Marketing Cloud Next - Consent Management: How Consent is Stored and Written

Note: This article is a companion article for the Consent Management: Frequently Asked Questions resource. Check that article out for additional details and other frequently asked questions.

Where is Marketing Cloud Next consent data stored?

Consent is stored in Data Cloud in the Communication Subscription Consent (CSC) Data Model Object (DMO). 

What are the supported methods for creating or updating consent?

Use one of these supported methods. Each one updates consent correctly so that it is honored at send time:

1) Manually

• Bulk import of consent data (CSV, up to 50,000 rows per file) — best for one-time loads

• Manual updates in the Consent Status component on individual records. 

2) End user updates

• Unsubscribe URLs in emails.

• Preference Page submissions

• Opt outs from SMS/WhatsApp.

• Landing Page form submissions, when paired with an Automation Event-Triggered Flow and Consent Request action

3) Specific Flow actions

• Consent Request Action (also labeled Create Consent) in Automation Event-Triggered Flows (includes Form-Triggered Flows) or On-Demand Flow

• Create Consent Action in Data-Cloud Triggered Flows

Which methods are NOT supported (and can cause stale consent)?

Avoid these methods. They can result in consent values that are not honored correctly at send time:

• Data Stream mapped directly to the Consent Data Lake Object (DLO)

• Data Cloud Bulk Ingestion API writing directly to the Consent DMO

• Data Cloud Batch Data Transforms to update a DLO that is mapped to the Communication Subscription Consent DMO.

• The legacy MessagingConsent.MessagingConsent and MessagingConsentV2.MessagingConsent flow actions (they write directly to the DLO)

If you use any above methods to update consent:

• Consent may not be respected correctly during messaging sends even though it appears that updates were saved in the Communication Subscription Consent DMO.

  • In some cases, this means that an email may not be sent even though an email address appears opted in. 

  • In other cases, this may mean that an email may be sent inadvertently, even though the email address appears opted out.

• The consent in the Communication Subscription Consent DMO may not align the consent showing on individual records in the Consent Status component.

• Re-issue the consent change through a supported method — most commonly a Data Cloud-Triggered Flow that calls the Create Consent action.

• You could incur additional Data Cloud Data Services Credits charges due to incorrectly mapped fields. 

I see a "Messaging Consent" / "MessagingConsent V2" action in Flow Builder. Should I use it?

No. These legacy actions are not supported for consent in Marketing Cloud Next and should not be used. Use the Create Consent/Consent Request action instead. If you need to create or update consent based on a CRM record change, use an Automation Event-Triggered Flow with the "Prospect, Lead, Contact or Related Record Change" event type from the Event Library.

Where is the Create Consent/Consent Request action available?

Currently available only in the following flow types:

• Data Cloud-Triggered Flows

• Automation Event-Triggered Flows

• On-Demand Flows

For a Lead/Contact create-or-update use case, use an Automation Event-Triggered Flow with the "Prospect, Lead, Contact or Related Record Change" event. Support for future flows types is being considered on the roadmap.

How can I access and update Communication Subscription Consent via Flows?

Use the Create Consent/Consent Request action in a Data Cloud-Triggered Flow, On-Demand Flow, or Automation Event-Triggered Flow (with the "Prospect, Lead, Contact or Related Record Change" or "Form Submission" events). See: Create Consent Marketing Flow Element

Is there a limit to the number of Communication Subscriptions per org?

No, there is no limit to the number of Communication Subscriptions for Marketing Cloud Next.

Can an external system connected to Data Cloud pass consent records directly into the Consent DMO?

Writing directly into the Consent DMO from an external system is not a supported path. Route consent writes through a supported method (see above) so that consent is honored at send time.

Can I keep using custom consent checkbox fields on Contact/Lead instead of the standard model?

For commercial sends, Marketing Cloud Next requires consent expressed through the Communication Subscription Consent model; there is no supported path to drive sends from custom flag fields. Custom flags can feed the standard model via Flows, but they do not replace it.