How to check if Google’s Consent Mode works
Although WP Full Picture automatically enables basic consent mode for Google Analytics and Ads (using the advanced mode requires a click of a button), Google will show you notices that consnt mode is not enabled.
Unfortunately, these notices will not be removed once Google notices that the consent mode on your website works correctly, and you will have to close them yourself.
In this article, I explain how you can check if the Google’s consent mode (CM) works so that you can close these annoying notices without worry.
Important. Read it first
Sometimes the problem with consent mode may be related to other websites sending data to your Google Analytics account. If this happens in your case, none of the methods listed below will correctly find the reason of the problem.
The problem occurs when you embed content from other site into your website (e.g. to display a form). It is common practice to install GA tracking code in those sites. However, this can cause problems with your consent mode.
This is because the other website does not send consents to Google when e.g. the embedded content is viewed. To fix it, you can enable a consent banner on those websites or change the default consent setting in Google Analytics. To do this go to your GA admin dashboard > “Data collection and modifications” > “Consent settings” > “Manage default consent […]” > and choose “Yes […]’
Method #1. With a Chrome Extension (fast, easy)
There are several Chrome extensions which let you check if Consent Mode works properly. One of them is Consent Mode Inspector. After you enable it:
- go to its settings
- enable the option to use it in incognito mode of your website
- visit your website in incognito mode
- click the Inspector’s icon in the browser’s toolbar to see the current status of your consents.
Depending on how you set your consent banner, the status will be different. Please see the table below:
| Mode | Advanced consent mode enabled? | Default consent state (before clicking anything in the consent banner) |
|---|---|---|
| Opt-in | No | None. No Google tool is loaded |
| Opt-in | Yes | All denied except functionality and security |
| Opt-out (not GDPR compliant) | No | All granted |
| Opt-out (not GDPR compliant) | Yes | All granted |
| Notification mode (not GDPR compliant) | – | All granted |
| Automatic modes are set to Opt-in, out or notification, depending on the location of the visitor | (read description) | (read description) |
Method #2. With Google Tag Assistant (fast, advanced)
Google Tag Assistant is a more advanced tool, which not only lets you test if the consent mode works properly, but also check what events are tracked and what data is sent to Google.
To check if consent mode works, you need:
- Administration rights to the Google Analytics account of your website
- Google Analytics needs to be installed on your website with WP FP’s module
If you have these things, follow these steps:
- Open incognito mode in your browser
- Log in to your Google Analytics account in the incognito mode
- Open Google Tag Assistant website in the same window
- Click the “Add domain” button and enter your website address
Now, your browser will open your website in a new tab and Tag Assistant will start displaying events that are reported to Google (on the left side).
If you can’t see any events, then it means that you are using consent mode in the basic form (learn the differences between basic and advanced consent mode). To fix it, just agree to tracking in your consent banner. WP Full Picture should load Google tools and you will be able to see the consent events.
- Find the “Consent” event (there can be many of them) on the events list (1)
- Click the “Consent” tab
- View which consents were Granted and which ones were Denied
Depending on your WP FP´s settings and your choices in the consent banner, you may be getting different values there. Please see the table in the Method #1 above, for more information.
Method #3 – Check Consent Mode status after 7 days
After 7 days from the day of installing Google Ads and/or Analytics on your website, you can check the status of Consent Mode directly in the panels of these tools.
Step 1. Go to the conversions summary page
If you are using a new Google Ads interface, you will find it under Goals > Conversions > Summary
And if you are using the older interface, you should go to Tools and Settings > Measurement > Conversions
Step 2. Look for the consent mode info in the “Diagnostics tab”
What to do if consent mode is not active?
Google may sometimes report that the consent mode doesn’t work. This happens when there were no conversion on your site since the day of installing GAds.
Similarly to Google Ads, Google Analytics can also inform you about the consent information. This time, not in a form of a warning but simple notification, that says “Verify data consent settings. Review which Google services can receive consented personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA).”
When you click a “Manage” button you will get to the page with the current status of consent mode implementation.
If you do not see this information, you can find it by going to Admin > Property Settings > Data collection and modification > Data streams > and clicking the first entry on the list.
You should find there information if your website correctly sends consent information to Google Analytics.
In addition, you will find there a section “Verify data consent settings”, which you need to check and save.
When you click on it, you will see this screen
When you change the settings you will see a “Save” button in the top right or bottom left corner of the screen (it seems that Google does some tests for the placement of these buttons). Click it and you are done.