Troubleshoot GPT

Problem: you're unsure if Google Publisher Tag will work

If you are new to Google Ad Manager, and unsure of how GPT works, you may want to test it a tag on your website.

Solution: create a test page

Before deploying new ad tags to a live website, you create a test page to check their functionality.

Creating a test page before deployment allows you to isolate the tags and confirm that they have been implemented properly, independent of the other elements on your website.

Read the GPT developer docs

Problem: undisplayed ads in Single Request Architecture (SRA)

When using GPT in Single Request Architecture, a common pitfall is to define more ad slots on your page than are actually displayed.

• The following warning appears in the Google Publisher Console:

  [ad slot name] : googletag.defineSlot was called without a matching display call

• Omitting a display call prevents an ad from serving, causing you to miss an opportunity to serve impressions and earn revenue.

• Since Ad Manager only accepts a maximum of 30 slots per SRA request, any slots that you define but not display may put you over this limit, causing additional ad slots to remain unfilled.

How to troubleshoot

Using the Google Publisher Console, inspect your pages and ensure there are no warnings of the following form on the "Page Request" tab of the console:

Correct implementations display "Page tagged correctly!" instead.

If you find such warnings, determine whether a display() call was actually missing and add it if necessary, or remove the defineSlot() call for the unused ad slot.

In general, if you only call display() on an ad slot under certain conditions, make sure to only call defineSlot in the same cases where you are also using display(). For example, if you have a responsive site, ensure that all the different layouts of your site remain consistent when declaring and displaying ad slots.

Problem: you use an older or locally saved version of GPT

You should not serve cached versions of gpt.js or pubads_impl_XX.js from your own server.

A locally saved version of the JavaScript may not always work in newer versions of browsers or operating systems and may not be updated with new features and improvements. Older versions of the GPT library can be discontinued at any time and may lead to loss of ad revenue if ads stop serving to your tags.

Solution: use the latest version of GPT's API

You should only depend on the published GPT API, and not on any internal implementation details of the tag. GPT's JavaScript implementation and the DOM manipulations used in ad rendering can change as we launch new features with our tags, so if you are dependent on the exact details you may experience unexpected behaviors on your site.

Please see the detailed implementation instructions in the Google Publisher Tag API reference guide.