Google Consent Mode & Advanced Consent Mode

This article is an introduction to the Theme Consent Mode, as well as a guide to configuring Google Consent Mode and Advanced Consent Mode in conjunction with the legal web Privacy Cloud data protection package.

What is Google Consent Mode?

Google Consent Mode enables websites to control Google tags in compliance with data protection regulations. Depending on the user’s consent status, tracking adapts to meet legal requirements (GDPR, ePrivacy).

There are two types of implementation:

• Basic mode: Google tags are completely blocked until the user gives their consent.
• Advanced Mode: Google tags are always loaded, but only process data after consent has been given.

Basic Mode

In basic mode, all Google tags are only loaded once the user has given their consent. The tags wait for a signal from the CMP – this is a consent from the user, or a rejection from the user

When is Basic Mode useful?

• If no Google tags are allowed to fire before consent is given.
• If maximum data protection compliance is to be guaranteed.

Google Advanced Consent Mode

In Advanced Consent Mode, the Google tag is already loaded before the consent dialog/cookie popup appears. The tag dynamically adapts its behavior to the cookie and data protection settings selected by the user. Analytics tools are only used for defined purposes if the user has expressly consented.
Advanced Consent Mode thus controls closer interaction between Google products and CPMs.
In Advanced Consent Mode, the user’s options for consent from your Cookie Popup/Consent Manager are adopted each time the user makes a change. The behavior of Analytics, Google Ads and third-party tags through which cookies are created or read is dynamically adjusted.

Google requires the Advanced Consent Mode for Google AdSense products.(https://legalweb.io/news/google-adsense-google-consent-mode-vorgaben-01-24/)
This requires the use of a CMP that is IAB certified and also certified by Google. Both requirements are fulfilled by legal web.

Which Google services support Google Consent Mode?

Google Consent Mode serves as an interface between the CMP and Google products. This interface makes it possible for Google services to be executed on websites based on the types of consent collected from users without Google having to have or gaining direct access to personal data.

The following Google services currently support Google Consent Mode:

• Google Analytics
• Google Ads (including Google Ads conversion tracking and remarketing)
• Floodlight
• Conversion link (conversion linker)

Certain features of Google products require that Consent Mode is supported. Further details can be found at the following URLs:

• https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/security/guides/consent?consentmode=advanced&hl=de
• https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9976101?hl=de

How is Consent Mode V2 activated on legal web?

When using the normal Google Analytics or Google GTag without Google TagManager, you only need to activate the following switch in the data protection settings for your domain in the legal web dashboard: Activate Google Consent Mode. This means that the Consent State, i.e. the user’s consent, is automatically forwarded to the Google Tag. No other settings need to be made.

When used with Google TagManager, however, a few steps are necessary in the Google TagManager dashboard, which are explained below.

Load and import tag template – via GTM Template Gallery

Load the template provided by legal web from the GTM Template Gallery. To do this, click on Templates in the menu on the left and then on “Search in gallery” on the right.

Enter “legal web” in the search field. Then select the “legal web Consent Mode Template” and click on “Add to workspace”.

You can now jump straight to the“Create tag and react to consent” section.

Create tag from the template

Now add a new tag: legal web Consent Mode Template and set the trigger to “Consent Initialization – All Pages”

Create tag and respond to consent

If further tags are added, the consent variables can be used to specify when a tag is loaded.
This is already predefined for the general Google Tag. For custom tags, you can specify when a tag is fired by entering consent parameters under “Additional consent required to trigger the tag”.

Automatic blocking of tags

To prevent tags from being loaded by TagManger, there is the following option under Privacy settings in the dashboard for your domain: Advanced detection of dynamically added services

If this is activated, it causes the page to be monitored and no tags are fired before the visitor has made a choice whether to agree or decline. The loading of the scripts stored under the services for the domain is prevented until the visitor explicitly agrees.

Check that no tags are loaded before setting the consent mode

Once everything has been configured, a URL parameter can be used to check whether the Google Tag Manager loads tags before the Consent Mode is set.
This is achieved using the parameter “lwDebugGoogleTagmanger”, which is simply appended to the existing URL where the CMP is loaded from legal web.

Example: https://legalweb.io?lwDebugGoogleTagmanger