AdSense errors are a common issue since the migration from TCF 1.0 to TCF 2.0. Both of them relate to a configuration issue of AdSense and TCF. We will explain both shortly based on Google’s own documentation, and how to resolve this.
NB. Google will sporadically crawl your website for errors, please be patient after changing these settings.
Error 1.1 & 1.2
| Error | Description | Suggested action to take |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Google, as a vendor, is not allowed under consent or legitimate interest. | Confirm whether the user intentionally rejected Google as a vendor, CMP implementation errors have occurred, or there are publisher restrictions. |
source: support.google.com
This is a common error if TCF is integrated, but Google Advertising Products is not found as a vendor. For Google to appear in the vendor list, available on our cookie policy, a minimum requirement is needed to serve ads. As a default, Complianz will check all required boxes to show Google as a vendor, but you might have unchecked some boxes in the wizard.
The solution is to check all required checkboxes for Google in the Wizard under Cookies -> Transparency and Consent Framework. The minimum requirements are shown below. To serve personalized ads, please enable the purposes required that mention personalization. Check if Google appears in your vendor list, on your cookie policy.
| 1.2 | No consent for Purpose 1 for EEA countries and the UK. | Confirm whether the user intentionally disallowed Purpose 1 or if this is due to CMP implementation errors.
German publishers should ensure they are setting the
PublisherCC and PurposeOneTreatment fields correctly if they are not asking users for consent. |
source: support.google.com
This error is most likely not due to a CMP implementation error but might appear when some users from EEA countries have very strict privacy settings in their browser or use extensions to reject all consent on a website before the TCF implementation is loaded. The error code from Adsense should contain the error count. If this is low relative to your website visitors, no action is needed as this is related to the user’s behavior. Update: a TCF policy change will force Vendors (including Google) to configure their purpose1 interests properly, which would likely minimize these errors in the near future.
Error 2.1a
| Error | Description | Suggested action to take |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1a | Tag or SDK isn’t receiving a TC string due to CMP status being stub, loading, or error. |
If you’re manually invoking the function to request ads, make sure the response to getTCData TCData.eventStatus = 'tcloaded‘ OR 'cmpuishown' + 'useractioncomplete'. These indicate the CMP is ready to provide the user with a choice regarding consent.
If you’re not manually invoking the function to request ads, then work with your CMP to ensure they implement support for |
source: support.google.com
This error shows there’s a misfire between your AdSense configuration and the CMP API used by Complianz to handle consent, as required by TCF. This means Google can’t find any consent layer before ads are shown. The best way to handle this error is to see if your current implementation, either a plugin or manually respects the new TCF integration. The reason why Complianz can’t handle this part, because we provide the consent layer, but do not implement, configure or trigger the activation or ads. We merely provide the consent layer provided by TCF. The AdSense implementation should respect the consent layer.
Error 3.3
| Error | Description | Suggested action to take |
|---|---|---|
| 3.3 | The TC string last updated date was more than 13 months ago. | CMP should delete the old TC string and reobtain consent. |
There are a couple of things to check to either fix this issue or safely ignore it.
- Check the error count and frequency. If they are both low relative to your monthly users, you can expect the issue is not with your CMP, but with the user’s browser settings, browser, extensions etc.
- If you’re using Complianz, please check if your license is older than 13 months. If you’re using Complianz only for 5 months, the TC string from Complianz cannot cause an error.
- If you’re using Complianz for more than 13 months, and the error count is high, please check if there are any browser console errors. Complianz reobtains consent on certain conditions, one of these conditions is the expiry date of the TC string. If nothing else makes sense, please contact support.
source: support.google.com
An out-of-the-box solution would be Advanced Ads, which works well with both Complianz and TCF V2. For more questions surrounding this topic, please ask support.
