These release notes are archives provided for your convenience only. The notes might not reflect current product functionality. For the latest releases, see what's new in Ad Manager.
Q4 2021
December 13 Review inline opportunities and experiments, try Data Studio Templates, and indicate purchased trafficReport and optimize
Inline opportunities and experiments
You can now find opportunities and experiments alongside the relevant pricing rule. Review the inline opportunities for ways to improve revenue. Apply the experiments to portions of your traffic before making greater changes. To view in Ad Manager, click Inventory
Pricing Rules, and look for "Opportunity" or "Experiment."
Data Studio Templates
We’ve added new Data Studio Templates to Ad Manager that allow you to open a Data Studio dashboard using data from your Ad Manager network. To find the templates in Ad Manager, click Reporting
Traffic source (Beta)
Publishers can now indicate purchased traffic on an ad request, and report on whether traffic is purchased or organic using the new "Traffic source" dimension.
Pricing Rules, and look for "Opportunity" or "Experiment."Other product or Help Center updates
Apache Log4j 2 vulnerability
On December 10, 2021, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced a vulnerability in the Apache Log4j library. The Apache Log4j utility is a commonly used component for logging requests. This vulnerability could allow a system running Apache Log4j version 2.14.1 or below to be compromised and allow arbitrary code to be executed.
Like many other companies, we’re following this vulnerability closely. Our security teams are investigating any potential impact on Google products and services and are focused on protecting our users and customers.
Google Ad Manager is not using versions of Log4j affected by the vulnerability.
Posted by Stan Grinberg, Director, Ads Developer Relations
Dec 16, 2021
Manage inventory
PPID for programmatic
We’ve launched the option to enable publisher provided identifiers (PPID) for programmatic demand from Google. This allows you to leverage first-party identifiers when Ad Manager third-party cookies or device IDs aren't available, potentially increasing programmatic revenue on this traffic.
MCM child publishers can now use their own Ad Exchange account instead of Linked Accounts
As of November 15, 2021, MCM Manage Account child publishers can enable Ad Exchange for their own Ad Manager account. Since Linked Accounts aren’t supported in MCM, this self-service setup option complements options previously offered to parent partners to help migrate their child publishers’ inventory to MCM.
Open Bidding is now available for more networks (Beta)
Previously available only to Google Ad Manager 360, Open Bidding is now in beta for more Ad Manager networks. Onboard online with bidders to obtain direct access to their bid requests.
Other product or Help Center updates
Apply for the 2021 Black & Latinx Publishers Summit
The 2021 Black & Latinx Publishers Summit begins December 7, 2021. This virtual event is open to Black- or Latinx-led digital businesses looking to start monetizing their site, grow their monetization business, or network with others in the industry. The event is catered to small- and medium-sized businesses. Fill out the interest form by November 12th, 2021, and share this opportunity with other Black- or Latinx-led digital business owners who may be interested.
Traffic and deliver ads
App and buyer visibility in publisher profiles
We made several improvements to publisher profiles:
- You can now add apps to child publisher profiles, which previously could only contain domains. This improves app inventory discoverability. To add apps, click Sales
- When previewing a publisher profile, you can now see similar 7-day impression estimates that buyers see in the Marketplace. From the Publisher profiles tab, click the name of a profile to see its settings. Click Preview, and the new “Overview” tab appears by default.
- You can now unpublish parent profiles, which provides more control over your network’s appearance in the buyer marketplace. Previously, you could only unpublish child profiles. From the Publisher profiles tab, update the toggle in the “Status” column to Unpublished.
Report and optimize
Inline opportunities and experiments (Beta)
You can now access opportunities and experiments alongside the relevant pricing rule. Review inline opportunities for ways to improve revenue. Apply the experiments to portions of your traffic before making greater changes. To view in Ad Manager, click Inventory
Minimum Bid To Win file for Data Transfer (Beta)
With the new Minimum Bid to Win Data Transfer file, you can now report on the minimum bid buyers would have needed to win an auction.
Other product or Help Center updates
Updated policies on climate change content
We updated our ads and monetization policies on content related to climate change. This update will help ensure a brand-safe environment for our advertising partners and better protect users from unreliable claims. Learn more about this change.
Share your feedback to improve the GPT experience
We’re still accepting responses to the annual Google Publisher Tag developer survey. The feedback you provide will directly impact new guides we write and what tools we build. If you haven’t shared yet, please do so or share this survey with your developers.
The setCookieOptions setting is being deprecated
The setCookieOptions setting, which provides options for ignoring Google Ad Manager cookies on the current page, will be deprecated no sooner than January 10th, 2022. If you would like to prevent cookies from being created on the page, please utilize Limited ads, which is the current best practice.
Changes to how we handle German ad requests and
PurposeOneTreatmentStarting December 2021, we will no longer check for
PurposeOneTreatmenttreatment on TCF ad requests that originate in Germany in accordance with the German Telecommunications and Telemedia Data Protection Act.
Manage network settings
Use the Ad Manager UI to activate audience segments from a DMP (Beta)
You can use the Ad Manager UI to enable data management platforms (DMPs) to push their audience segments into Ad Manager. These segments will be available for targeting, forecasting, and reporting, just like any other first-party segment. The segments also behave and are billed in the same way as any other first-party segment.
Troubleshoot
Gain app insights with Ad inspector (Beta)
With the Ad inspector beta, you can review your app ad serving to check if ads are filled as expected, identify errors, and view the mediation waterfall details. You can also test the setup of a single third-party yield partner to ensure their ads serve as expected.
New troubleshooting tool
Line Item Eligibility tool is now available for video line items.
Report and optimize
Report on AdX mediation passback counts
Reporting now supports AdX mediation passback counts for the Ad Exchange and Open Bidding Demand Channels in the Historical report type. This impacts the Mediation passbacks and Mediation fill rate metrics.
Other product or Help Center updates
Help improve the GPT experience
Share your thoughts in our annual Google Publisher Tag developer survey to better your experience. The feedback you provide will directly impact what we work on over the next year. This includes writing new guides and building tools, like the Publisher Ads Audits for Lighthouse and Google Publisher Console.
Q3 2021
September 20 Pause/resume a programmatic proposal line item, Updated Data Transfer fields, Send non-personalized ad requests to third-party RTB buyersTraffic and deliver ads
Pause/resume a programmatic proposal line item
You can now pause or resume a single proposal line item without pausing/resuming the other proposal line items in a proposal. When you pause a proposal line item, the underlying line item is paused and delivery is stopped. This allows you to be more precise with deal pausing, allowing other line items to continue to deliver against agreed upon guarantees.
Report and optimize
Updated Data Transfer fields
We're making changes to Data Transfer to more accurately attribute Backfill events to Line Items. In Backfill Data Transfer files, the following fields will be updated: LineItemId, OrderId, AdvertiserId, CreativeId, CreativeSize, and CreativeVersion. After this change, these fields will have a value = “0” for rows related to unfilled ad requests and ad requests with no impression attributed to a line item.
Other product or Help Center updates
Send non-personalized ad requests to third-party RTB buyers
Beginning on October 21, 2021, Google will begin sending bid requests for non-personalized and restricted data processing ad requests to third-party RTB bidders.
Other product or Help Center updates
REMINDER: TCF requirement to reobtain consent every 13 months
You are required by IAB TCF policy to remind users about their consent choices at least once every 13 months. If the consent decision is more than 13 months old, the TC string will no longer be considered valid by Google and Google will not serve ads to that user. We suggest that you work with your CMP to remind users about their consent choices before the 13-month limit is reached.
Troubleshoot
Additional auction details available in ad inspector
We’ve added more tools in the delivery inspector to help you troubleshoot ad delivery. The new “Auction Details” tab shows pricing rules and protections applied to the ad request, and any programmatic delivery channels that were eligible to serve.
Report and optimize
Auto-pause experiments (Beta)
Experiments now include auto-pause, which acts as a safeguard to limit cost and risk. Underperforming experiments will automatically pause when certain thresholds are met. You can set the conditions that tell an experiment when to pause. Learn how to set auto-pause for an experiment.
Other product or Help Center updates
Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) support
Google is committed to supporting our publisher partners with their Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) compliance approach. We recommend that you work with your legal advisors to determine whether AADC is applicable to your business and, if so, how to comply. As part of your compliance approach, if you would like to apply child treatment (as defined under the GDPR) to applicable traffic, you may make use of our “Tag for users under the age of consent (TFUA)” feature.
Manage inventory
“Ad Exchange rules” renamed to “Inventory rules”
To better align with current product terminology, we renamed “Ad Exchange rules” to “Inventory rules.” The functionality of new and existing rules will remain unchanged.
Audience Explorer (Beta)
The new audience explorer tab for Ad Manager 360 will help you better understand, manage, and leverage your first-party audience segments by exposing additional segment details. These details can help you reach audiences more precisely to maximize yield.
Traffic and deliver ads
Serve ad requests in new regions
You can now send bid requests to Open Bidding demand partners in new regions. Creatives are reviewed with strict, country-specific policies for these countries, and blank creatives are not allowed to serve in these regions.
Line item creative association bulk edit
You can now bulk edit certain line item creative association fields, including start/end times, clickthrough URLs, and third-party tracking URLs. You can also set creative attributes in bulk and set the start/end times of creatives from the bulk upload workflow.
Troubleshoot
Improvements to the Publisher Console
We have made several updates to the Publisher Console so that you can better understand your ad delivery or failure. This includes providing the line item ID, creative ID, and div ID. You can also click an ad slot in the Publisher Console and inspect the creative in Ad Manager.
Publisher Console now supports MCM
The Publisher Console now supports Multiple Customer Management ad slots with both parent and child network codes.
Other product or Help Center updates
Manage user messages and regulation settings on your Privacy & messaging page
You can now use our integrated Privacy & messaging tool to manage privacy choices and monetize your content. Create and manage the messages you use to obtain consent or opt-out requests, as required by regulations like the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
To access your Privacy & messaging page, sign in to your Ad Manager account and click Privacy & messaging in the sidebar. On the Privacy & messaging page, you can manage the settings and messages related to GDPR, CCPA, and IDFA. These settings were previously located on the EU user consent and CCPA settings pages.
Traffic and deliver ads
Browser targeting in unified pricing rules
You can now target by browser in unified pricing rules. This provides even more granularity and flexibility when selecting which programmatic demand to apply to a certain target CPM or floor price.
Report and optimize
Expanded reporting for Programmatic deal ID and Programmatic deal name dimensions
Programmatic deal ID (previously Deal ID) and Programmatic deal name (previously Deal name) are now compatible with core dimensions and metrics.
Other product or Help Center updates
Update to Google Ad Manager Partner Guidelines: Encrypted signals from publishers
In July 2021, the Google Ad Manager Partner Guidelines were updated with guidance for the new encrypted signals from publishers feature (currently in beta, not yet available to all users), including requirements for use of the encrypted signals from publishers feature and related policies to which that use must adhere. Review the updated change log.
Traffic and deliver ads
Traffic Multiplex ads (Beta)
Multiplex ads offer a brand-safe way to serve content recommendation-style native ads from the Open Auction through Ad Manager. These web-only ads often appear as a grid, but the layout and style can be customized to fit your website.
Report and optimize
Real-time video reporting (Beta)
Advanced video publishers can now report on video data in real time to quickly find and fix problematic video creatives and inventory, test and determine optimal setups, and validate live traffic to avoid lost ad opportunities. Real-time video reporting data shows ad requests, impressions, unfilled requests, VAST errors, and creatives served through your Ad Manager network, including those linked Ad Exchange web properties.
Q2 2021
June 28 Dimension name change in Ad Manager Historical ReportingReport and optimize
Dimension name change in Ad Manager Historical Reporting
On June 28, the “Deal ID” and “Deal name” dimensions will be renamed “Programmatic deal ID” and “Programmatic deal name.” The “Deal ID” filter will also be renamed “Programmatic deal ID”. These changes will occur automatically in Ad Manager, and no action is required from partners.
Report and optimize
Link your Google Analytics 4 properties to Ad Manager to see integrated app data (Beta)
You can now link your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) properties to your Ad Manager network with Firebase using the Admin settings in Ad Manager. Publishers must first add the Firebase SDK to their apps in order to link their GA4 property to their Ad Manager network.
Use the new Analytics report to help you understand more about app user engagement across your Ad Manager network.
The Ads Status Dashboard has migrated to a new version
The Ads Status Dashboard (ASD) is now deprecated as we launch a new version of ASD. We’re adding a new status icon to indicate product or service notification updates, transitioning from RSS 2.0 to atom feeds, and all timestamps will now be shown in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Learn more about monitoring product status with the new ASD.
Manage inventory
Traffic forecasts supported for cross-sell networks
Traffic forecasting numbers now include traffic from a cross-sell network’s partner site. For example, youtube.com traffic is included. This allows forecasts to consider a more complete picture of your overall traffic.
Traffic and deliver ads
Enable all ad sizes for Ad Exchange line items
You can now easily allow all requested ad sizes for Ad Exchange line items. With the growth of multi-size requests and increased inventory from full-screen formats and native, this option provides a simple way to optimize demand and revenue. To get started, from the “Expected creatives” section of Ad Exchange line item settings, enable the All requested sizes slider. This is now available in both Google Ad Manager 360 and Google Ad Manager.
Fill more impressions with mobile fallback ads
Activating mobile fallback ads will maximize the likelihood of filling an impression opportunity. With fallback, Ad Manager will determine the eligibility of ads served through line items, rank them accordingly, and return a slate of ads, rather than just one.
Other product or Help Center updates
Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) testing has begun
Chrome's Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) public origin trial has begun. Ad Manager has started sending FLoC IDs on ad requests for a small percentage of traffic. This initial test will validate that our systems are operating as designed. There is no publisher revenue or performance impact expected. If you would like to opt out of Chrome's origin trial, set
Permissions-Policy: interest-cohort=()in the HTTP response header during the origin trial.
- Next step: Once Chrome begins adding more traffic to the test, the amount of ad requests that include FLoC IDs will increase.
Report and optimize
Run Manual experiments
Experiments help you understand how proposed changes may impact your network. In addition to experiments created from opportunities, you can now define manual experiments based on your own criteria and schedule. To find manual experiments in Ad Manager, click Reporting
Use opportunities for Target CPM (tCPM) (Beta)
Publishers now receive opportunities for Target CPM (tCPM) pricing on their inventory on a per-rule basis. You can choose to apply the opportunity or run an experiment to test its impact.
Learn more about opportunities for tCPM.
Traffic and deliver ads
Bulk Ad unit mappings now available
You can now upload multiple Ad unit mappings with a CSV file. This provides a way for you to connect multiple ad units to an ad network’s specific values, such as ad format and environment.
Funding choices is moving to Ad Manager starting June 1st
Your GDPR messages and settings from Funding Choices are moving to the new Ad Manager Privacy & messaging page. We’re merging the vendors you previously selected in Funding Choices EU consent messages with your ad tech providers from the Ad Manager EU user consent page. New users will see the combined list in all your GDPR messages. Review your vendors and ad tech providers before June 1st in Funding Choices and Ad Manager to make any needed adjustments.
Report and optimize
New counting method for Mobile app direct-sold impressions
Starting this month, Mobile app direct-sold impressions begin counting when one or more pixels of the ad creative is visible on a device's screen. Learn about changes to mobile app impression counting.
Other product or Help Center updates
Update to allowed countries for alcohol and gambling promotion
Google Ad Manager Publishers in alcohol promotion allowed countries and gambling promotion allowed countries can now opt in to receiving alcohol and gambling ads.
There were no release notes for April 19, 2021.
Report and optimize
Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred Deals have moved to net revenue in reporting
Ad Manager reporting previously displayed revenue data for Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred Deals as gross revenue. As of April 1, 2021, net revenue is now being used instead of gross, bringing Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred Deals into alignment with all other transaction types.
The following metrics have switched to reporting net revenue in Ad Manager reports:
- Total CPM and CPC revenue
- Total CPM, CPC, CPD, and vCPM revenue
- Total average eCPM
- Ad server CPD revenue
- Ad server CPM and CPC revenue
- Ad server CPM, CPC, CPD, and vCPM revenue
- Other revenue-related metrics when Programmatic Guaranteed or Preferred Deals data is included
Net revenue will now be displayed in all reports that include these metrics and a date range beginning on or after April 1, 2021. To facilitate historical data comparisons, temporary gross metrics have been introduced in Ad Manager reporting.
Other product or Help Center updates
SupplyChain Object is now supported
We now support SupplyChain Object, an IAB transparency standard. The SupplyChain Object gives transparency into the origins and paths of ad inventory. No action from you is required at this time.
Q1 2021
March 22 Traffic anchor ads on mobile web, limited ads now generally available, validate native ads for policy, Programmatic proposal notification, new output to the MobileCarrier fieldTraffic and deliver ads
Traffic anchor ads on mobile web (Beta)
You can traffic anchor ads that appear at the top or bottom of your tablet and mobile web pages, remaining in view as the user scrolls. Anchor ads allow you to improve the monetization of your mobile web pages, using a high-performing, mobile-first format that is compliant with the Better Ads Standards. Users can collapse an anchor ad at any time by clicking the arrow.
Limited ads are now generally available for apps
Limited ads give publishers the ability to serve ads in a limited way in the absence of consent for the use of cookies or other local identifiers. Limited ads for apps in Ad Manager and AdMob are now generally available.
Validate native ads for policy compliance
You can determine if a native ad implementation complies with Ad Manager policies before publishing or updating an app. This applies to native app ads that are delivered using app code.
Troubleshoot
Programmatic proposal push error notification
When Ad Manager is unable to reserve inventory or can’t create/update corresponding line items for a programmatic proposal, you’ll now be notified. There will be an Ad Manager notification, and you may also receive an email. Read the notification details for suggested actions to resolve the issue.
Report and optimize
New output to the
MobileCarrierfield in Data Transfer reportsData Transfer events with a Mobile Carrier Targeting Criteria of “Wifi” will begin to populate. Previously, this value was not reported.
Other product or Help Center updates
Additions to the ad technology providers for LGPD list
On March 18, 2021, the following newly certified Ad Technology Providers (ATPs) became available for use with the LGPD: Ad Sales, Biddeo, Smile Wanted, Graphyte Ltd, TypeA Holdings Ltd., PebblePost, Inc.
Report and optimize
Bid reporting is now available (Beta)
To better understand bid landscapes and the sources of winning and losing bids, users can find new Metrics and Dimensions in the Historical Report Type in Reporting. Bid data reporting also supports reporting on RTB consent checking, so partners can determine when a bid was filtered due to an unconsented or an unidentified vendor.
Other product or Help Center updates
Additions to the ad technology providers for LGPD list
On March 18, 2021, the following newly certified Ad Technology Providers (ATPs) will be available for use with the LGPD: Ad Sales, Biddeo, Smile Wanted, Graphyte Ltd, TypeA Holdings Ltd., PebblePost, Inc.
Manage inventory
Deactivate and reactivate creatives (Beta)
Ad Manager Small Business publishers can now deactivate and reactivate creatives. Deactivated creatives will continue to count towards the Total Creatives system limit. Deactivated creatives provide assurance that the creative will no longer serve.
Other product or Help Center updates
Check RTB creatives for user consent
Ad Manager, AdSense, and AdMob have released an additional GDPR/LGPD compliance feature that will enable you to opt-in to allow Google to check RTB (real-time-bidding) creatives for user consent. The “Check RTB (real-time bidding) partner creatives for user consent” option will appear on the EU user consent page and apply to both GDPR- and LGPD-eligible traffic.
Additions to the ad technology providers for LGPD list
The following newly certified Ad Technology Providers (ATPs) are available for use with the LGPD: AdGear Technologies Inc., Axonix Limited, Cazamba Serviços de Internet Ltda, Digitalist Finland Oy, Hueads, Inc., Intango Ltd., internetstores GmbH, Melvad, Smart Digital LLC, Unmatched Solutions Limited.
There were no release notes for February 8, 2021.
Manage inventory
Manage child publisher accounts with MCM
This week, Multiple Customer Management (MCM) Manage Account delegation type will be generally available. Parent publishers can manage one or more child publisher accounts to help with ad strategy, setup, optimization, maintenance, and more.
Traffic and deliver ads
Improvements to Ad Manager Video Solutions
In our continuous effort to make video as intuitive and efficient as possible, several small but meaningful changes have been made to the user interface, including:
- Video position targeting setting is now cleared when a line item type is changed
- Creative-level targeting is now prevented for bumper line items
- Confirmation is now required to change the status of a live stream
- CDN configurations are now clickable in live stream settings
- CMS metadata is now included in a line item export
- Search by channel name is now supported for video content metadata
Manage network settings
Audience segment sharing with linked Ad Exchange accounts is no longer necessary
Your first-party audience segments are now available by default to use with your primary Ad Exchange account. This means the audience sharing settings are no longer necessary.
Other product or Help Center updates
TCF v2.0 error grace period has ended
The grace period provided to give publishers time to manage errors and misconfigurations related to the launch of IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework v2.0 has ended. You can still troubleshoot TCF v2.0 errors using your error report and the error tables in the help center.
Limited ads are now generally available
Limited ads give publishers the ability to serve ads in a limited way in the absence of consent for the use of cookies or other local identifiers. Limited ads for Ad Manager are now generally available.
Additions to the ad technology providers for LGPD list
On February 22, 2021, the following newly certified Ad Technology Providers (ATPs) are available for use with the LGPD: AdGear Technologies Inc., Axonix Limited, Cazamba Serviços de Internet Ltda, Digitalist Finland Oy, Hueads, Inc., Intango Ltd., internetstores GmbH, Melvad, Smart Digital LLC, Unmatched Solutions Limited.
Manage inventory
Use “code path” instead of “name path” when entering inventory targeting text
When you add targeting to line items, you can paste lists of ad units or placements you want to include or exclude. Now, you should use the code path for the ad units or placements instead of the name path when you enter the inventory targeting text. This improves the workflow because the code path contains the names of inventory units publishers see in the UI, whereas the name path is not shown.
Traffic and deliver ads
Rewarded for Open Bidding is now generally available
You can now traffic rewarded ads with Open Bidding partners. Rewarded ads increase publisher monetization opportunities and maximize the value of content.
Updated process to troubleshoot why a line item didn’t deliver
When you inspect webpage ad delivery from the Delivery tools interface, you now have the option to troubleshoot an individual line item. In addition to the "Webpage" field, you'll see a new field labeled "Line item to troubleshoot." Enter the name of a line item to see more details, including a new "Non-delivery cause" column. In the “Action” column, click Inspect to see more information about the non-delivery reason for the requested line item. This improvement eliminates the need to navigate through multiple steps and pages in order to see why a line item was unable to serve.
Report and optimize
Newly accredited metrics
The following Ad Manager report metrics are accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC) for Display, Video, and Rich Media creatives within Desktop, Mobile Web and Mobile application environments and marked with
in Ad Manager and any exported reports:
- Ad server Tracked Ads
- Ad server unfiltered tracked ads
- Ad Server Begin to Render Impressions
- Ad Server Unfiltered Begin to Render Impressions
These metrics have been added to the description of methodology. The Ad server impressions metric is no longer accredited and has been removed.
in Ad Manager and any exported reports:Other product or Help Center updates
Additions to the ad technology providers for LGPD list
On January 14, 2021, the following newly certified Ad Technology Providers (ATPs) are available for use with the LGPD: 42 Ads GmbH, LIDL SUPERMERCADOS, S.A.U., LINE株式会社, Novi Limited, PixFuture Media Inc., Third Set Productions dba AdPlugg.
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