Troubleshoot consent mode with Tag Assistant

gtag.js

To verify your consent setup for websites, start a new Tag Assistant session:

1. Open Google Tag Assistant

2. Enter your website's URL. A new tab with your website opens.

3. On your website, open the cookie banner and accept all parameters.

4. In Tag Assistant, verify if the page set the default consent correctly:

   1. In the Summary, select the earliest Consent event.
   2. In the API Call section, check that the following parameters were set: ad_storage, ad_personalization, ad_user_data, analytics_storage.

   3. Alternatively in the Output of your tag section, select the Consent tab and check the On-page Default column.

      

5. Verify if the page updated the consent based on your consent banner interaction:

   1. In the Summary, select the most recent Consent event.
   2. In the API Call section, check that the following parameters were updated: ad_storage, ad_personalization, ad_user_data, analytics_storage.

   3. Alternatively in the Output of your tag section, select the Consent tab and check the On-page Update column.

      

Tag Manager

To verify your consent setup for websites, start a new Tag Assistant session:

1. Open Google Tag Assistant

2. Enter your website's URL. A new tab with your website opens.

3. On your website, open the cookie banner and accept all.

4. In Tag Assistant, verify if the page set the default consent correctly:

   1. In the Summary, select the earliest Consent event.
   2. In the API Call section, check that the following parameters were set: ad_storage, ad_personalization, ad_user_data, analytics_storage.

   3. Alternatively in the Output of your tag section, select the Consent tab and check the On-page Default column.

      

5. Verify if the page updated the consent based on your consent banner interaction:

   1. In the Summary, select the most recent Consent event.
   2. In the API Call section, check that the following parameters were updated: ad_storage, ad_personalization, ad_user_data, analytics_storage.

   3. Alternatively in the Output of your tag section, select the Consent tab and check the On-page Update column.

      

6. Check which tags fired or were blocked by the consent state:

   1. In the Summary, select the Tags tab.
   2. Click a tag to check if it behaved according to the consent settings.

gtag.js

Video: How to set up consent mode

gtag('consent', 'default', {
      'ad_storage': 'denied',
      'analytics_storage': 'denied',
      'ad_user_data': 'denied',
      'ad_personalization': 'denied',
});

Step by step: How to set up consent mode

If you use a consent management platform (CMP) to load a consent banner:

1. Research if your CMP supports Google's consent mode.
2. Check your CMP settings to activate Google consent mode.
3. Verify consent mode works.

If you maintain your own consent banner, or your CMP doesn't automatically integrate with consent mode, implement consent mode manually.

Tag Manager

If you use Tag Manager, the recommended approach to consent mode implementation is using a consent platform that provides a Tag Manager template. To set up a consent banner using Tag Manager:

1. Open Google Tag Manager
2. In your workspace, open the Tags menu.
3. Set up a New tag. Click Tag Configuration and open the Community Template Gallery.
4. Search for your CMP provider's tag and click Add to workspace.
5. Fill out the fields in your tag template. Your CMP provider has more information on the required fields.
6. In Triggering, select the Consent Initialization - All Pages trigger.
7. Save the tag and Preview your container to Verify consent mode works.

If you maintain your own consent banner, or your CMP doesn't automatically integrate with consent mode, implement consent mode manually.

gtag.js

Move all code that calls gtag consent default commands higher in the page, above any tag snippets or other code that might be using consent.

Set the following consent parameters:

gtag('consent', 'default', {
      'ad_storage': 'denied',
      'analytics_storage': 'denied',
      'ad_user_data': 'denied',
      'ad_personalization': 'denied',
});

Don't set default consent states asynchronously.

Tag Manager

If you use a CMP tag template in Tag Manager, check the CMP documentation for how to set default consent using the Tag Manager template.

Make sure that the tag loads consent defaults for at least these four parameters:

• ad_storage
• ad_user_data
• ad_personalization
• analytics_storage

If you maintain your own consent banner, or your CMP doesn't automatically integrate with consent mode, implement consent mode manually.

gtag.js

Move all code that calls gtag consent default commands higher in the page, above any tag snippets or other code that might be using consent.

Set the following consent parameters:

gtag('consent', 'default', {
      'ad_storage': 'denied',
      'analytics_storage': 'denied',
      'ad_user_data': 'denied',
      'ad_personalization': 'denied',
});

Don't set default consent states asynchronously.

Tag Manager

If a consent template tag set the default consent:

1. Edit the trigger of the consent-writing template tag to fire on Consent Initialization.
2. For all other tags: Fire the tags after consent was initialized. For example, to trigger a tag on page load, use the Initialization - All pages trigger.

gtag.js

Use the gtag.js update command to update the consent state after a visitor interacted with your banner. Make sure that you have an update mechanism for every parameter that you set a consent default for, and that a user can update their consent to both granted and denied.

The following example shows how the function consentGrantedAdStorage updates the consent state when a visitor accepts Ads cookies in a consent banner.

<script>
function consentGrantedAdStorage() {
  gtag('consent', 'update', {
    'ad_storage': 'granted'
  });
  }
</script>
<!-- Invoke your consent function when a user interacts with your banner -->
<body>
  ...
  <button onclick="consentGrantedAdStorage()">Yes</button>
  ...
</body>

Tag Manager

If you use a consent template tag to set the default consent, make sure it also updates the consent state. Check your CMP provider documentation for more information.

gtag.js

1. In your browser, set your visitor location to a region you want to verify. Learn how to set locations in Chrome.
2. Verify consent mode works.

3. If consent mode doesn't adapt to the user region, check your source code. For example:

     gtag('consent', 'default', {
       'analytics_storage': 'denied',
       'region': ['ES', 'US-AK']
     });
   
     gtag('consent', 'default', {
       'ad_storage': 'denied'
     });

   The example sets a regional consent default for one parameter but not the other. When you check for regional behavior, make sure that all parameters behave as directed by your organizational policies. Learn how to set up geographical regions.

Tag Manager

1. In your browser, set your visitor location to a region you want to verify. Learn how to set locations in Chrome.
2. Verify consent mode works.
3. If consent mode doesn't adapt to the user region, check your consent tag's settings, see set up geographical regions.