When third-party identifiers are blocked or restricted, some ads functionality is impacted. As a result:
- Users may experience the same ad repeatedly.
- Advertisers may not be able to deliver personalized ads.
- Some advertisers may decide to exclude certain media altogether.
- Publishers may earn less revenue.
When third-party cookies (on web) or device identifiers (on apps) are not available, Ad Manager uses identifiers that are confined to a publisher’s own sites or apps as a fallback. These "Publisher first-party IDs", when present, are used for ad delivery functionality, such as frequency-capping in reservation campaigns. The identifiers may also be used on behalf of the publisher to support buyer frequency capping and ads personalization on programmatic traffic.
On web, cookies named _gads
and _gpi
are first-party cookies set on the publisher’s domain. These cookies are used by Ad Manager on behalf of the publisher to support:
- Programmatic buyers frequency capping and ads personalization
- Reservation frequency capping
On apps, “SDK instance ID” and “publisher first-party ID” are used to support:
- Programmatic buyers frequency capping and ads personalization
- Reservation frequency capping
To read more about Publisher first-party IDs, visit privacy strategies for iOS or Android.
Report on Publisher first-party IDs
In Reporting, the “First-party ID status” dimension in Ad Manager reporting indicates whether a first-party user identifier was present on a given ad-request. This dimension only reports values based on Publisher first-party IDs and does not include PPID.
Possible values include:
- Active: A user identifier was present and active.
- Restricted: A user identifier was present in the ad request but personalization was not allowed.
- Missing: A user identifier wasn't present.
In your Identity insights card, you can understand the impact of third-party cookie deprecation or the diminishing availability of device IDs alongside the introduction of first-party identifiers broken down by dimensions such as OS, browser category, device category and continent.
You can select what shows on the card to review:
- Ad request coverage broken down by personalization statuses.
- Impression or revenue coverage broken down by ID types.
Disable application of first-party identifiers
By default, using first-party identifiers is enabled for both frequency capping and ads personalization.
You can disable the application of first-party identifiers. Disabling the identifiers makes them unavailable to Google Ad Manager for reservation and programmatic features. Alternatively, you can restrict the use of first-party identifiers without fully disabling them.
For first-party IDs for ads on web, to disable or modify the application:
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin, then Global settings.
The “Network Settings” tab is selected by default. - Under “Ad preference settings,” next to “First-party cookies for ads on web,” choose an option:
- To restrict the use of first-party cookies without disabling for all uses, select Enable first-party cookies for non-personalized use cases such as frequency capping.
Note: This option is viewable when “First-party cookies for ads on web” is enabled. - To disable first-party cookies for ads, turn off the switch .
- To restrict the use of first-party cookies without disabling for all uses, select Enable first-party cookies for non-personalized use cases such as frequency capping.
- Click Save.
For first-party IDs for ads on app, to disable or modify the application:
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin, then Global settings.
The “Network settings” tab is selected by default. - Under “Ad preference settings,” next to “First-party identifiers for ads on apps,” choose an option:
- To restrict the use of first-party identifiers on apps without disabling all uses, select Enable first-party identifiers for non-personalized use cases such as frequency capping.
Note: This option is viewable when “First-party identifiers for ads on apps” is enabled.
- To disable first-party identifiers for ads on apps, turn off the switch .
- To restrict the use of first-party identifiers on apps without disabling all uses, select Enable first-party identifiers for non-personalized use cases such as frequency capping.
- Click Save.
Enable publisher provided identifiers on programmatic
Publisher provided identifiers (PPID) are identifiers sent directly on the ad request by some Ad Manager 360 publishers. The application of PPIDs for programmatic frequency capping and ads personalization can also be enabled. To learn more, visit About publisher provided identifiers.