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General Information

With Consent Mode Google has provided a solution for advertisers to adjust the behaviour of Google tags on their website based on the user consent status.

By pairing the Consent Mode API with the Usercentrics Consent Management Platform (CMP) advertisers can indicate if the user has given consent for cookie usage related to ads and/or advertising. The supported Google tags will respect this signal and adjust their behaviour accordingly, as they will only utilize cookies if consent was granted for the specific purposes.

For the list of Google services that currently support the Consent Mode, please follow the Supported Google Services Implementation Examples are available from this page.

Important

Google Ads consent controls: change effective June 15, 2026

For advertisers with linked Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, Google is updating how consent signals are applied per destination.

Currently: When Google Signals is enabled in Google Analytics, the Google Ads cookies and IDs collected by the GA tag are controlled by both the Google Signals setting in GA and the ad_storage Consent Mode parameter.

From June 15, 2026:

  • Google Analytics: The Google Signals setting continues to control data usage within Google Analytics (no change)
  • Google Ads (including data shared from a linked Google Analytics account): ad_storage will be the exclusive control for ad-related data usage

What this means for you:

  • Google Signals currently turned on: No change to data behavior
  • Google Signals currently turned off: Google Ads will begin using ad cookies when users consent to ad_storage. To prevent this, set the ad_storage default to denied

If you have already configured default consent states for Consent Mode, no changes are required to your CMP setup. You can check your Google Consent Mode Status by running the check under CMP Settings in the Usercentrics Admin UI.

Google also supports the IABs TCF 2.3 framework with its ad systems. Consent Mode is meant to be used by advertisers not using a TCF 2.3 CMP implementation.

However, we also recommend implementing the Consent Mode default state into your website if you are using a TCF implementation.

This recommendation is due to the fact that the necessary consent signals for ad_user_data and ad_personalization in some Google Tags cannot be guaranteed through the TCF API for now, owing to varying network loading times, and because Google adheres entirely to TCF policies and is registered as a vendor with ID 755 on IAB Global Vendor List, it is mandatory to select it from the Global Vendor List to ensure the accurate signaling of Consent Mode accurately.

When using Consent Mode, it's also possible to manage Advertiser Consent Mode. When enabled, Google will deduce the consent signals for ad_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalisation from the TC String. It's recommended to enable the Advertiser Consent Mode when enabling Google Consent Mode.

Note

Advertiser Consent Mode is enabled by default.

You may use Consent Mode instead of initially blocking the Google tags. The benefit is that Google will use the signal to adjust the behaviour of their tags based on the user's consent in the Usercentrics CMP instead of having them blocked when no consent is given.

Details on the tag behaviour with Consent Mode can be found here.