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Cookie consent

How your cookie banner decides who is tested and counted, and what happens when a visitor says no.

On this page 4

Your cookie banner decides whether the tag may test and count a visitor. A project either waits for the visitor to accept, or runs without asking. You pick which in the project's settings, or leave it to follow where your tests are aimed.

The tag reads the answer from your banner on its own when the banner speaks a language it knows, and most do. When yours does not, your site tells the tag itself with two short calls.

Mode What it does When Automatic picks it
Wait for consent No cookie, no test and nothing counted until the visitor accepts. Stops again if they say no. A running or paused test is aimed at a country in the EU, the EEA or the UK.
Run without consent Tests and counts every visitor straight away, using a cookie you class as strictly necessary. Every other time.

Automatic is the default. Drafts, stopped and archived tests never change it, so it only moves when a test is started. If starting a test would move it, the screen with Start says so first.

How to set one up

  1. Open Project settings, General, and find Cookie consent.
  2. Choose Automatic, Wait for consent or Run without consent, then Save changes. Only an admin can change it. Automatic shows which mode it comes to today.
  3. If the project waits for consent, check your banner sends Google Consent Mode or IAB TCF, or is OneTrust or Cookiebot. Most banner tools send Google Consent Mode; if yours has it switched off, switch it on in the tool's settings.
  4. If your banner sends none of these, add the two calls below. Make them on every page with the banner's current answer, and again whenever it changes:
js
// When the visitor accepts
window.splitstat?.consent?.(true);

// When the visitor declines, or changes their mind
window.splitstat?.consent?.(false);
  1. Open your site, accept on your own banner, and watch Live events to see your visit arrive.
Warning

On a project that waits for consent, a banner the tag cannot hear means nobody is ever counted. The test shows no visitors, and after a day you get the "Nothing is reaching your test" message.

What each label means

Label What it means
Automatic Waits for consent while a running or paused test is aimed at the EU, the EEA or the UK, and runs without it otherwise.
Wait for consent Nothing happens for a visitor until they accept.
Run without consent Every test runs for every visitor straight away.
Starting this switches the project to wait for consent Beside Start, when starting this test would move the whole project to waiting.
analytics_storage The Google Consent Mode setting the tag reads. Granted is a yes; an update to denied is a no.
Purpose 1 The IAB TCF purpose the tag reads: storing information on the device.
Performance cookies (C0002) The OneTrust group the tag reads. A tool filed under another group is never counted.
Statistics The Cookiebot category the tag reads.

Good to know

  • The mode covers every test on the project at once. Changing it, or starting a test that moves Automatic, changes it for tests already running too, and waiting counts only the visitors who accept.
  • A visitor who accepts is counted from that moment: the page they accepted on counts as a page view, and so do their goals on it. That page is left as it is, and they enter tests from their next page, or the next one a single-page app shows them.
  • When a visitor takes their consent back, sending stops at once, anything not yet sent is dropped, and the tag removes its cookie and its record of who they were. The page in front of them stays as it is.
  • If they accept again, they start from their next page, as a new visitor.
  • What was sent before they said no is kept. It was sent while they agreed.
  • Google Consent Mode starts every page with a default of denied, before the visitor has answered. Only an update to denied counts as a no.
  • A banner set up through Google Tag Manager's own consent settings may not reach the tag. Accept on your site and check Live events to be sure.
  • Install the tag: the tag your banner is talking to.
  • Events: Live events, where you can watch your own visit arrive.
  • Add your domain: the other thing that decides what is counted.