How to Set Default Consent States in Consent Mode V2

The consent status Google assumes before a visitor has made any choice. It is your fallback for the window between page load and a decision on the banner. Without it, tags evaluate with no consent information at all, which is why setting defaults comes before activating Consent Mode rather than after.

Because anything loading earlier will evaluate before any consent state exists. The default script has to precede your consent platform, your tag manager and every Google tracking script. Placing it later is the most common implementation error, and it produces a setup that looks correct while tracking runs unconsented.

Denied, for regions where consent is required before tracking. That means European traffic under GDPR. Regions operating on an opt-out basis can be handled with region-specific defaults, so you are not applying the strictest setting to every visitor worldwide while still meeting the requirement where it applies.

No. If your consent platform is deployed via a tag manager template, you set the default values in the tag configuration instead, including any region-specific variations. Adding the standalone script as well is duplication and creates two places where the defaults could disagree.

It holds tags briefly so your consent platform's signals are processed before they evaluate. Without it there is a race between the tags loading and the consent state arriving, and tags that win that race fire against the defaults rather than the visitor's actual choice.

A setting that removes ad click identifiers from network requests for visitors who have not consented. Setting it to true means those identifiers are stripped rather than transmitted, which reduces what leaves the browser during the pre-consent window while still allowing modeling to work.

Test it thoroughly before you do. It appends ad click parameters to links across your site so conversions attribute to the correct click, which helps measurement. It can also break functionality, with internal site search a known problem area. Run through your full site after enabling it rather than assuming it is inert.

Yes, they are essential to it. Advanced mode relies on tags loading and adjusting their behavior according to consent state, so a correct starting state is what makes that adjustment meaningful. Without properly configured defaults, advanced mode cannot behave as intended.