In this article, we’ll review what types of issues affect ad serving and what the ad serving statuses mean in the Policy center.
Issues that affect ad serving
If your site has an issue that affects ad serving, it means that your site either violates our Program policies, is restricted by the Google Publisher Restrictions, or has Confirmed Click on. This includes cases when the ad requests are coming from your pages that you've embedded into the sites with issues.
There are 4 types of issues: policy violations, publisher restrictions, Confirmed Click, and consent requirement. Only policy violations are required to be fixed. You don’t have to fix publisher restrictions, but note that ad serving will continue to be restricted on your site. We recommend that you act on Confirmed Click and consent requirement issues as they may impact your revenue.
You may also receive a warning before action is taken on your ad serving. Review the table below for more information about the issue types.
Your site is not currently in compliance with the Program policies .
When this occurs, you need to make changes to your site to bring it into compliance with our policies.
Policy violations are marked Must fixin the status column.
Policy violations are enforced with either Disabled ad servingor Restricted ad serving.
- Sexually explicit content
- Dangerous or derogatory content
- Layout encourages clicks
Your site falls under the Google Publisher Restrictions .
While you can choose to monetize this type of content, you will likely receive reduced advertising as not all ad sources want to bid on it.
- Sexual content
- Shocking content
- Online gambling content
Some policy violations and publisher restrictions have a warning period before action is taken on your ad serving.
If you receive a warning, it means that your site is not currently in compliance with the Program policies or contains content that falls under the Google Publisher Restrictions .
To resolve this, you need to make changes to your site to bring it into compliance.
If you don't make changes, further actions may be taken on your site or account.
- Ads & Content Overlap
Google Ads has determined that certain ads on your site are generating unintended clicks. This creates a poor user experience because the user ends up on advertiser landing pages instead of their intended content.
Google Ads has added Confirmed Click on its affected ads. Confirmed Click adds a second click that improves the user experience by letting the user confirm their intent to visit the advertised page.
- Ads close to navigational elements
- Navigational elements overlaid on display ads
- Buttons on top of or close to ads
- Site content on top of or close to ads
- Reflow of site content causing confusion.
- Any violations of the ad placement policies
Consent requirement issues are:
- No CMP: Some ad requests on your inventory from the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland are missing a TCF string.
- CMP not certified: Some ad requests on your inventory from the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland are missing a TCF string from a certified CMP.
- Low coverage: A majority of ad requests on your inventory from the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland are missing a TCF string.
Understanding ad serving status
The status of your ad serving lets you know how your sites with issues are impacted. The table below explains the statuses and what they mean.
Review the issue description in the Policy center to determine the changes you need to make.
After you address the policy violations on your site, you may request a review to enable ad serving.
There are restrictions on the advertisers that can bid on your inventory.
Your site is likely to have little or no buyer demand because not all ad sources can bid.
Review the issue description in the Policy center to determine the changes you need to make, if any.
Reminder: Policy violations must be fixed, while publisher restrictions are optional to fix. Learn more about issue types.
Ad serving isn’t affected yet, but you’ll need to make changes to your site to ensure ad serving continues.
This is due to a warning on your site. Warnings typically include enforcement dates, when further action is taken and ad serving is affected.
Fix the issues before the enforcement date to prevent ad serving from being restricted or disabled.
Review the issue description in the Policy center to determine the changes you need to make.
Limited ad serving
This affects your AdSense account. Limited ad serving means Google has placed a limit on the number of ads your AdSense account can show.
Learn more about ad serving limits .
Make sure you understand your ad traffic and users. Never click on your own ads, and avoid partnering with untrusted or low-quality parties.
Learn more about preventing invalid activity .
Review your ad implementations. Learn more about disallowed implementations and recommended implementations .
Our system automatically applies Confirmed Click when it detects accidental clicks. Similarly, the system automatically lifts Confirmed Click when it no longer detects accidental clicks.
Some sites are not using a certified CMP to ask for user consent.
Sites that do not adopt a Google certified CMP will not be eligible for personalized ads. Sites using a certified CMP are eligible for personalized ads, non-personalized ads (NPA), and limited ads .No CMP:
- If you haven’t already, choose a certified CMP registered with the TCF.
- Implement your CMP solution.
Learn more about certified CMP options .
CMP not certified:
- If you have your own CMP, register for certification.
- If you use a third-party CMP that hasn’t been certified, encourage your CMP to register for certification. You can also see our list of certified CMPs .
Low coverage:
- You’ve implemented a CMP, but you haven’t implemented it correctly across all of your inventory.
- You have a CMP solution, but there’s an issue with the configuration or certification.
