ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization, personalization_storage
Analytics	analytics_storage
Functional	functionality_storage
Essential	security_storage (always granted)

Until a visitor consents, every non-essential signal stays denied. When they accept a category, the matching signals switch to granted.

SureCookie also sends ads_data_redaction and url_passthrough as true on every page. The first strips ad identifiers from Google Ads requests while ad_storage is denied. The second carries ad click information in the URL instead of a cookie, so conversions still attribute for a visitor who declines. There is no setting for either. Both are the privacy-preserving side of Consent Mode, so SureCookie keeps them on.

Step 3: Add Regional Default Rules

Regional rules let you set different default consent states for different parts of the world, for example denying everything by default in the EU while granting more in regions without strict consent laws. Google applies the most specific match, so a rule for US-CA overrides a rule for US. This step is optional.

1. Under Active Regional Rules, click Add Rule.
2. To start from a template, click a Quick Preset: EU/EEA (GDPR), California (CCPA), United Kingdom, or Brazil (LGPD). This fills in the region codes and a sensible default.
3. In Region Codes, enter one or more codes separated by commas, using a two-letter country code with an optional region (for example US, US-CA, or GB).
4. Under Default Consent State, turn Functional Storage, Analytics Storage and Marketing / Ads Storage on to grant them by default, or leave them off to deny them.
5. Click Add Rule in the drawer, then click Save on the settings screen. The rule is not stored until you save the screen.
6. Click Save.

Note: Essential cookies (security_storage) are always granted. These defaults apply before the visitor interacts with the banner.

Above your regional rules sits a Worldwide row. It covers every visitor that no regional rule matches, and you can edit it from the same drawer. SureCookie ships it denying Functional Storage, Analytics Storage and Marketing / Ads Storage, along with one regional rule that denies all three in the EU.

Important: granting a category on the Worldwide row tells Google the visitor consented before they were asked. Google tags then fire on the first page view, and a later Decline cannot recall what was already sent. Leave Worldwide denied unless you have taken advice on it.

Consent Mode Is Not CMP Certification

Google has two consent requirements, and they are routinely mixed up. Consent Mode v2 is what a site owner running Google tags owes Google, and SureCookie sends all of it. A Google-certified CMP is a separate rule, for publishers serving AdSense, Ad Manager or AdMob inventory to visitors in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland.

SureCookie is not on Google’s certified CMP list and does not implement the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework, in the free plugin or in SureCookie Pro. If you sell ad space through Google, read Is SureCookie a Google-Certified CMP? before deciding what to run.

Verifying It Works

Use Google Tag Assistant or GA4 DebugView to confirm the signals are firing.

• Consent Mode has no effect: Confirm your Google tags are actually installed and loading on the page. SureCookie only sends signals; it can’t work without the tags.
• Signals always show denied: That is expected before consent. Accept a category on the banner and check that the matching signals switch to granted.
• A Google tag loads before the visitor answers: That is Consent Mode working, not a fault. While Consent Mode is on, SureCookie exempts Consent Mode compatible Google services from file blocking, so each tag can load and read the signal. Blocking the file and sending the signal at once gives you neither. Until the visitor accepts, every non-essential signal stays denied, so the tag runs without storage or advertising identifiers. It does still contact Google.
• Anything else loads before the visitor answers: Consent Mode does not cover it. Blocking is what holds it back, so check that Block Scripts Until Consent is on under SureCookie > Tracking Manager > Scripts and Embeds.