As of August 2026
15 June 2026: consent mode alone governs Google Ads data collection from GA4-linked setups. The Google Signals toggle is no longer a fallback.
Digital Omnibus: the Council dropped binding browser-level consent signals from the draft in June 2026. The cookie banner stays, and so does the arithmetic on this page.
What changed in June 2026 →Three findings from DACH audits since →Common questions
How does the consent loss calculator work?
Unmeasured conversions = sessions × (1 − consent rate) × conversion rate. At 80,000 sessions, 45% consent, and a 2.4% conversion rate, that is 1,056 conversions a month no tag fires for after a reject. Multiplied by order value and by twelve gives the annual figure. Every line of that chain sits in the math panel, using the numbers you set. Treat the result as an order of magnitude, not an audit result.
What is a realistic consent rate in the DACH region?
In our DACH audits the rates usually land between 30 and 40%. Published benchmarks for Germany cite 40 to 54%, depending on industry, CMP design, and traffic source. The calculator starts at 45%, between the two. A badly built banner pushes the rate well below that. Of the four inputs, the consent rate is the only one marketing can move directly.
How much traffic does Google need before it models anything?
GA4 needs roughly 1,000 consenting users a day plus around 1,000 denied events a day, each sustained over several days. Google Ads adds roughly 700 ad clicks per week per country-domain pair. Below that there is no modeling, however cleanly consent mode is wired. The calculator detects this and sets recovery to zero rather than reporting a recovery that cannot happen at that volume.
How much does Consent Mode recover?
The calculator applies 40%. That is the top end of what we measure in setups we run, where the range sits between 10 and 40%. Vendor-adjacent sources quote higher figures. We use the optimistic end so the page does not make the loss look bigger than it is. Advanced remains the precondition: Basic fires nothing without consent and therefore models nothing.
Do the conversions actually disappear, or just the measurement?
Only the measurement. The conversion happens, the customer buys. But without consent no tag fires, so GA4 and the ad platforms never see the sale. Smart Bidding and the conversion APIs then optimise against a signal full of holes, and that drives cost-per-acquisition up. The loss is real, it just lands in ad efficiency rather than revenue.
What does closing the gap involve?
An Audit Sprint covers five layers in ten working days and delivers a ranked action plan. It includes consent mode on Advanced wired cleanly, server-side tracking stood up, Enhanced Conversions and the conversion APIs connected. The fixed price depends on scope and is stated on this page. Where your gap actually sits is then a finding in the report rather than a slider position.