Track visitors who reject cookies
They said no. Count them. Follow no one.
A banner is only half the job. The other half is what the rest of your site does with the answer. Cookie Consent keeps the answer, and the modules that record or remember read it. With Wait for cookie consent on, User Journey records a visitor in full only after a yes and counts everyone else without a cookie. A signup keeps its visit only for a visitor who was recorded. The AI chatbot remembers a chat unless Preferences says no. This is the whole fork, stop by stop, with a tester for what gets recorded.
Drawn with Ask before tracking, Wait for cookie consent on and Count everyone else anonymously on. The tester further down changes all three.
The banner decides.
The site listens.
Cookie Consent shows the banner, keeps the visitor’s answer in a cookie on their device and holds back what they have not agreed to. Two Builderify features ask it before they run: User Journey asks about Analytics, and the AI chatbot asks about Preferences. How it asks, and what it counts as an answer, is the rule you pick.
- The rule
- Chosen on the Rules tab: Ask before tracking, Ask where the law requires it, Let visitors opt out or Inform only. The regional rule reads the visitor’s own time zone, with no address lookup, and asks first when the zone cannot be read.
- The answer
- Accept all, Reject all, or Customize to switch Preferences, Analytics and Marketing one by one. It is kept on their device until it expires, and they can change it from the cookie settings button.
- No answer
- What an unanswered banner means is part of the rule. Under Ask before tracking every category is off until a yes. Under Let visitors opt out every category is on until a no.
- A signal
- A browser that sends Global Privacy Control starts with Marketing off under an opt-out rule, and nothing else changes there. The GPC guide covers who has to honor it.
- Connected
- The Builderify features list on the same tab has a switch for User Journey. It is the same setting as Wait for cookie consent in Journey’s own settings, and it makes Analytics a category the banner always offers.
A yes is recorded.
A no is only counted.
User Journey decides when the page loads, and again whenever the answer changes. With Wait for cookie consent on, a visitor who has allowed Analytics is recorded in full. One who has not is counted anonymously while Count everyone else anonymously is on, which it is by default. A visitor whose browser sends Do Not Track is not counted at all.
- In full
- A cookie keeps the visitor recognisable between visits. Their pages, source, goals and signups build one journey page, and they appear in the visitor list.
- Anonymous
- Counted in your totals only, without any cookie or stored ID. The ID is a hash of their address and browser under a salt that changes every day, so the same person cannot be recognised tomorrow and has no journey page.
- Not counted
- Respect Do Not Track is on by default, and a visitor whose browser sends it is skipped whatever they answered. Switch off Count everyone else anonymously and a visitor who has not allowed Analytics is not counted either.
- Withdrawing
- If a visitor takes Analytics back, tracking stops, their visitor ID is erased from their browser and what was recorded about them is deleted. They are counted anonymously from then on, when that is on.
- Not waiting
- Wait for cookie consent is off until you switch it on. Journey then records everyone except a visitor who said no, including one who has not answered yet. A browser sending Global Privacy Control counts as a no.
The lead is kept.
The visit, only if recorded.
A popup, form or newsletter saves the person to your list whatever they pressed on the banner, because joining a list is a different question from cookies. What changes is the link back to the visit. While Journey records a visitor in full, the widget attaches their journey ID to what it sends, so the signup is written to their journey. A visitor who is only counted anonymously has no ID to attach.
- Always kept
- The lead is created, counted at the rate for a new lead and added to its list, like any other.
- With a visit
- The lead page shows Their journey: where they first came from, their visits and pages, where they are, the latest pages and the goals they reached. Their journey page lists the signup under What they signed up for.
- Without
- No panel, because there is no visit to show. The lead keeps what they typed, the list they joined and its own timeline.
- By address
- If that address is later identified on a recorded visit, the lead page shows that visit. When there are several, the newest wins.
A chat is remembered
unless Preferences says no.
The AI chatbot can pick a conversation up where it stopped. Where it keeps that conversation depends on Preferences, the category the banner describes as remembering your language, region and chat history. The conversation itself is saved on your side either way. What changes is whether the visitor’s device can find it again.
- Not refused
- On their next visit the same chat opens where it stopped. That covers a visitor who allowed Preferences and one who has not answered yet, because the chatbot only looks for a no.
- Refused
- After Reject all, or Customize with Preferences off, or from a browser sending Global Privacy Control, the chat is kept for that tab only. A copy kept earlier is removed, and the next visit starts a fresh chat.
- Not waiting
- This differs from User Journey with Wait for cookie consent on, which needs a yes. The chatbot has no setting to wait.
- Offered
- Preferences has to be a category your banner offers. Switch it off under Categories visitors choose from and nobody can say yes to it.
What gets recorded?
Change the visitor, then your settings.
A tester built from the rules above. Say what the visitor’s browser sends and what they pressed, then set the banner and User Journey as you would in the dashboard. It makes the same checks the snippet makes, in the same order, and says which one decided. It is a model of those rules, not the product: it does not read your site, and a rule that suits Berlin may not suit you. It is not legal advice.
Only used when the banner asks where the law requires it.
All three switched off.
Neither signal is sent.
Nothing beyond essential cookies runs until a visitor says yes.
On: Journey records only a visitor who allowed Analytics.
On: visitors who have not allowed Analytics still show in your totals, without a cookie or a stored ID.
A no costs the same as a yes.
A bounce costs nothing.
The fork has no rate of its own. A page load with the widget on it is 10 credits per 1,000. A visitor who reads more than one page or stays ten seconds is 0.1 credits, recorded in full or counted anonymously. A new lead is 1 credit. Every account gets 250 free credits a month, packs start at $9, and purchased credits never expire. The pricing page has the full rate card.
Every page a visitor opens with your widget on it, whatever they answered.
A second page, or ten seconds on one. Recorded and anonymous visitors both count.
Each new person who joins a list, saved whatever they answered.
- Page loads 10 credits per 1,000 100
- Visitor journeys 0.1 credits per visitor who engages 120
- New leads 1 credit per new person, once 60
It fits inside the free credits, with -30 to spare, before any chatbot answers.
Over by 30 credits, before any chatbot answers. One Starter pack (1,000 credits, $9) covers that for about 33 months at this size. Purchased credits never expire.
- A visitor who says no is billed like one who says yes. An anonymous visitor who reads two pages is one journey, the same as a recorded one.
- The anonymous ID changes every day, so the same person on three days is three visitors, and three journeys if they engage each time.
- A visitor who leaves after one page and under ten seconds is not billed, and neither are crawlers and scripts.
- The banner, the answers it keeps and its proof-of-consent log have no rate of their own.
- AI chatbot answers are the flow’s AI feature: credit usage is dynamic, based on the model and the cost of the task, so there is no fixed price to count here.
Six ways the answer goes unheard,
and the setting behind each.
- Cause
- Wait for cookie consent is off until you switch it on, and the banner and Journey are separate modules. With it off, Journey records every visitor except one who said no, including someone who has not yet answered a banner that asks first.
- Fix
- Switch on User Journey under Builderify features on the banner’s Rules tab, or Wait for cookie consent in User Journey’s settings. They are the same setting.
- Cause
- The list holds only visitors recorded in full. A visitor who has not allowed Analytics is counted anonymously, in the totals only and with no journey page. Under a banner that asks first, most visitors do not press Accept all.
- Fix
- Read volume from the totals and stories from the list. If you would rather leave those visitors out of the totals as well, switch off Count everyone else anonymously.
- Cause
- Journey is waiting for a yes, and the banner is switched off, so nobody can give one. Every visitor falls through to anonymous counting.
- Fix
- Switch the banner on in Cookie Consent, or switch off Wait for cookie consent if you do not want to ask.
- Cause
- Two signals from their browser outrank the banner. With Respect Do Not Track on, Journey skips a visitor whose browser sends Do Not Track, whatever they answered. And while Journey is not waiting for consent, Global Privacy Control counts as a no, even after an Accept all.
- Fix
- Nothing is broken: both are the visitor’s own choice. A Do Not Track visitor is left out entirely, and a Global Privacy Control visitor is counted anonymously while Journey is not waiting.
- Cause
- The lead page shows a journey only when the signup carried a journey ID, and only a visitor recorded in full has one. A visitor who is counted anonymously, who sends Do Not Track, or whose page Journey does not record has none. The lead itself is saved either way.
- Fix
- Nothing to fix: the person is on your list. If their address is later identified on a recorded visit, the lead page shows that visit.
- Cause
- A chat is kept on the device only while the visitor has not refused Preferences. After Reject all, or Customize with Preferences off, or from a browser sending Global Privacy Control, it lasts for the tab. If you switched the Preferences category off, nobody can say yes to it, so everyone who answered gets a chat for the tab only.
- Fix
- Nothing is lost on your side: the conversation is saved there either way. To let visitors carry a chat back, keep Preferences switched on under Categories visitors choose from on the Cookies tab of Cookie Consent.
4 modules, in the order a visitor meets them.
- 01 · Free GDPR cookie consent banner Cookie Consent Asks, keeps the answer and holds back what it was not given.
- 02 · Visitor-level website analytics User Journey Records a visitor in full, counts one who has not agreed anonymously and skips Do Not Track.
- 03 · Lead capture and lead lists Leads Keeps every signup, and shows the visit behind it when there is one.
- 04 · AI chatbot trained on your website AI Chatbot Remembers a chat on the device unless Preferences says no.
- A/B Testing Has its own switch on the same Rules tab: only test visitors who allow Analytics.
- Popups The popup that asks for the email is where most signups start.
Same script tag. A different job.
The lead line
Someone leaves their email. Then what?
Popups Leads Sequences User Journey Open this flowThe answer loop
A visitor asks something the bot cannot answer. Then what?
AI Chatbot Support Tickets Live Chat Callbacks Open this flowThe booking fork
Not every visitor should get the same calendar.
Quizzes Bookings Callbacks Sequences Open this flowThe page fork
A pricing page and a checkout need different doors.
Bubble Bookings Live Chat User Journey Open this flow
Stop losing the visitors
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