What is Google Consent Mode v2 and why did Google require it?

Google Consent Mode v2 is the framework Google tags use to receive a visitor's consent state and adjust their behavior accordingly. Since March 2024, Google requires it for sites serving ads or personalization to visitors in the EEA and UK, and without it, remarketing and audience features stop working for those visitors.

How it works

Your consent banner reads the visitor's choice and passes two original signals, analytics_storage and ad_storage, plus two signals added in v2, ad_user_data and ad_personalization, to Google tags. When consent is denied, tags run in a limited, cookieless mode and send anonymized pings that Google uses for modeling.

Basic vs advanced mode

In basic mode, Google tags are blocked entirely until consent is given. In advanced mode, tags load immediately but stay cookieless until consent, which produces more complete modeled data. Both require the banner to fire the correct consent signals before any marketing tags run.

Why it matters now

Without Consent Mode v2 signals, sites lose the ability to build remarketing audiences and see modeled conversions for EEA and UK visitors. For most advertisers, a consent banner that supports Consent Mode v2 is no longer optional.