Your Google Ads conversion data dropped 90% overnight, and you have no idea why. On July 21, 2025, Google silently began enforcing Consent Mode V2 for all EEA and UK traffic. If your consent banner was not properly connected to your Google tags—and most were not—conversion tracking, remarketing, and demographic reporting simply stopped working.

Matomo analysis found sites reporting 90-95% drops in metrics after the enforcement date. No warning email. No grace period. Just broken data and store owners discovering the damage months later.

What Google Actually Disabled#

Consent Mode V2 requires four specific parameters to be signaled to Google tags based on user consent choices: ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization, and analytics_storage. If these signals are not sent correctly—or are not sent at all—Google treats your traffic as non-compliant.

For non-compliant EEA/UK traffic, Google disabled:

• Conversion tracking—Google Ads has no idea which clicks led to purchases
• Remarketing audiences—you cannot retarget visitors who did not explicitly consent
• Demographic and interest reporting—GA4 audience insights go dark
• Enhanced conversions—even server-side data gets blocked without consent signals

The critical point: having a consent banner is not enough. The banner must actually communicate consent states to your tracking tags. Many WordPress stores have cookie banners that look compliant but do not connect to anything.

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Why GA4 Behavioral Modeling Is Not Saving You#

Google promised that behavioral modeling would fill data gaps—estimating behavior of non-consenting users based on patterns from consenting users. But there is a catch most store owners never heard about.

GA4 behavioral modeling only activates if you meet minimum traffic thresholds:

• 1,000+ events per day from users who deny cookies, for 7 consecutive days
• 1,000+ events per day from users who accept cookies

At a 50% consent rate, that means you need 2,000 daily visitors minimum just to qualify for modeling. Most small WooCommerce stores do not come close.

If you are below these thresholds, modeling never activates. Data from non-consenting users is not estimated—it is simply gone.

The Plugin Conflict Problem#

WordPress stores face a unique challenge: multiple plugins trying to implement the same consent signals, often fighting each other.

Common conflict scenarios:

• Site Kit + Complianz: Site Kit may ignore consent signals from Complianz if not properly configured
• MonsterInsights + GTM4WP: Both try to load GA4, creating duplicate tags with inconsistent consent handling
• Theme-based tracking + plugin tracking: Some themes include GA4 code that does not respect any consent management
• Multiple consent plugins: Running both CookieYes and Complianz creates conflicting signals

The result: your consent banner shows, visitors click Accept, but the consent signal never reaches your Google tags. From Google perspective, you are non-compliant—even though you did everything right from a user-facing perspective.

How to Diagnose Your Consent Mode Setup#

Google Tag Assistant (tagassistant.google.com) shows what consent states your tags are receiving. Here is what to check:

Step 1: Test as a new visitor. Open an incognito window, clear all cookies, visit your site. Do not test in your normal browser where you have already consented.

Step 2: Check initial load. Before interacting with the consent banner, Tag Assistant should show consent states as denied if you are running Advanced Consent Mode, or tags should not fire at all if you are running Basic mode.

Step 3: Accept consent and verify. After clicking Accept on your banner, Tag Assistant should show all four parameters flip to granted. If they stay denied—your integration is broken.

Step 4: Test denial. In a fresh session, click Reject or Necessary Only. Verify that consent states show as denied and remain denied throughout the session.

What you are looking for: consent states that match user choices, updating in real-time as users interact with your banner.

You may be interested in: Why 30-50% of Your WordPress Marketing Attribution Data Is Missing

What Is Lost Forever vs What Is Recoverable#

The hard truth: data from before your implementation was fixed cannot be recovered. Google did not retroactively disable tracking—they stopped collecting new data. There is no backfill, no estimation, no recovery option.

What is recoverable:

• Future data from consenting users—once properly implemented, you will capture complete data from users who accept tracking
• Modeling data if you meet thresholds—stores with sufficient traffic will eventually get estimated data for non-consenters
• Server-side conversion data with consent—Enhanced Conversions and CAPI work when consent is properly signaled

What is permanently lost:

• All data from the non-compliant period—conversions, audiences, demographic insights
• Attribution chains that crossed the gap—campaigns running during enforcement lost their conversion history
• Historical comparison baselines—year-over-year comparisons are compromised

Proper Implementation for WordPress Stores#

Getting Consent Mode V2 right requires coordination between your consent management plugin and your tracking implementation.

Choose one consent management platform. Complianz, CookieYes, or Iubenda—pick one and disable any others. Running multiple creates conflicting signals.

Verify integration with your tracking method. If using Site Kit, ensure your consent plugin supports Site Kit integration. If using GTM, configure consent mode in GTM itself. If using a tracking plugin like PixelYourSite, check their consent mode documentation.

Use Advanced mode if you want modeling. Advanced Consent Mode fires cookieless pings even when consent is denied, enabling behavioral modeling. Basic mode blocks everything until consent—compliant, but no modeling.

Test in Tag Assistant from a fresh session. Your own browser remembers consent. Test as new visitors actually experience your site.

Server-Side Tracking and Consent#

Server-side tracking does not bypass consent requirements—but it does ensure complete data capture for users who do consent.

Transmute Engine™ respects consent signals: when a user grants consent, purchase events flow to GA4, Google Ads, and Facebook with full attribution data. When consent is denied, no data is sent—compliant with GDPR and Google requirements.

The advantage: for consenting users, server-side tracking bypasses ad blockers that might still block your GA4 tag even after consent. You capture 100% of consenting user conversions, not just the ones whose browsers allowed tracking scripts.

For stores below modeling thresholds, this matters enormously. You cannot rely on Google to estimate your non-consent traffic. But you can ensure every consenting user conversion actually reaches your platforms.

Key Takeaways#

• July 21, 2025—Google silently disabled tracking for non-compliant EEA/UK traffic
• 90-95% metric drops reported by sites without proper Consent Mode V2 implementation
• Having a consent banner is not enough—it must actually signal consent states to Google tags
• GA4 modeling requires 1,000+ daily events from both consenting and denying users—most small stores do not qualify
• Data from non-compliant periods is permanently lost—there is no backfill option
• Plugin conflicts between Site Kit, GTM4WP, MonsterInsights, and consent plugins commonly break implementation
• Server-side tracking ensures complete capture for consenting users while maintaining compliance

Ready to capture complete data from consenting users? See how Transmute Engine handles consent properly.