Growth & Embedding
Turn the cookie consent banner on or off
How the Cookie Consent switch in your booking page settings works, what the banner asks visitors, and why your tracking pixels stay silent until someone accepts it.
The cookie consent banner is the one switch that decides whether visitors to your booking page are asked before any tracking script runs. It is worth two minutes of your attention, because until someone presses Accept, none of the tracking you set up fires at all — which is the single most common reason a newly added pixel looks broken.
The switch lives in the sidebar under Settings, on the Booking Page tab, in the Privacy card at the bottom of the page. There is one control in it, Cookie Consent, described on screen as "Show a consent banner to visitors before loading tracking scripts. Recommended for GDPR compliance."
Where the Cookie Consent switch lives
- Open your booking page settings
Click Settings in the sidebar, then open the Booking Page tab. This is the same tab you use to arrange what clients see, so you may already have it open — see arrange your booking page for the rest of what lives here.
- Scroll to the Privacy card
The Privacy card sits at the very bottom of the tab, below the layout and preview sections. It holds a single switch labelled Cookie Consent, with a reminder underneath it that "Enabling a tracking pixel will automatically enable the consent banner."
- Flip the switch
Click the switch to turn the banner on or off. It saves on its own the moment you click it and a green Saved confirmation appears beside it — you do not need to press Save Booking Page Settings for this one, and that button does not control it.
- Check it on your live page
Use the Preview Booking Page link a little higher up the same tab to open your booking page, then click into one of your event types. The banner appears along the bottom of that session page, and only if you have not already made a choice in this browser.
What a visitor sees
The banner is a strip across the bottom of the page reading "This site uses cookies to improve your experience and help us understand how our booking page is used," with two buttons: Decline and Accept.
Whichever one a visitor presses, the banner disappears and their answer is remembered in that browser for a year, so a returning client is not asked again. Nothing about the booking itself changes — someone who declines can still pick a time, pay, and get their confirmation exactly as usual.
The banner appears on individual session pages, both on your Calso booking page and inside a booking widget embedded on your own website. It does not appear on the front of your booking page where clients pick what to book, because nothing that needs consent runs there.
What the banner gates, and what it doesn't
Only the tracking you added yourself waits for consent. Everything Calso needs to run your practice keeps working regardless.
| What runs on your booking page | Waits for Accept? |
|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 tag | Yes — the tag never loads until a visitor accepts |
| Meta Pixel | Yes |
| Google Tag Manager container | Yes, and everything inside it |
| Calso's own booking funnel and Analytics | No — every visit is counted either way |
| Booking, checkout, and confirmation emails | No — declining never blocks a client |
That last pair is the part coaches usually don't expect. Your Funnel tab keeps filling in from Page Views through to Booking Confirmed no matter what visitors press, because those counts come from Calso itself rather than from an outside tag. If you want to read those numbers, read your booking funnel explains what each step counts.
Why your new pixel looks broken
Saving your first tracking ID switches the banner on for you. Add a GA4 Measurement ID, a Meta Pixel ID, or a GTM Container ID on the Integrations page and press Save, and the Cookie Consent switch flips on in the background without you touching it.
So the usual sequence is: you save a pixel, open your own booking page to test it, get asked about cookies, press Decline because it's your own site and you weren't expecting to be asked — and then see nothing at all in Google Analytics. The pixel is fine. Your browser is simply holding on to the "no" you gave it.
If the banner is not the culprit, check that you are testing an individual session page — tags only load there. Track bookings with Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or Google Tag Manager covers the rest of the setup, including what to do when a GTM Container ID is taking over from the other two.
Deciding whether to leave it on
Leaving the banner on is the right default whenever you are tracking visitors, particularly if you take bookings from clients in the UK or the EU. The trade is real and worth naming: some people will decline, and the visits they represent will never reach Google or Meta, so those tools will always report fewer visits than your Calso Analytics does.
Turning it off means every tag loads for everyone the moment the page opens, with no prompt. That is a decision to make deliberately rather than by accident.
Once tracking is loading the way you expect, the next thing worth reading is what each Analytics number counts, so you know which figures should agree with your Google Analytics and which were never going to.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Google Analytics showing no traffic from my booking page?
The most likely reason is the cookie consent banner. No Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or Google Tag Manager script loads on your booking page until a visitor presses Accept, and if you pressed Decline yourself while testing, your browser remembers that choice for a year and will keep every tag switched off. Open your booking page in a private browsing window to get the banner back and press Accept. It is also worth checking that you are looking at an individual session page rather than the top of your booking page, because the tags only load on session pages.
Do I have to show a cookie banner on my booking page?
Calso does not force it, but it switches the banner on for you the first time you save a tracking ID, because that is the setup where consent normally matters. If you never add a tracking pixel, nothing on your booking page needs consent and you can leave the banner off. If you do track visitors and you have clients in the UK or the EU, leaving it on is the safer choice.
If a visitor declines cookies, do I lose my Calso reporting?
No. The banner only controls the third-party tags you added yourself — Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, and Google Tag Manager. Calso's own numbers, including the booking funnel and everything on your Analytics screen, are recorded whether a visitor accepts or declines, and declining never stops someone from booking or paying.