Google Consent Mode v2

Consent Mode v2 is Google’s mechanism for telling gtag what storage and signals are allowed. Tickbox calls gtag('consent', 'update', { ... }) automatically on every consent state change. This is half the picture — the other half is Script gating.

Default mapping

If your consent.config.ts uses the default category names (marketing, analytics, functional, preferences), Tickbox maps them to Consent Mode v2 keys without any extra config:

Tickbox category	Consent Mode v2 keys
marketing	ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization
analytics	analytics_storage
functional	functionality_storage
preferences	personalization_storage
(always-on)	security_storage

Defaults for missing categories: denied for ad/analytics keys, granted for functionality / personalization / security.

Custom category names

If your project uses different names (e.g. advertising instead of marketing, stats instead of analytics), override the mapping:

import { defineConsent, jurisdictions } from '@tickboxhq/core'

export default defineConsent({
  jurisdiction: jurisdictions.UK_DUAA,
  categories: {
    necessary: { required: true },
    advertising: { vendors: ['google-ads', 'meta-pixel'], default: false },
    stats: { vendors: ['plausible'] },
  },
  consentMode: {
    ad_storage: { category: 'advertising' },
    ad_user_data: { category: 'advertising' },
    ad_personalization: { category: 'advertising' },
    analytics_storage: { category: 'stats' },
    // any keys you don't override keep their defaults
  },
})

The mapping is shallow-merged with the built-in defaults — list only what changes.

Removing a key

Pass null for a key to drop it from the gtag('consent', 'update', ...) call entirely. Useful if you don’t want Tickbox managing a particular storage key:

consentMode: {
  personalization_storage: null,
}

What this looks like at runtime

On consent grant for analytics:

gtag('consent', 'update', {
  analytics_storage: 'granted',
  ad_storage: 'denied',
  ad_user_data: 'denied',
  ad_personalization: 'denied',
  functionality_storage: 'granted',
  personalization_storage: 'granted',
  security_storage: 'granted',
})

Combined with a tag-gated GA loader that just executed (because tag gating flipped its type from text/plain to text/javascript), GA now knows analytics is allowed and starts collecting.

Custom default behaviour

Set the default value for any key:

consentMode: {
  analytics_storage: { category: 'analytics', default: 'granted' },
}

This affects what gets sent if the category is absent from the user’s stored decisions, or if no category is associated with the key. The runtime gtag('consent', 'default', ...) call you write yourself in HTML still controls the initial state before any decisions exist.