Impressions and Page Views down after applying TCF setting

Hi Harley,

Thanks for reporting your problem.

I would expect exactly this behavior. The fact that you only display the ads after consent has been granted means that the page and ad impressions of those users who do not consent to the display of ads are missing.

Basically, there is nothing you can do about this if you want to integrate the ads in a privacy-compliant way.

You can reduce this effect by using Advanced Ads Pro, because the blocked ads will appear immediately after consent and not the next time a page is loaded.

Also, I would recommend testing if you can monetize this non-consent traffic otherwise with other ads. You can find a checkbox in each ad unit to ignore the privacy settings.

Best regards,
Joachim

Is this setting just for EU users or everyone?

Hi Harley,

Thanks for your reply.

This is the new IAB standard. If you have visitors from the EU (or California), you will need to ask them for consent. Here, you can find more information about TCF2 standard.

Best regards,
Joachim

So all the users, whether they are from India, or EU, won’t be able to view ads if they don’t give consent?

Hi Harley,

Yes, this is the exact idea of the consent for external ads.

If you integrate the TCF2 standard, e.g., to show your AdSense ads not without consent but display ads from other networks or self-hosted ads using the ignore privacy settings option mentioned above.

Best regards,
Joachim

Is there any way to remove the setting and not get those errors displayed on the Adsense dashboard? I know several people use the cookie consent plugin on their website, but they did not get this error

Yes, remove your consent tool or disable its TCF2 integration. AdSense shows the error when you ask for this specific consent but show ads regardless if your visitors agree or not.

You have to think about whether it’s worth it for you. I assume that ads that are only shown with explicit consent are paid more and are more lucrative. I would make this decision mainly depending on where your traffic comes from and how high the percentage of those who refuse consent is.

Best regards,
Joachim

Yes, Adsense continues to show the ads even with the error. But the grace periods ended on the 14 of January, so I guess, now they’ll stop showing the ads if we don’t fix the errors.