Is Consent Mode v2 a legal requirement?

No. The law requires consent before non-essential cookies are set; Consent Mode is Google's way of learning what your visitors chose. Google does require it in practice: to keep using measurement, ad personalisation and remarketing for visitors in the EEA, you have to collect their consent and pass the consent signals to Google.

What is the difference between Consent Mode v1 and v2?

Version 2 adds two signals: ad_user_data (may user data be sent to Google for advertising?) and ad_personalization (may ads be personalised?). The first version relied on analytics_storage and ad_storage.

Does Google Analytics still work when a visitor declines?

Partly, and it depends on how you set it up. In advanced mode, Google tags load with consent denied and send measurements without cookies, which Google uses for modelling. In basic mode, the tags do not load at all until the visitor consents, so nothing is sent for visitors who decline and Google falls back on general modelling.

Do I need to change my Google Analytics or Google Ads set-up?

Not for the signals themselves. Consentaur sets the consent state on the page, and Google's tags read it from there. What you do need is to load the Consentaur script before your Google tags, and to check with Google Tag Assistant that the signals arrive.

Google Consent Mode v2: what it is and how to set it up

What is Google Consent Mode?

Consent Mode is a Google API that lets your cookie consent tool tell Google's tags (Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Tag Manager) what the visitor has agreed to. The tags then adjust their behaviour: with consent they work as normal, without it they stop storing cookies for that purpose.

Google's own requirement is explicit. To keep using its measurement, ad personalisation and remarketing features for users in the EEA, you must collect their consent and share the consent signals with Google.

The four signals that matter

Google defines several consent types. Four of them decide what Analytics and Ads may do:

analytics_storage

May Google store analytics cookies, for example to measure visit duration? Controls Google Analytics.

ad_storage

May Google store advertising cookies? Controls conversion tracking and remarketing cookies.

ad_user_data

May user data be sent to Google for online advertising? New in v2.

ad_personalization

May Google show this visitor personalised ads? New in v2.

Each signal is either granted or denied. The consent tool sets a default when the page loads and sends an update when the visitor makes a choice in the cookie banner.

Basic or advanced mode

Google describes two ways to run Consent Mode:

Basic mode: Google tags are blocked until the visitor responds to the banner. Nothing is sent to Google before that, and Google uses general models to estimate conversions.
Advanced mode: Google tags load straight away with every signal set to denied. For visitors who decline, the tags send measurements without cookies, which Google uses for modelling specific to your account.

Either way, a visitor who declines does not get Google's analytics or advertising cookies. The difference is whether any cookieless data reaches Google. Basic mode is the more cautious choice, and it is what you get when you block Google's scripts until consent as shown below.

What you lose without it

If Google does not receive consent signals for your EEA visitors, you should expect limits on:

Remarketing: showing Google Ads to people who have visited your site
Ad personalisation: ads based on a visitor's behaviour
Measurement: conversion tracking and modelled data for visitors who did not consent

For a small business that finds customers through Google Ads, that is a noticeable loss.

How to set it up with Consentaur

Consent Mode v2 is built into Consentaur and switched on by default. There is no separate mapping to configure:

Install the Consentaur script as the first script in your page's <head>, as described in the installation guide. It has to run before your Google tags so the defaults are in place first.
Defaults are set on load: Consentaur sets all four signals to denied as soon as it loads, and updates them when the visitor makes a choice.
Tag your Google scripts: add data-cookiebar-category="analytics" to Google Analytics and data-cookiebar-category="marketing" to Google Ads, so they wait for consent.
Check in Google Tag Assistant that the consent signals arrive, both before and after you accept.

This is the default state Consentaur sets when the page loads:

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

When the visitor chooses, each banner category updates its signals:

Banner category	Consent Mode signals
Analytics	analytics_storage
Marketing	ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization
Preferences	personalization_storage
Necessary (always on)	functionality_storage, security_storage

Getting more visitors to consent, fairly

The more visitors who consent, the better your data. What helps without crossing any lines:

Keep the banner short and clear: explain in one sentence why you use cookies
Match your site's design: a banner that looks like part of your website feels less intrusive
Avoid dark patterns: an "Accept" button that outshines a hidden "Reject" may work for a while, but it damages trust, and European data protection authorities have said that a reject option hidden like this does not lead to valid consent
Try different placements: a bar at the bottom and a centred box can give different consent rates