Consent and Funnel Measurement

Step 1: Know the UK exceptions

In the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office guidance on storage and access technologies lists five exceptions to the consent rule: communication, strictly necessary, statistical purposes, appearance and emergency assistance. The statistical purposes exception applies where the sole purpose is to collect statistical information about how your service is used. The ICO says you must give "clear and comprehensive information about the purpose" and "a simple means of objecting, free of charge."

The limits matter for acquisition teams. The exception "does not apply to purposes related to online advertising," it "does not allow you to monitor or track individual visitors," and a third-party analytics provider must act as your processor and may only help you improve your own service. Advertising tags still need consent.

Step 2: Choose a consent mode setup

Google's consent mode has four ad and analytics consent types: ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization and analytics_storage. Google's page also lists functionality_storage, personalization_storage and security_storage. Consent mode can run in two ways:

Whichever you choose, record it in the tracking document from the funnel tracking guide, with the date. A switch between setups changes every funnel count overnight.

Step 3: Check the other markets

• Canada. PIPEDA covers "private-sector organizations across Canada" that handle personal information in commercial activities, and consent is one of its principles.
• Australia. The Australian Privacy Principles "apply to any organisation or agency the Privacy Act covers."
• United States. State laws vary. In California, the Attorney General's guidance tells consumers: "You may request that businesses stop selling or sharing your personal information." Advertising tags that share data can fall under this right.

Step 4: Measure the consent gap

Record the share of landing visitors who accept analytics storage, by market and device, from your consent platform. Report it beside the funnel. If 70% accept in one market and 85% in another, part of any difference in landing visits is the consent rate, not demand. Search Console clicks are not affected by your banner, so the click to landing gap widens when acceptance falls.

Step 5: Keep server events honest

Registrations, verification results and deposits recorded on your server exist whatever the visitor chose for analytics. That makes server counts the reliable totals for those stages. Do not attach analytics identifiers to them for visitors who declined analytics storage, and do not use server data to rebuild profiles that a visitor's choice was meant to prevent.

Step 6: Label modeled numbers

If you use advanced consent mode, some figures in Google's reports are modeled from cookieless pings. Label them as modeled in any report you share, and do not mix modeled landing visits with counted server registrations in one rate without saying so.

Checklist

• Each tag mapped to a purpose and a legal basis per market.
• Advertising tags held until consent where required.
• Consent mode setup recorded, with dates of changes.
• Acceptance rate reported beside the funnel by market and device.
• Modeled figures labeled in shared reports.

Questions

Can UK analytics run without consent now?

Only within the statistical purposes exception: your own service, aggregated statistics, clear information and a free, simple way to object. Advertising and individual tracking still need consent.

Will advanced consent mode recover all lost visitors?

No. It sends cookieless measurements that Google uses for modeling, subject to thresholds. Treat the results as estimates and label them.

Should declined visitors be removed from the funnel denominator?

Use counts from the same system for each rate. Server registrations divided by analytics landing visits mixes consented and total populations, so state the mix if you report it.

Sources

Each source was read on October 27, 2026. How we choose sources is set out on the sources and reading list page.

1. Information Commissioner's Office, What are the exceptions? (Guidance on the use of storage and access technologies), page dated April 29, 2026.
2. Google Tag Platform, Consent mode overview, last updated July 30, 2026.
3. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, PIPEDA requirements in brief, modified May 1, 2024.
4. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, Australian Privacy Principles, published March 10, 2023.
5. State of California, Department of Justice, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), last updated August 28, 2026.