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Complianz

Complianz is the most widely used consent management platform (CMP) among our customers and one of the top five in our CMP ranking. The Pixel Manager integrates with it automatically. This page explains how the integration works, which settings belong on which side, and the questions that come up most often in support.

Short answer​

Short answer

Complianz is supported and compatible with the Pixel Manager for WooCommerce, in the free and in the Pro version, with category-based consent (the Complianz default). Vendor-based consent is not supported.

Run Google Consent Mode in the Pixel Manager only, do not let Complianz add or block Google tags itself, enable Explicit Consent Mode, and use Pixel Manager 1.66.0 or newer.

How the Pixel Manager detects Complianz​

The integration runs in the visitor's browser and relies on the cookies and events Complianz provides:

  1. One cookie per category: cmplz_statistics, cmplz_marketing, cmplz_preferences and cmplz_functional (with the cmplz_rt_ variants Complianz uses for region-based setups). Complianz writes them when the visitor decides. Under Complianz's opt-in consent type only an explicit allow counts as consent; under the opt-out type an unset category counts as consent, exactly as Complianz treats it itself.
  2. The cmplz_fire_categories event on document. The Pixel Manager listens for it and applies the choice on the same page view, without a reload.
  3. The WP Consent API. Complianz also relays each category through the WP Consent API when that plugin is installed. The Pixel Manager registers with it and reads those relays as well.

Complianz categories map one to one to the Pixel Manager's categories: functional to necessary, preferences, statistics and marketing. Complianz's statistics-anonymous category is not mapped and is ignored.

Banner status is not a decision. Complianz also writes a banner status cookie when it merely wants the banner shown again, for example after a cookie policy revision or a click on "manage consent", and clears the category cookies while doing so. Since Pixel Manager 1.66.0 a banner status without category cookies is ignored, with the log line Complianz cookie detected, but the visitor hasn't answered the banner yet. Ignoring it.

Install modes. Complianz is a WordPress plugin, free or premium. The Pixel Manager detects both editions on the server and adds its pmwDataLayer configuration script to Complianz's script allowlist so that Complianz's blocker leaves it alone.

The admin card lists Complianz when the plugin is active. The card is informational and has no effect on tracking. See How the Pixel Manager detects your CMP.

Complianz support is not a Pro feature.

  1. Update the Pixel Manager to 1.66.0 or newer. It contains a Complianz-specific consent fix. See Troubleshooting.
  2. Enable Explicit Consent Mode in WooCommerce > Pixel Manager > Consent Management. Without it the Pixel Manager runs in implicit mode and Google Consent Mode reads granted before the visitor accepts. Details in the Consent Management overview.
  3. Enable Google Consent Mode v2 in the Pixel Manager, with the standard settings. Google Consent Mode belongs in the Pixel Manager only. If Complianz also outputs its own Consent Mode script, two default consent blocks compete on the same page, so switch Consent Mode off on the Complianz side.
  4. Do not let Complianz configure Google. Answer "No" to Complianz's question "Do you want Complianz to add Google Analytics to your website?" The Pixel Manager manages the Google Analytics and Google Ads tags. Otherwise Google Analytics is added twice.
  5. Keep category-based consent in Complianz, which is the default. Vendor-based (per-service) consent is not supported.
  6. Leave Complianz Safe Mode off. Safe Mode is a troubleshooting switch that disables all Complianz integrations, including the banner's blocking. It is not a permanent configuration.
  7. Never add the Pixel Manager or googletagmanager.com to Complianz's Script Center block list. The Pixel Manager blocks and unblocks tracking scripts itself, based on the consent Complianz relays.
  8. Leave Explicit Consent Regions empty unless you deliberately want implicit tracking outside certain regions. See Explicit Consent Regions.
  9. Keep "Always send server-side events" off under Server-Side > General, unless you have decided to send server-side events regardless of the banner answer. See Server-only Meta events below.

Verify the integration​

  1. Open your shop in a private browser window, logged out of WordPress. Tracking is off for administrators by default.
  2. Append ?pmwloggeron to the URL and open the browser console. See the Console Logger guide.
  3. Before you answer the banner you should see Consent mode: explicit with all non-essential categories denied, and, if Google Consent Mode is on, a consent default entry in the data layer with every signal set to denied.
  4. Click accept in the Complianz banner. The Pixel Manager logs Updated consent state (source: cmp), loads the approved pixels on the same page, and the data layer receives a consent update with the granted signals. On the next page load you see:
Pixel Manager: Complianz CMP consent detected
Pixel Manager: CMP consent applied from: Complianz
  1. Run pmw.consent.categories.get() in the console to read the current state. To list the consent commands in the data layer, run window.dataLayer.filter(e => e && e[0] === 'consent').

Troubleshooting​

Complianz's blocker rewrites scripts it holds back to type="text/plain" until consent. If gtag.js or the Pixel Manager's configuration script carries that marker, Complianz is blocking a tag the Pixel Manager expects to control, and Tag Assistant sees no consent defaults.

Open the page source and search for type="text/plain". If a Pixel Manager script or a googletagmanager.com script is marked, remove it from Complianz's Script Center block list, switch off Complianz's own Google Analytics and Consent Mode configuration, and leave Safe Mode off. Then load the page with ?pmwloggeron; the Pixel Manager logs the consent decision and Loading Google gtag.js from ....

Explicit Consent Mode is off. In implicit mode the Pixel Manager grants by default and only reacts to an opt-out. Enable Explicit Consent Mode. Before the banner is accepted, Google Consent Mode is then set to denied, and it updates to granted after acceptance.

On Pixel Manager versions before 1.66.0, two things could cause this on a Complianz shop:

  • The Pixel Manager stored every consent state in the browser under _pmw_persistent_data, without expiry, and read that record before asking Complianz on the next page load. Once a granted state had been recorded, later visits started from it even with no Complianz category cookies present.
  • The Complianz reader treated an absent category cookie as consent, so a banner status cookie without a decision unblocked every pixel.

Update to 1.66.0 or newer. Consent relayed from a CMP is no longer stored, old records are cleared automatically, and only an explicit allow counts under opt-in. The very first page load after the update can still fire once. To clean a test browser by hand, run localStorage.removeItem('_pmw_persistent_data') in the console. The diagnostic line for the old behaviour is CMP consent applied from: PMW cookie/storage.

Meta reports far more server events than browser events​

With an opt-in banner and "Always send server-side events" switched on, the browser pixel never loads for visitors who decline, but the server-side event is still sent. The ratio of browser to server events is then essentially your acceptance rate, not lost tracking. Switching "Always send server-side events" off brings the server count down to consenting visitors only. That is a data and compliance trade-off, not a fix.

"Consent module failed to load - falling back to deny-by-default" in the console​

A stale Pixel Manager bundle is being served after an update, most often by a caching plugin with "Remove Query Strings" enabled and a long-lived edge cache. The fallback is deliberate: without a reliable consent module the Pixel Manager fires nothing. Switch the option off, purge all caches, and exclude the Pixel Manager from JavaScript delay. The Caching and Optimization Exclusions page lists what to exclude.

Complianz's cookie database may pick up the Pixel Manager's storage keys and ask you to categorise them. They do no harm, two of them are browser storage rather than cookies, and no category setting needs to be changed. The full list is in the FAQ under Pixel Manager Cookies List and Classifications.

Version history​

  • 1.66.0 (August 2026): an unanswered banner is no longer read as consent, consent relayed from Complianz is no longer stored, and the WP Consent API relay handles single-category updates correctly.
  • 1.41.0 (March 2024): updated Complianz cookie names.
  • 1.32.1 (June 2023): the Pixel Manager's configuration script is added to Complianz's script allowlist.
  • 1.16.12 (April 2022): the cmplz_fire_categories listener applies consent on the same page.
  • 1.13.0 (January 2022): cookie names for Complianz 6.
  • Late 2021: Complianz support added.

When to contact support​

Send us the following so we can reproduce your setup in one pass:

  • Your store URL.
  • The debug information from WooCommerce > Pixel Manager > Support.
  • Your Complianz edition and version, and whether Safe Mode, Complianz's Google Analytics integration, or Complianz's Consent Mode are on.
  • Which caching, script optimisation, or tag manager plugins are active.
  • A screenshot of the browser console with ?pmwloggeron, taken in a private window while logged out of WordPress, before and after accepting the banner.

Pro customers use the support form. Free users find help in the WordPress.org support forum.

Frequently asked questions​

Is Complianz compatible with the Pixel Manager for WooCommerce?​

Yes, with category-based consent, which is the Complianz default. Vendor-based consent is not supported.

In the Pixel Manager. Switch Consent Mode off on the Complianz side.

Should I answer "Yes" to "Do you want Complianz to add Google Analytics to your website?"​

No. The Pixel Manager adds and manages Google Analytics.

Must Complianz's script blocking be disabled for the Pixel Manager scripts?​

No. The Pixel Manager adds its own configuration script to Complianz's allowlist automatically. Just do not add the Pixel Manager or googletagmanager.com to the block list yourself.

It prevents the scripts from loading. Google and Microsoft tags are the exception: under Consent Mode they load and send cookieless pings until consent is granted, which is how Consent Mode is designed to work.

Is Complianz support a Pro feature?​

No. All CMP integrations are included in the free version.

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