Our GA4 sessions dropped after we launched the Consent banner. Is that expected, or does it indicate a configuration problem?
Some reduction can be expected when analytics previously ran for every visitor and an opt-in policy now waits for consent. The size of the change depends on visitor choices, regional rules, and whether you use Basic or Advanced Google Consent Mode.
Still, verify that the implementation is not suppressing more than intended: check the active regional policy, the analytics Tracker classification, the initial and updated Google signals, GTM trigger conditions, and whether analytics unblocks after a grant. Compare clean tests for accept, reject, and partial preferences before drawing conclusions from aggregate traffic.
Documentation: Google Consent Mode v2, Configuration policy matching, and Runtime events.