---
title: "Tracking numbers only show after visitors accept cookies"
url: "https://calltracking.au/help/install/consent-banner"
summary: "A consent banner or consent tool is holding the tracking script until the visitor accepts, so until then the website shows its normal number and calls from that visitor have no attribution. Whether the script may run before consent is the website owner's decision."
type: troubleshooting
audience: customers
products: ["Tracking script"]
works_with: ["Google Tag Manager"]
who_can_do_this: "Whoever manages the website and its consent banner"
---

# Tracking numbers only show after visitors accept cookies

**Short answer:** A consent banner or consent tool is holding the tracking script until the visitor accepts, so until then the website shows its normal number and calls from that visitor have no attribution. Whether the script may run before consent is the website owner's decision.

**Applies to:** Tracking script  
**Works with:** Google Tag Manager  
**Who can do this:** Whoever manages the website and its consent banner

First check the [Enfonica status page](https://enfonica.status.io/) for a known incident.

Consent banners and consent tools can hold back the tags on a page until the visitor makes a choice. If the tracking script is one of them, nothing swaps and nothing is tracked until the visitor accepts.

## The number only changes after you accept cookies

The consent tool, or the tag's consent settings in Google Tag Manager, holds the tracking script until the visitor accepts. In Google Tag Manager, this is usually consent mode, or a consent template, holding the tag. Visitors who decline, or who ignore the banner, see the website's normal number.

**To check**, open the website in a private window and don't touch the banner. Open the browser console: open your browser's developer tools, and select the **Console** tab. If there's no line that starts with `[EnfonicaTracker] Bootstrapping`, the script hasn't run. Accept the banner: if the line appears and the number swaps, the banner was holding it.

The install status in the Enfonica Console can't rule this out. It shows **Installed** when any visitor has run the script in the last day, including visitors who accepted.

**To fix it**, the website owner decides whether the tracking script may run before consent. It helps to know what the script stores:

- It sets no cookies.
- It keeps a session identifier in the browser's storage, so that a visit can be linked to a call. The visit ends after 30 minutes without activity.
- It reads the Google Analytics cookies, if they're already there, so a call can be sent to the same GA4 user.

If the script may run before consent, change the tag's consent settings in Google Tag Manager, or the script's category in the consent tool. To learn how, see [Consent settings in Google Tag Manager](/docs/install/google-tag-manager/#consent-settings). If it may not, calls from visitors who don't accept can't be tracked.

## Calls from some visitors have no attribution

Visitors who declined consent, or never answered the banner, were never given a tracking number. If they call, they call the website's normal number or one they found elsewhere, and a call to a tracking number they didn't hold has no attribution.

**To fix it**, there's nothing to fix: this follows from the consent choice above. To learn what else causes it, see [A call shows no attribution](/help/attribution/call-not-attributed).

## A call from an ad shows as direct

The visitor arrived from an ad but accepted the banner on a later page. The visit starts on the page where the script first runs, and the ad's campaign details and click ID were only in the address of the first page. So the visit is recorded without them, and the call shows as direct.

**To fix it**, let the script run on the first page, before consent, if the website owner allows it. Otherwise, expect some calls from ads to show as direct.

## What to send us

Include these and we can look at the website straight away.

- The address of a page where the number doesn't change.
- The tracking site's name in the Console, or the tracking code from the tag (it starts with E-).
- The lines that start with [EnfonicaTracker] in the browser console on that page, or that there are none.
- The browser and device you tested on.

[Contact support](https://calltracking.au/support#contact)

## Related

- [Tracking numbers don't show on your website](https://calltracking.au/help/install/numbers-not-showing.md)
- [The tracking script shows an error in the browser console](https://calltracking.au/help/install/console-messages.md)
- [A call shows no attribution](https://calltracking.au/help/attribution/call-not-attributed.md)
- [Consent settings in Google Tag Manager](https://calltracking.au/docs/install/google-tag-manager/#consent-settings)
- [Data and privacy](https://calltracking.au/docs/attribution/data-and-privacy/)

---

Web version: https://calltracking.au/help/install/consent-banner