How to Write Cookie Banner Copy That Names the Cookies

Anyone shipping a site with a consent tool can write cookie banner copy in 10 minutes: name analytics, ads, and essential cookies, with Accept, Reject, and Manage all visible. Run it in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini before "We value your privacy" trains people to hit the only bright button.

Cookie banner copy is a label for a switch, not a slogan. If the banner sells trust, you wrote a hero.

Do not write this banner like empty-state copy when the table is empty. An empty table is zero rows and one next action. This screen is a consent choice. Do not write it like a pricing toggle label people do not misread. A pricing toggle names a period. This banner names cookie categories. Save the five-line shape as a skill prompt you can rerun.

Write cookie banner copy that names the cookies

1. Paste the real categories. Do not draft a hero

Instruct ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini: "Do not draft a privacy hero. Name the cookie categories I paste: essential, analytics, ads, or the real names from the consent tool. If I did not paste categories, write UNKNOWN and stop. No we value your privacy. No we care."

Paste the CMP list. "Cookies" is not a category. "Analytics" is. "Ads" is. "Essential" is.

Banned: we value your privacy as the headline, we care about your data, to give you the best experience, by continuing you agree.

If a category is not on the site, write UNKNOWN. Do not invent it.

2. Headline that names the categories, not a value

Send the list back. Instruct: "Headline, twelve words or fewer: we use [named categories] cookies. Do not pun. Do not open on privacy as a feeling."

Good: "We use essential, analytics, and ads cookies." Bad: "Your privacy matters to us." Matters is a landing hero.

If you only use essential cookies, say only essential. Do not keep analytics because a template had it.

3. One sentence that says what the named cookies do

Instruct: "One sentence. What the non-essential cookies do, in nouns I pasted: page counts, ad measurement, remember login. If I named no purpose, write UNKNOWN. Do not invent a benefit. Do not say personalize your journey."

Good: "Analytics counts page views. Ads measure campaigns. Essential keeps you signed in." Bad: "We use cookies to tailor a magical experience just for you." Magical is a brochure.

4. Force five lines, including three honest actions, then stop the model

Hard cap: five lines labeled Headline, Sentence, Accept, Reject, Manage.

Tell the model: "Headline names the cookies. Sentence is the purpose. Accept is Accept all. Reject is Reject non-essential. Manage is Manage cookies. Reject sits next to Accept, not inside Manage. If a banned phrase appears, rewrite. Do not add a slogan."

ChatGPT will write "We value your privacy." Claude will hedge "you may wish to manage." Gemini will hide Reject inside Manage. Cut all three.

Reject must be as easy to hit as Accept. Same size. Same row. A grey link under a green Accept is a trap.

5. One human pass on a cold load

Open a private window. Load the real site. Read the five lines out loud before you click anything.

Check three traps:

• A headline that could sit on a landing hero
• A Reject that exists only after Manage, or a category the CMP does not have
• An Accept that is the only readable button

Fix the words yourself. Then tell the model: "Replace only the lines I changed. Do not add a slogan."

One pass. Paste into the CMP. Ship. If Accept all is the only bright control, you never named a choice. Stop.

Reusable skill card

Trigger: You are drafting the cookie banner and the first line still says we value your privacy, we care, or by continuing you agree.

Input: The real cookie categories from the consent tool, one true purpose per non-essential category, plus the banned-phrase list.

Output: Headline that names the cookies, one sentence of purposes, Accept all, Reject non-essential, Manage cookies. UNKNOWN where a category is missing.

Stop: After one read-aloud on a cold load. No Reject hiding in Manage. No invented analytics. No privacy hero as the headline.

Takeaways

• Name the cookies. Accept, Reject, Manage. Then ship.
• We value your privacy is a hero. A banner is a category list. Do not merge them.
• UNKNOWN beats a guessed ads line. Paste the CMP list.
• Reject sits next to Accept. A grey link is not a choice.