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How to set up Consent Mode v2 in Google Tag Manager

Live guide · Checked 28 October 2026 · Updated 28 October 2026 · Checked every week against Consent Mode's own help pages

Start every visit with Google's storage denied, switch it on when people accept your cookie banner, and keep Google Ads and GA4 modelling the rest. Needed for ads to UK and EU users.

Time

30 minutes

You will need

• Google Tag Manager
• A cookie banner you can hook into (your own or a consent platform)

Stuck?

Troubleshooting or ask us a question

Step by step

1. Turn on consent overview

   In Tag Manager: Admin > Container Settings, tick Enable consent overview and save. A shield icon appears on the Tags page to show each tag's consent settings.

2. Set the defaults before anything else

   Make a Custom HTML tag fired on Consent Initialization - All Pages. It must run before every other tag:

   HTMLCopy

   <script>
     window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
     function gtag(){ dataLayer.push(arguments); }
     gtag('consent', 'default', {
       ad_storage: 'denied',
       ad_user_data: 'denied',
       ad_personalization: 'denied',
       analytics_storage: 'denied',
       wait_for_update: 500
     });
     gtag('set', 'ads_data_redaction', true);
     gtag('set', 'url_passthrough', true);
   </script>

3. Update consent when people accept

   When someone clicks Accept on your banner, run this (put it in your banner's accept handler, or push an event your banner already sends):

   JavaScriptCopy

   window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
   function gtag(){ dataLayer.push(arguments); }
   gtag('consent', 'update', {
     ad_storage: 'granted',
     ad_user_data: 'granted',
     ad_personalization: 'granted',
     analytics_storage: 'granted'
   });
   window.dataLayer.push({ event: 'consent_granted' });

4. Remember the choice on the next page

   Store the choice and run the update again early on every page for people who already accepted:

   JavaScriptCopy

   if (localStorage.getItem('consent') === 'granted') {
     gtag('consent', 'update', { ad_storage: 'granted', ad_user_data: 'granted', ad_personalization: 'granted', analytics_storage: 'granted' });
   }

5. Hold non-Google tags until consent

   Google tags adjust themselves to consent. Others (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and the rest) don't. For each, open the tag, go to Advanced Settings > Consent Settings, choose Require additional consent for tag to fire and add ad_storageCopy. Or fire them on a consent_grantedCopy custom event trigger.

6. Check it in Preview

   In Preview, open the Consent tab in Tag Assistant. Before Accept, every type should say Denied; after Accept, Granted. Check Meta's tag doesn't fire until Accept.

7. Publish and confirm in Google Ads

   Publish. In Google Ads go to Goals > Conversions > Summary and open Diagnostics after a few days: it shows whether consent signals are being received.