Install CookieYes with Google Tag Manager

Privacy laws like GDPR (EU), CCPA (California), and LGPD (Brazil) require websites to obtain explicit user consent before placing non-essential cookies — such as analytics and advertising cookies — on a visitor's device. A cookie consent banner handles this by presenting users with a clear accept or decline option, recording their consent, and integrating with tools like GTM to block or allow tracking scripts based on that choice. Failing to comply can result in significant fines.

The Consent Initialization — All Pages trigger is a special GTM trigger that fires before the standard Page View trigger and before any other tags load. This ensures that the CookieYes consent state is established first, so that when GTM later checks whether it has permission to fire analytics or advertising tags, the correct consent signal is already in place. Using any other trigger (like All Pages) would risk firing before consent is set, which defeats the purpose of a consent management platform.

Setting all consent types to Denied by default implements the principle of consent by default — no tracking occurs until the user actively accepts cookies. This is the GDPR-compliant approach. The CookieYes banner will then update the consent state to "Granted" for categories the user accepts, and GTM's Consent Mode will allow the relevant tags to fire. If you set defaults to Granted, tracking would begin before the user has given consent, which is illegal under GDPR for non-essential cookies.

Yes. Changes in GTM only go live when you Submit and Publish a new container version. Until you publish, the CookieYes tag exists only in your workspace and will not appear on your live website. After saving the tag, click Submit in the top right of GTM, add a version name and description, then click Publish to push the changes to production.

CookieYes works with GTM's Consent Mode to control when tags fire. For this to work, your Google Analytics and Google Ads tags must be configured with the appropriate consent checks in GTM — for example, requiring analytics_storage consent before the GA4 tag fires. Most modern GA4 and Google Ads tag templates in GTM support Consent Mode natively. You will need to review each tag's consent settings to ensure it respects the signals sent by CookieYes.

The free plan covers one website and provides basic cookie consent functionality including automatic cookie scanning, a customisable banner, and GTM integration — sufficient for most small websites. Paid plans add features such as multiple domains, advanced banner customisation, geo-targeting (showing the banner only to visitors from specific regions), consent logs for audit purposes, and support for Google Consent Mode v2. If you need to comply with GDPR across multiple websites or require detailed consent records, a paid plan may be necessary.