Google tightens Ad Consent Measures for Search Ads Partners

Google yesterday announced it will begin enforcing consent management requirements for its Search Ads publisher products, including AdSense for Search, AdSense for Domains, and Programmable Search Engine, on February 1, 2024.

This means all publishers using Search Ads publisher products will need to implement a certified consent management platform (CMP) that integrates with the IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) to serve ads to users in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom.

Previously, Google had announced that it would begin enforcing these requirements on January 16, 2024. However, the company has now announced that it will delay enforcement to February 1, 2024, to provide publishers with additional time to comply.

One of the new tools that Google is providing to publishers is an optional parameter that can be added to ad requests. This parameter, called “ivt,” allows publishers to indicate that they wish to allow ads that use an invalid traffic-only cookie and local storage on both consented and unconsented traffic. This can help to minimize the impact on publishers’ revenue if they are not able to comply with the new requirements.

However, publishers should be aware that implementing the “ivt” parameter may not be a long-term solution. Google reserves the right to disable this parameter in the future, and publishers may see a decrease in their EEA and UK revenue if they are not able to comply with the new requirements.

To comply with the new requirements, publishers should implement a Google-certified TCF CMP.

Enforcement of the new requirements will begin on February 1, 2024, with a small percentage of EEA and UK traffic. This will gradually ramp up until the requirements are enforced across all EEA and UK traffic by the end of February 2024.