Google’s Consent Mode is used to communicate your users’ consent status to Google. Google services such as Tag Manager, Analytics, Floodlight and Ads adjust their behavior in response to flags set by Consent Mode, respecting users’ choices accordingly.
Consent Management Platforms like Termly can be configured to communicate your users' preferences to the Google tags on your page via Consent Mode. When consent is denied, among other adjustments, tags will not set or read cookies in your browser, will not collect identifying information and will use modelling to fill in the gaps in your data.
How to set up Consent Mode with Termly
There are two possible ways to set up consent mode with Termly's consent management platform (CMP):
1. Enable Consent Mode under your regional Consent Settings in the Termly dashboard
2. Enable Consent Mode with Termly's Google Tag Manager template
Implementation method | Consent default calls | Consent update calls |
Regional consent settings in Termly dashboard | Use code example (see below) | Integrated |
Integrated | Integrated |
Enable Consent Mode in the Termly dashboard
Google Consent Mode can be enabled on a region-by-region basis from the Termly dashboard. Navigate to your consent banner settings and enable 'Google Consent Mode' for any region under your 'Consent Settings'.
When Consent Mode is enabled in your consent settings, gtags will be exempted from blocking by Auto Blocker. This means that gtags will always be allowed to run on page load. If you prefer that gtags are are not exempted by Auto Blocker when Consent Mode is enabled, you can use manual blocking to assign them to the appropriate blocking category.
Configuring consent defaults
When 'Google Consent Mode' is 'On', consent defaults for each consent category must be configured with in-line code, before your Termly embed script. Your consent banner will then make 'update' calls each time the consent state changes on the page.
Changing the default setting for a given category gives you control over how the consent state is configured (either 'denied' or 'granted') on first page load before subsequent 'update' calls are made. Read more about setting consent defaults and other advanced configurations.
<script>
// Define dataLayer and the gtag function.
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}// Default all categories to 'denied'
gtag('consent', 'default', {
'ad_storage': 'denied',
'analytics_storage': 'denied',
'functionality_storage': 'denied',
'personalization_storage': 'denied',
'security_storage': 'denied',
'social_storage': 'denied',
});
</script>
Consent category mapping
Termly Consent Category | GTM Consent Type |
advertising | ad_storage |
analytics | analytics_storage |
performance | functionality_storage |
performance | personalization_storage |
essential | security_storage |
social | social_storage* |
*Not a default GTM consent category
Enable Consent Mode with Termly's Google Tag Manager Template
Termly's official Consent Management Platform template, found in the Google Tag Manager community template gallery, is designed to translate user consent settings from Termly's CMP into Google Consent Mode preferences anywhere Termly is installed.
Learn more about consent configuration in GTM.
Step 1. Add the Consent Mode template to your workspace
To install Termly’s Consent Mode template:
Click on Templates in the left hand menu of your GTM workspace
Click Search Gallery
Search for “Termly”
Select “Termly Consent Management Platform”
Click Add to Workspace
Step 2. Create a new event trigger "userPrefUpdate"
Termly fires this event every time user preferences change in the Termly CMP. The template listens for this event and updates the consent state according to user preferences.
Go to your GTM workspace and create a new trigger
Click Choose a trigger type to begin setup, then click Custom Event.
Under Event name type userPrefUpdate
Trigger should be set to fire on All Custom Events
Step 3. Add the Template tag
Go to Tags
Create a new tag and select Termly Consent Mode in Tag Configuration
Click Triggering, then click New / +
Add Consent Initialization - All Pages
Add userPrefUpdate
Now you can make use of GTM's consent configuration options to manage how and when tags are triggered based on user's consent preferences.