Google Limited Ads 2.0 (web)
In April 2025, Google replaced Limited ads and Technical ad delivery with an updated serving mode : Limited ads 2.0. This update, according to Google, was designed to simplify their ad serving offerings and provide publishers with more feature-rich ad serving options across low data-processing purpose availability. In this article, we will cover how to configure a consent notice integrated with the IAB TCF.
Google Limited Ads 2.0 overview
Google Limited Ads is designed to allow publishers to serve ads in a restricted manner when end-user consent is not obtained for the use of cookies or other local identifiers (as defined by IAB TCF Purpose 1: "Store and/or access information on a device").
Under the IAB TCF framework, serving standard Non-Personalized Ads (NPA) often still requires consent for Purpose 1 (for uses like frequency capping, aggregated reporting, fraud prevention). Limited Ads provide a fallback mechanism to monetize traffic when this consent is absent by relying on other TCF signals.
Some key characteristics of Google Limited Ads are:
No Cookies/Local Identifiers: Designed to function without accessing or using cookies or local device identifiers for ad targeting or measurement purposes governed by Purpose 1 consent.
Restricted Functionality: Features like frequency capping, audience targeting, conversion tracking metrics reliant on local identifiers, and certain reporting metrics (e.g., unique reach) are unavailable.
IAB TCF requirements for Google Limited Ads 2.0
In order for Google to attempt the serving of Limited Ads via the TCF signal, the following conditions must be met by the Transparency and Consent (TC) string generated by any CMP for an end-user:
No consent for Purpose 1
The end-user has not granted consent for IAB TCF Purpose 1 ("Store and/or access information on a device").
Transparency for Special Purposes
Consent notice has established that the vendor has declared IAB TCF Special Purposes:
Special Purpose 1 ("Ensure security, prevent fraud, and debug")
Special Purpose 2 ("Technically deliver ads or content")
Optional TCF purposes
IAB TCF Purpose 7 ("Measure advertising performance") utilizes either opt-in (consent) or opt-out (legitimate interest)
Prerequisites
Before continuing with any configuration please ensure that your organization meets the following criteria:
Your organization uses Google Advertising Products (Ad Manager, AdSense, Admob) to serve ads to end-users
Your organization's consent notice is integrated with the IAB TCF and published on your property
Important considerations
In addition to the above prerequisites, we also recommend that your organization review and discuss the following before continuing with your configuration:
Legal Consultation: The choice between relying on opt-in (consent) versus opt-out (legitimate interest) for Purposes 7 for Google (or any vendor) should be discussed with your legal counsel to ensure compliance with GDPR and local regulations.
Programmatic Limited Ads: Your organization may need to enable "Programmatic limited ads" within your Google Ad Manager network settings (Admin > Global settings > Network settings) if it's not already enabled.
Testing: After configuration, test scenarios where end-users reject consent for Purpose 1 but accept (or allow via Legitimate Interest) Purpose 7. Observe network requests to confirm if ad requests are being made and potentially filled as Limited Ads (often indicated by specific parameters in the ad request URL, like
&lad=1).
Configure consent notice (IAB TCF) for Google Limited Ads 2.0
In order to configure a consent notice for Google Limited Ads 2.0, navigate to your organization's Didomi account and click Consent notices from the left-hand panel.
Navigate to your consent notice integrated with the IAB TCF on the subsequent page and click the Edit icon inline with the consent notice name.
Ensure the Regulations tab and Regulations sub-tab are both selected, and click Edit Vendors & Purposes inline with your enabled GDPR regulation
Use the provided space to add the Google Advertising Products vendor (ID: google) to the consent notice.
By default, the Google Advertising Products vendor will be configured with the following:
Purposes
Opt-in (based on consent)
Purpose 1: Store and/or access information on a device
Purpose 3: Create profiles for personalized advertising
Purpose 4: Use profiles to select personalized advertising
Opt-out (based on legitimate interest)
Purpose 2: Use limited data to select advertising
Purpose 7: Measure advertising performance
Purpose 9: Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources
Purpose 10: Develop and improve services
Special Purposes
Special Purpose 1: Ensure security, prevent fraud, and debug
Special Purpose 2: Technically deliver ads or content
Special Purpose 3: Save and communicate privacy choices
Remove legitimate interest and utilize consent for IAB TCF Purpose 7
Note: Please confer with your organization's legal counsel before adjusting the legal basis used for any vendor or purpose.
By default, the Google Advertising Products vendor utilizes legitimate interest as a legal basis for IAB TCF Purpose 2, 7, 9, and 10. If your organization chooses to not leverage legitimate interest as a legal basis and instead utilize consent for one or more IAB TCF purposes then you will need to configure IAB TCF publisher restrictions.
In this section, we will cover how to utilize consent for IAB TCF Purpose 7 "Measure advertising performance" instead of the default legitimate interest as a legal basis.
While IAB TCF Purpose 2, 7, 9, and 10 have been declared to have flexible legal bases (i.e. your organization can choose to use either legitimate interest or consent as the legal basis), in the scope of configuring Google Limited Ads only IAB TCF Purpose 7 has an impact on functionality.
From the GDPR regulation configuration page of the consent notice, navigate to the TCF settings section and click Add restriction inline with IAB TCF Publisher Restrictions.
In the subsequent modal, use the provided field to select Measure advertising performance and select whether this restriction will be applied to all IAB vendors or to just Google Advertising Products.
Enable the toggle for Require consent for selected vendors and click Save when finished.
Click Save when finished.
If the consent notice utilizes legitimate interest as a legal basis then your organization should decide how purposes that utilize legitimate interest behave when an end-user selects a one-click action like Disagree and close, Continue without agreeing, and Disagree to all.
If your organization has removed legitimate interest and utilize consent only in the consent notice, the following steps can be skipped.
Click the Regulations tab and select the Consent settings sub-tab from the consent notice configuration page
Navigate to the Legitimate interest (Opt-out) section on the subsequent page and enable the toggles according to your organization's business rules.
Click Save & continue when finished.
With the configuration finished, click the Publish tab and click Publish to update the consent notice on properties where it is deployed.
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