Edit and format messages

You can change the text and format elements of your messages as you build them or any time afterwards. Customise the message formatting so that messages match the look and feel of your sites.

Editing message text

The default text on the message mainly depends on your site or app name. Most of the text is editable.

1. Click Privacy & messaging.
2. Click Manage on one of the message type cards on the Privacy & messaging page.
3. In the list of messages, click Edit in the row with the message that you want to edit.
4. Select the message screen that you want to edit.
5. Click the element that you want to edit (for example, the body text or button text) and make the desired changes.
6. (Optional) Insert the site name macro string (%%SITE_NAME%%) as a placeholder for the site name. When a message is configured to be displayed on multiple sites, the site name macro string will be replaced with the name of the site where the message is currently being viewed or with the site URL if no site name has been set.

   To add or change the site name while you're editing a message:

   1. Click the down arrow on the 'Your sites' list. The 'Select your sites' page will open.
   2. Click  to edit the name of a site, or click Add site name to add a name for a previously unnamed site.
   3. Click Save  Confirm.

   The new site name will be used to replace the site name macro string when the message is displayed.

7. Select the default language to use for this message. If we can’t determine your user’s device language, or if this message is not available in the language specified by the user’s device, the message will be displayed in the default language.
8. (Optional) Click Additional languages and select any additional languages in which you want to display your message.
9. (Optional) Select additional message options:
   1. GDPR messages: Select user consent options. These are the options that users can choose from when your message is displayed. The following combinations of options are available:
      1. Consent or Manage options
      2. Consent, Do not consent or Manage options
10. (Optional) Check the Close (do not consent) tick box to add a close icon to your message. Users can click the close icon to dismiss the message and decline consent to your ad partners and their purposes.
11. Click Apply style to update the message.

Formatting message elements

When you change the formatting of an element, it changes that element on all the applicable dialogues. For example, if you change the body text of the 'Consent request' dialogue to green, the body text of the 'Consent alternative' dialogue is also changed to green.

Complete the following steps to change the formatting of a message element:

1.  Sign in to your AdSense account.
2. Click Privacy & messaging.
3. Click Manage on one of the message type cards on the Privacy & messaging page.
4. In the list of messages, click Edit in the row with the message that you want to edit.
5. Select the element that you want to format in the message dialogue itself, or in the sidebar menu (for example, Body). Change the settings in the menu to change the formatting.
6. Click Apply style to update the message.

Formatting controls

Depending on which message element you are formatting, one or more of the following controls may be available.

• Body: Font family
• Style: Bold, italic or underline
• Alignment: Left, Right, Centre
• Font size: Font size is in 'em' units, which allows the text to scale with the viewer's screen size or browser settings.
• Font colour: Enter your own Hex- or RGB-defined colour by clicking the Save icon.

'Global' element

• Primary colour: Applied to the following message elements: 
  • background colour of the primary message button
  • font colour of the third message button (when it is included)
  • icon backgrounds
  • toggles
  • font colour of the Vendor preferences link
  • close button on help dialogue triggered from the message
• Secondary colour: Applied to the background colour of the secondary button in a message.

'Buttons' element

• Primary colour: Applied to the font colour of the primary message button.
• Secondary colour: Applied to the font colour of the secondary message button.

For EU consent/GDPR messages, the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework Policies require that the buttons displayed in your messages must not be invisible, illegible or appear disabled. While the buttons don't need to be identical, to ensure that they're clearly visible, they must have matching text treatment (font, font size, font style) and, for the text of each, a minimum contrast ratio of 5 to 1.

This means that the background colour and font colour of the buttons displayed in your messages must differ enough to be easily readable. When you set the button background and font colours, we'll detect whether there's enough contrast between the colours and let you know if you need to adjust the colours that you've selected.