Table of contents
The Google Publisher Console is a helpful tool that publishers can use to check ad delivery issues without self-clicking ads or generating impressions yourself. In the third part of our Google Publisher Console guide, we’ll be looking at three practical examples of how our team uses the tool to solve real issues that affect our publishers. If you haven’t already, we recommend that you read the first two parts of our guide. In the first part, we share how to install and enable the Google Publisher Console. In the second part, we share how you can use the functions of Publisher Console to diagnose ad delivery issues in the ad server.
Use case 1: Testing new implementation and error warnings
Problem: Ad units are not showing on a page
- Open Google Publisher Console
2. As is shown in the image above, you can see that there is a warning on the ad unit. If we then navigate to the ‘Page Request’ tab at the top of Publisher Console, we can then see below the warning in detail. In particular, this warning indicates that there is a problem with the code on-page and that ad units are being defined in the header but not called in the body.
3. If we look at the code and navigate to the ad unit in question, we can see in this example that the ad unit has been commented out of the HTML, which is causing the ad unit to not work properly. If we fix this problem in the code, the ad unit will be able to serve.
Use case 2: Fixing ad delivery issues and errors
Problem: Publisher Console has detected an actual error in the ad code rather than a warning
- Open Publisher Console. From there, you can see that the Publisher Console has detected a genuine error in the ad code.
2. Next, navigate to the ‘Page Request’ tab and scroll to the section where the error is picked up.
3. Looking at this error, we can see that there is a div that is being called that has not been defined in the head section. As shown below, if we compare the difference in code, we can see that the correct div (top) does not match what is being called in the code (bottom).
Use case 3: Blocking certain creatives
Problem: Finding and blocking creatives that you don’t want on your site
- Identify the creative that you don’t want to show on your site.
2. Next, open Publisher Console and find the ad unit and check the ‘Delivery Diagnostics.’
3. Once opened, the delivery diagnostics will tell you what line item is serving the creative in question.
4. In this example, you can see that it is our Network 1234 line item. If this were a real advertiser line item, we could contact them and ask them to remove the creative. Alternatively, we can block the creative in Google Ad Manager if we have sufficient information.
If you need help with troubleshooting ad delivery issues in Google Ad Manager, OKO offer a fully managed solution for publishers, you can find out more here.
