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Ads and consent

Use Google's consent message for AdSense visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland, set it up in AdSense, and know what changes if you turn it off.

Abi Tyas TunggalAJack WalshJ
By Abi Tyas Tunggal and Jack Walsh

Google only shows personalized ads to visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland when a Google-certified consent management platform asks them first. Your board's own cookie banner is not one. So when AdSense is on, your board uses Google's consent message for those visitors instead, and keeps your banner for everyone else.

This page covers boards built with the AI website builder or the board SDK, which read the setting from the board context as ads.googleConsentMessage.

What visitors see

VisitorWhat they seeWhat loads
In the EEA, UK or SwitzerlandGoogle's consent message, not your bannerAdSense on page load. Cavuno Analytics and your other tags load only if the visitor consents to the purposes for your own use
Anywhere else, with Require cookie consent onYour cookie bannerAdSense on page load. Analytics and tags follow the visitor's answer to your banner
Anywhere else, with Require cookie consent offNo bannerEverything loads

Each visitor sees one consent message, never two. The Cookie preferences link in your footer reopens whichever one that visitor saw.

Set it up in AdSense

Do this once in your AdSense account, before European visitors reach your board.

  1. Use a custom domain. In Cavuno, connect a custom domain under Settings → Domains. Then in AdSense, go to Sites, add the domain and wait until Google approves it. A subdomain such as jobs.example.com is covered by example.com. A cavuno.app address can't be added.

  2. Create a European regulations message. In AdSense, go to Privacy & messaging → European regulations and create a message. Select your site and the languages you need. We recommend turning on the Do not consent button. Publish the message.

  3. Add purposes for your own use. In Privacy & messaging → European regulations → Settings, open Add purposes for your own use and set these purposes to Consent:

    • 1 — Store and/or access information on a device
    • 7 — Measure advertising performance
    • 8 — Measure content performance
    • 9 — Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources

    This step is what lets Cavuno Analytics, Google Analytics, Meta Pixel and LinkedIn Insight Tag run for European visitors. If you skip it, those visitors are never asked, so your analytics show no European traffic.

  4. Leave the Consent Mode settings off unless you know you need them. Your board does not load other tags until the visitor consents, so it does not rely on Consent Mode signals.

  5. Check the setting in Cavuno. Go to Settings → Features, open the ⋮ menu on the Require cookie consent card and select Advanced settings. With AdSense on, Use Google's consent message for ads is on by default.

  6. Test it. From a European IP address or a VPN, open your board with ?fc=alwaysshow&fctype=gdpr added to the URL. Google's message should appear and your banner should not.

Turn it off

  1. Go to Settings → Features.
  2. On the Require cookie consent card, open the ⋮ menu and select Advanced settings.
  3. Turn off Use Google's consent message for ads and select Save.

Every visitor then sees your own cookie banner, if you require consent. Turn the switch back on and save to undo it. The menu only appears while AdSense is on.

When it's off:

  • Turn off Maximize message coverage too. In AdSense, go to Privacy & messaging and turn off Maximize message coverage. It's on by default, and it makes Google show its own message whenever AdSense loads for a European visitor and finds no certified consent platform on the page. If you leave it on, those visitors can see your banner and then Google's.
  • Expect lower ad revenue from Europe. Without a certified consent message, visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland only get non-personalized or limited ads.

You can also turn it off with the CLI (cavuno settings update-adsense --google-consent-message false) or the Operator API (PUT /v1/settings/adsense with adsenseGoogleConsentMessage: false).

Limitations

  • Custom domain required. Google's message only appears on sites approved in AdSense, which needs a domain you own.
  • Ad blockers. If a visitor's browser blocks the AdSense tag, Google's message can't load either. Those visitors see your own banner instead.
  • AdSense outside Europe. With Google's consent message on, AdSense loads on page load for every visitor, including visitors outside Europe who decline your banner. Your banner still controls analytics and your other tags for them.
  • US state messages are separate. Google's US state privacy messages are configured on their own in AdSense and are not affected by this setting.
  • Hosted board pages don't use this setting.

Frequently asked questions