Tag Manager with a banner.
Do the tags still fire?

The most common causes

The banner asks, Consent Mode is set up, and data still goes out. Usually from a tag that requires no consent.

1. 01

   Tag without additional consent

   Meta Pixel, TikTok, Hotjar or LinkedIn as Custom HTML have no built-in consent check. Without “Require additional consent for tag to fire” in Advanced settings they fire on their trigger, usually All Pages.

   Art. 5(3) Directive 2002/58/EC

2. 02

   Consent Mode only covers Google

   Consent Mode controls Google tags. For every other tag in the container, consent has to be set on the tag itself.

   Art. 5(3) Directive 2002/58/EC

3. 03

   The default comes too late

   The “denied” default has to be set before any other tag. If the banner tag does not run on the trigger “Consent Initialization - All Pages”, other tags fire first.

   Art. 5(3) Directive 2002/58/EC

4. 04

   Second container or code in the theme

   A second container or the same pixel again in the theme runs past your settings.

   Art. 5(3) Directive 2002/58/EC

Step by step

1. Measure

   Open the page without consenting and note which services load; then click “Reject” and look again. The report does this for you and names the container ID when a service comes through Tag Manager.

2. Turn on the overview

   In Tag Manager under Admin, Container settings, tick “Enable consent overview”. A shield icon in the tag list then shows which tags check no consent.

3. Consent per tag

   Open every non-Google tag, Advanced settings, Consent settings, choose “Require additional consent for tag to fire” and add ad_storage (advertising) or analytics_storage (statistics).

4. Measure again

   Publish, then check again without consent and after “Reject”. Only when the service is gone in both runs is it held back.

Questions