Testing consent before you trust your reports

Why a consent banner is not evidence that your tags respect consent, and how to test it.

A consent banner shows a choice. It does not stop a tag from running. Whether tags respect the choice depends on how the tags are configured and loaded.

Test the two outcomes separately. Accept the banner and confirm the expected tags run. Reject it and confirm the tags that need consent do not run. Repeat the test on the pages where tags are most likely to be added, such as checkout and forms.

Record what you find with the page address and the requests it sent. A request that fires after a refusal is the finding to fix first, because it affects the data you have collected.

Retest after each release of your tag manager or your consent tool. Consent problems often appear after a change that looked unrelated.