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Technology and tracking

Consent Mode

Also called Google Consent Mode, Consent Mode v2, GCM, consent signals.

Short answer

Consent Mode is Google's signalling system in which a website tells Google's tags whether the visitor has consented to advertising and analytics cookies. Without consent the tags still fire, but in a limited, cookieless form.

Definition of Consent Mode.

The signal consists of four parameters: ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization. The consent banner sets them to granted or denied, and Google's tags read them before storing anything. The last two arrived with Consent Mode v2, which Google has required since March 2024 from advertisers using Google Ads and Analytics on visitors in the EEA and the UK.

There are two setups. Basic holds the tags back entirely until consent is given, so nothing leaves the browser. Advanced lets the tags send cookieless pings without identifiers, which Google uses to model the conversions the missing consent would otherwise hide. Modelled figures are estimates, not recorded events.

Consent Mode is made for Google's own tags. Other tools only read the signal if they are built to do so – otherwise the consent platform must hold each of them back separately. A website can therefore have Consent Mode set up correctly and still set cookies without consent from other tools.

Consent Mode and affiliate tracking are two different things

An affiliate click carries its own ID in the URL and sets a cookie on the store's own domain. The Consent Mode signal does not change that mechanism. If the affiliate cookie must wait for consent, the tracking script either has to read the consent itself or be held back by the consent platform.

It does, however, make a difference to the numbers. A website that models conversions in Google Ads while counting recorded conversions in its affiliate program is comparing an estimate with a count. The two figures will never match, and that is not an error in either of them.

How it goes wrong

  • 01

    Modelled conversions read as actual ones

    Advanced consent mode fills the gaps with estimates. If those figures are used to pay anyone, you are paying for conversions nobody can point to an order for.

  • 02

    Assuming Consent Mode covers the whole site

    The signal applies to Google's tags. Pixels from other ad platforms, chat tools and affiliate scripts that do not read the signal themselves must be held back separately by the consent platform – otherwise cookies are set without consent.

At Affilyflow

Consent Mode in practice

Consent Mode is not part of Affilyflow's attribution, but our script reads the signal as consent: if the store waits for consent, the click is stored when the dataLayer says ad_storage: granted, and deleted on an active denied. A click gets an ID in the URL, and the attribution window is locked at the click and decided on our server, not in the browser. We do not model conversions, and we use neither fingerprinting, identity graphs nor cross-device tracking. That is a choice, not a shortcoming.

Frequently asked questions

What is Google Consent Mode?

Consent Mode is Google's way of receiving consent status. The website sets four parameters – ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization – to granted or denied, and Google's tags adapt. Without consent, either nothing is sent or only cookieless pings without identifiers.

Is Consent Mode a legal requirement?

No. The requirement comes from Google, which since March 2024 has demanded Consent Mode v2 from advertisers using Google Ads and Analytics on visitors in the EEA and the UK, so that measurement and audiences keep working. The consent requirement itself follows from the cookie rules and the GDPR and applies regardless of which tools you use.

Does Consent Mode affect affiliate tracking?

Not in itself. Consent Mode controls Google's tags, while an affiliate click is tracked via an ID in the URL and a cookie on the store's own domain. Affilyflow's script does read the signal, though: if the store waits for consent, ad_storage: granted counts as a yes to marketing. Other affiliate scripts must be controlled by the consent platform like any other third-party script.

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