What is Google Consent Mode v2?

Short answerGoogle Consent Mode v2 is how a website tells Google tags what a visitor agreed to. Your consent banner sets four signals - ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization - to "denied" by default, then updates them when the visitor chooses. Google tags read those signals and adjust: no advertising or analytics cookies without consent, and, in advanced mode, cookieless pings instead.

What are the four consent signals?

Google defines four signals for Consent Mode v2 (Google developer guide):

• ad_storage - whether cookies can be used for advertising.
• analytics_storage - whether cookies can be used for analytics.
• ad_user_data - whether user data can be sent to Google for advertising.
• ad_personalization - whether data can be used for personalised advertising.

Google Tag Manager adds three more types a consent banner can set: functionality_storage, personalization_storage and security_storage.

What is the difference between basic and advanced mode?

Google describes two ways to implement it (Google Analytics Help):

• Basic: Google tags are blocked until the visitor grants consent. Conversion modelling uses a general model only.
• Advanced: Google tags load before the banner appears with consent denied, and send cookieless pings when consent is declined. This enables behavioural and conversion modelling.

Which one is right for your site is a legal and policy decision as much as a technical one: advanced mode still sends pings to Google before a choice is made.

Why does the order of tags matter?

The default consent state has to be set before any Google tag runs. Google's guidance is: the default command first, then the consent banner, then an update as soon as the visitor acts. If the order is wrong, the defaults do not apply (Google developer guide). In Google Tag Manager, a consent template fires on the Consent Initialization - All Pages trigger, which runs before every other trigger (Tag Manager Help).

What do wait_for_update, region, url_passthrough and ads_data_redaction do?

• wait_for_update tells Google tags how many milliseconds to wait for an asynchronous consent banner. Google asks consent templates to use at least 500 ms (consent APIs for templates).
• region sets different defaults by ISO 3166-2 region; the most specific region wins.
• url_passthrough passes ad click information through URLs on the same site when ad_storage is denied.
• ads_data_redaction redacts ad click identifiers when ad_storage is denied.

Does Consent Mode make a site compliant?

No. It passes the visitor's choice to Google tags. Google is explicit that you remain responsible for a consent banner that meets regulatory standards (Tag Manager Help). The banner, the notice and what else your site stores still have to meet the law where your visitors are.

Where Sadang fits

When Sadang's banner is shown, it sets the Consent Mode v2 signals to denied and sends an update when the visitor chooses. Re-sending a returning visitor's stored choice, and sending the default at the very start of the script, are in development. See exactly what Sadang sends and what is still in development, and using Sadang with Google Tag Manager.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws and regulator guidance change; check the sources linked above and take advice on your own site.