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Verify Consent Mode
A checklist for verifying Google Consent Mode in Tag Assistant: defaults before tags, update after consent, state after rejection and common failures.
Why verify
The most common Consent Mode mistake is tags firing before the default consent signals are set, or signals not updating after the visitor's decision. You can catch both within minutes using Google Tag Assistant.
Verification checklist
Go through the steps in order — each one must check out:
- 1. Open Tag Assistant — go to tagassistant.google.com and connect your website address.
- 2. Clear the consent state — delete the
CookieHugConsentcookie for your domain (DevTools → Application → Cookies) or use a fresh incognito window. - 3. Reload the page — the CookieHug banner should appear.
- 4. Check the default signals — in the Tag Assistant event timeline,
Consent defaultmust occur before any Google tag, withanalytics_storage,ad_storage,ad_user_data,ad_personalization=denied. - 5. Accept consent — click accept in the banner.
- 6. Check the update — a
Consent updateevent should appear withgrantedsignals (for the accepted categories). - 7. Reject consent — clear the state as in step 2, reload, and this time reject.
- 8. Check the state after rejection — signals stay
deniedand analytics/marketing tags set no cookies.
Diagnostics in the CookieHug panel
The Diagnostics tab in the domain panel runs an automatic checklist (defaults present, ordering vs tags, signal updates, and more) and lets you simulate the visitor's region and decision. For harder cases, enable Debug Mode, which reports Consent Mode violations straight from your visitors' browsers.
Common failures
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
Consent default appears after Google tags | the CookieHug snippet sits too low in <head> or loads asynchronously after GTM | move the snippet above all other scripts; in GTM use the Consent Initialization trigger |
duplicate Consent default | defaults set both by CookieHug and manually in GTM | remove the manual gtag('consent','default',…) from GTM — the snippet already emits it |
no Consent update after acceptance | the banner is not connected to the same dataLayer instance | check that your page does not overwrite dataLayer after CookieHug loads |
granted signals before any decision | another plugin/script hard-codes consent | find and remove the competing gtag('consent',…) calls |
More scenarios: Troubleshooting.
Verifying in GA4 and Google Ads
Once the checklist passes, also check the end of the chain:
- GA4 DebugView — events should carry the correct consent state; with consent rejected in advanced mode, GA4 receives cookieless pings,
- Google Ads → Diagnostics — Consent Mode status should be reported as active.
The Google-side configuration is described in Google services setup.