Navigating Google Consent Mode v2 with Osano (2026 Update)

In March 2024, Google made a significant update to its consent management tools with the launch of Google Consent Mode 2.0. If you're using Google services, it's crucial to understand what this means for you and how Osano can help make the transition smooth and effective.

Our partnership with Google highlights our commitment to simplifying data privacy management for businesses. Osano Cookie Consent integrates seamlessly with Google Consent Mode to capture and respect user preferences. This partnership not only streamlines compliance but also enhances the accuracy of your data for analytics and advertising.

With Google Consent Mode 2.0, staying compliant and optimizing your data practices has never been more straightforward. Here's a look at what Google Consent Mode is, what v2 introduced, what changed on June 15, 2026, and what your team should verify now.

What Is Google Consent Mode?

As of March 2024, Google introduced Google Consent Mode 2.0 to comply with EU regulations. If you use Google services and target European users, you may need to upgrade.

What It Does

Google Consent Mode lets you communicate your users' consent choices made on cookie banners to Google tags or SDK. When that occurs, these tags can adjust their behavior and comply with users' choices. As a result, you can respect user privacy choices when measuring conversions and remarketing users.

What It Doesn't Do

Consent mode does not provide a consent banner or widget. Instead, it interacts with your CMP (such as Osano Cookie Consent) to register user consent choices and dynamically adapt the behavior of analytics, ads, and third-party tags that create or read cookies.

Do You Need It?

You need to enable Google Consent Mode if you target users and you use:

• Google Ads
• Google Tag Manager
• Google Analytics
• GTag
• Conversion Linker
• Floodlight

Without it, no data will be sent to your Google advertising platforms, which will adversely affect measurement, reporting, audience creation, and remarketing efforts.

If you are an Osano user and need to integrate Google Consent Mode, you can do so in a few steps: here's how.

If you use Google Consent Mode and you do business in the EU, you may need to upgrade to Google Consent Mode 2.0.

What's New in Google Consent Mode v2?

Updated to Align with the Latest EU Regulations

The original Google Consent Mode included two tag settings, which enabled users to communicate consent choices to Google tags that measure digital channel and advertising performance:

• Analytics_storage: Does the user consent to their data being used for analytics?
• Ad_storage: Does the user consent to their data being used for advertising?

Permission is granted or denied via a site's cookie banner.

New Tag Settings for User Data and Personalization

To comply with the Digital Markets Act in the EU, which went into effect in March 2024, Google Consent Mode 2.0 introduces two new tags:

• Ad_user_data: Does the user consent to their personal data being used for advertising purposes?
• Ad_personalization: Does the user consent to their data being used for remarketing?

What Changed on June 15, 2026

Google has consolidated its data controls. As of June 15, 2026, for any Google Analytics property linked to a Google Ads account, Consent Mode is the single control over whether advertising data is collected.

Before this change, two settings governed whether Google Ads cookies and identifiers were collected through the Google Analytics tag: the Google Signals setting in Google Analytics, and your Consent Mode ad_storage signal. Now, ad_storage alone governs that data flow. Google Signals keeps a narrower role: associating your Analytics data with signed-in users for behavioral reporting.

What this means in practice:

• Your CMP is now the only safeguard. If your Consent Mode setup is misconfigured, there is no longer a Google Signals setting acting as a second gate.
• Advertising audiences will include only consented users. Remarketing and Smart Bidding audiences will contain only users who granted ad_storage, so if your consent capture was below 100%, audiences that previously leaned on Google Signals may shrink.
• It may count as a material change to your data practices. Privacy and legal teams should review privacy notices and assess whether notice or re-consent obligations apply under the GDPR and US state laws such as the CCPA and the Colorado Privacy Act. (This is not legal advice; consult your privacy counsel.)

If you already run Consent Mode v2, the action now is to audit it: confirm your banner sends all four parameters with the correct default and update states, test both accept-all and reject-all, and compare current audience and conversion volumes against a pre-cutover baseline to catch any drop. Osano's team can help you verify the setup.

Google has signaled further consolidation later in 2026, including moving ads personalization control and IP address handling to the Google Ads side. Exact timing is still to be confirmed.

Do I Need to Upgrade to v2?

You will need to upgrade to Google Consent Mode v2 if you:

• Use Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Google Tag Manager
• Use ad personalization and remarketing features
• Target users in the European Economic Area (EEA)

Importantly, publishers and developers using Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob are required to use a CMP that's been certified by Google when serving ads to users in the European Economic Area or the UK.

Google-approved CMPs undergo rigorous testing and approval for data handling, consent management, and privacy adherence. As a Certified Google CMP Partner, Osano's team is here for any support and documentation you need to integrate Osano Cookie Consent with Google Consent Mode.

Audit your Google Consent Mode setup with Osano's Free Compliance Scan.

Additional Resources

• Google+Osano Partner Page
• Implementation Guide: Google Consent Mode v2
• Updates to Google Analytics Data Controls (Google)
• The Digital Markets Act