Ep 12: Consent in 60 seconds

A reader in Berlin taps Reject all. Here’s what your ads hear.

A consent string is a coded record of what each visitor allowed.

In Europe, GDPR and e-Privacy rules usually require consent before cookies or personalized ads. Your CMP, or consent management platform, is the banner that asks. When she chooses, it writes her answers into a TC string, defined by the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework, or TCF. The string lists which purposes, like storing data on her device, and which ad companies she allowed. It travels with every ad request, and each SSP and DSP reads it first. She rejected all, so no personalized ads. Google can fall back to limited ads, and some buyers skip her. In the EEA, UK and Switzerland, Google requires a certified CMP for personalized ads.

Check that your CMP is on Google’s certified list and running TCF version two point three.

That’s AdTech one-oh-one. Next series, AdSense clinic, starting with RPM dropped overnight.