Google Consent Mode Explained: The Four Consent States Every Business Should Know
This is a common concern for businesses adopting privacy compliance solutions. The good news is that staying compliant doesn’t have to come at the expense of valuable marketing insights. That’s where Google Consent Mode comes in.
Google Consent Mode is designed to help businesses respect users’ privacy choices while maintaining as much measurement capability as possible. At the heart of this functionality are four consent states that determine how Google services behave based on a visitor’s consent preferences.
Let’s explore what these consent states mean and why every business should understand them.
What Is Google Consent Mode?
Google Consent Mode is a feature that allows websites to adjust how Google tags behave based on a visitor’s cookie consent choices. Instead of simply turning tracking on or off, Consent Mode enables Google services like Google Analytics and Google Ads to respond intelligently depending on whether the user has granted or denied consent.
When a visitor lands on your website, a consent management platform (CMP), such as BioShield, displays a cookie consent banner. Until the visitor makes a choice, Google waits for a consent signal before deciding how data can be collected.
If the visitor grants consent, Google services function according to the permissions provided. If consent is denied, Google limits data collection while still supporting privacy-friendly measurement methods where possible.
This approach helps businesses balance two important goals:
- Respecting user privacy and meeting regulatory requirements.
- Preserving valuable marketing and analytics insights whenever possible.
Understanding how this works begins with understanding the four consent states.
The Four Google Consent States Explained
Google uses four primary consent states based on two permissions:
- Ad Storage– Controls advertising-related cookies used by Google Ads and remarketing.
- Analytics Storage– Controls analytics cookies used by Google Analytics.
Each combination creates a different consent state.
G100 – Default or No Consent
Ad Storage: Denied
Analytics Storage: Denied
This is the default state before a visitor makes a consent decision or when they reject all optional cookies.
In this state, advertising and analytics cookies are blocked. Google cannot store cookies for tracking user behavior or building advertising audiences.
However, this doesn’t mean Google receives no information at all. Consent Mode allows Google to send limited, cookieless signals that help with privacy-safe measurement and conversion modeling without identifying individual users.
For businesses, G100 represents a compliant starting point where user privacy is fully respected.
G110 – Advertising Consent Only
Ad Storage: Granted, Analytics Storage: Denied
In this scenario, the visitor agrees to advertising cookies but declines analytics cookies.
Google Ads can use advertising cookies to support conversion tracking, remarketing, and campaign measurement. However, Google Analytics cookies remain disabled, limiting website behavior reporting.
Businesses can continue measuring advertising performance, but detailed analytics reports may be reduced because analytics storage hasn’t been approved.
G101 – Analytics Consent Only
Ad Storage: Denied, Analytics Storage: Granted
Here, the visitor allows analytics cookies while declining advertising cookies.
Google Analytics can collect website usage data, helping businesses understand visitor behavior, page performance, and engagement metrics.
However, advertising features such as remarketing audiences, personalized ads, and certain Google Ads capabilities remain unavailable because advertising cookies have been denied.
This state allows organizations to analyze website performance while respecting users who choose not to participate in advertising tracking.
G111 – Full Consent
Ad Storage: Granted, Analytics Storage: Granted
This is the ideal scenario from a measurement perspective.
The visitor has accepted both advertising and analytics cookies, allowing Google Analytics and Google Ads to function with their full capabilities.
Businesses can measure website traffic, track conversions accurately, build remarketing audiences, optimize advertising campaigns, and gain deeper insights into customer behavior.
Although this provides the most comprehensive data, it’s important to remember that users should always have the freedom to choose their preferred level of consent.
When Is the Demand Letter Sent?
One surprise for many businesses is that the first notice often arrives before any lawsuit has been filed.
This is known as a pre-litigation demand letter.
Typically, the letter alleges that the website violated CIPA by allowing tracking technologies to collect or transmit information before obtaining visitor consent. It may include screenshots or technical evidence gathered during the investigation and request that the business:
- Stop the alleged practice
- Preserve evidence
- Pay a monetary settlement
- Respond within a limited time frame- often 14 to 21 days
The letter generally explains that if the business does not respond or settle, the plaintiff may file a lawsuit in court.
For many companies, this is their first indication that their website may have a compliance issue.
Why These Consent States Matter
Many businesses assume that implementing a privacy compliance solution will automatically reduce marketing performance or eliminate tracking altogether. In reality, the issue is often not the compliance solution itself, it’s how it’s implemented.
Understanding the four consent states helps businesses ensure that Google services respond correctly to each visitor’s preferences instead of blocking everything by default.
When Consent Mode is configured properly, businesses can:
- Respect visitor privacy choices.
- Maintain more accurate analytics and advertising measurement.
- Reduce unnecessary data loss.
- Improve reporting quality.
- Continue optimizing marketing campaigns using available consented data.
Without proper implementation, websites may accidentally block Google Analytics, lose Google Ads conversion tracking, or create gaps in marketing reports that make performance difficult to evaluate.
In short, understanding these consent states helps businesses achieve both compliance and effective digital measurement.
How Estro compliance BioShield Supports Google Consent Mode
A consent management platform like Estro compliance BioShield plays an important role in making Google Consent Mode work correctly.
When a visitor arrives on the website, Estro compliance BioShield prevents non-essential cookies from loading before consent is provided. Once the visitor makes a selection, BioShield communicates that decision to Google using the appropriate consent state.
Rather than simply allowing or blocking all tracking, BioShield helps ensure that Google services operate according to the visitor’s preferences. Whether the visitor grants full consent, analytics-only consent, advertising-only consent, or declines optional cookies altogether, Google receives the correct consent signals.
This approach supports privacy compliance while helping businesses preserve valuable insights wherever user consent allows.
Final Thoughts
Privacy compliance has become an essential part of modern website management, but it doesn’t have to mean sacrificing marketing performance. Google Consent Mode provides a smarter approach by adapting data collection based on each visitor’s consent choices rather than relying on an all-or-nothing tracking model.
By understanding the four consent states- G100, G110, G101, and G111, businesses can better appreciate how Google Analytics and Google Ads respond to user preferences while remaining aligned with evolving privacy expectations.
When implemented correctly with a consent management solution like Estro’s compliance BioShield, organizations can protect user privacy, maintain regulatory compliance, and continue making informed marketing decisions based on reliable data. As privacy standards continue to evolve, understanding Google Consent Mode is no longer just a technical consideration, it’s a business necessity.