Q2 2026
Manage Inventory
Per-format bid floors
Google has launched format-specific extensions within the Impression object of the OpenRTB protocol. This enhancement communicates specific price thresholds for Banner, Video, Audio, and Native formats individually within a single bid request.
To take advantage of these new opportunities and minimize filtering, bidders should ingest these format-specific extensions and ensure their bid prices meet or exceed the threshold for the specific format they intend to serve. Learn more about integrating with Google's OpenRTB implementation.
Policy
New signal for age-related compliance: Tag for age treatment (TFAT)
To help publishers navigate evolving global age-related regulations (such as US State App Store Bills, GDPR, and COPPA), Google is introducing the Tag for age treatment (TFAT). This new signal provides a unified way to manage ad request protections for different age groups.
- Unified API migration: TFAT replaces the legacy tagForChildDirectedTreatment (TFCD) and tagForUnderAgeOfConsent (TFUA) settings, which will be deprecated in future GPT or SDK versions that support TFAT.
- Introduction of new TFAT setting:
- CHILD: Functionally replaces TFCD/TFUA=True.
- TEEN: (New) Publishers can now specifically signal for a "TEEN" age treatment. This applies to specific ad-serving protections for teens.
- UNSPECIFIED: Default state (equivalent to TFCD/TFUA=No or UNSPECIFIED). Passing UNSPECIFIED does not override user privacy consent strings (TCF/GPP) or other indications of sensitive users or content. Google will still apply the most conservative restriction present.
- Publisher action required: Technical updates are needed to replace the deprecated tags with the new age treatment API in upcoming web (GPT) and app (GMA and IMA SDK) releases to facilitate compliance efforts and maintain access to the latest features.
Manage Inventory
Preferred ad category taxonomy
Bidders can now choose their preferred ad category taxonomy in Bidder settings, and then RTB settings. In addition to the default IAB Content 1.0, bidders can opt into the Google Ad Category taxonomy, potentially reducing bid filtering.
There were no release notes for this cycle.
There were no release notes for this cycle.
There were no release notes for this cycle.
Q1 2026
Manage Inventory
Global Placement ID (GPID)
Starting April 6, 2026, Google will support Global Placement ID (GPID) on Web as configured via publishers’ Prebid settings.
Preferred ad category taxonomy
Bidders can now choose their preferred ad category taxonomy in Bidder settings. In addition to the default IAB Content 1.0, bidders can opt into the Google Ad Category taxonomy, potentially reducing bid filtering.
Policy
Upcoming changes to the commonly used set of ad technology partners
Starting on or after April 20, 2026, Authorized Buyers will experiment with an updated set of commonly used ad technology partners. If this experiment is deemed beneficial for publishers, the list will be updated on or after June 5, 2026.
This update will reflect the partners that work most closely with publishers globally, determined by data collected from all programmatic demand sources, as well as meeting our privacy standards. You will be able to find the up-to-date version of the list published at Manage your ad technology partners (ATPs). Publishers can view the controls, the list of current ad technology partners and, once the experiment starts, those who are part of the experiment in their accounts in Privacy & messaging. This can be accessed on the European regulations settings page, in the “Your ad partners" menu. If they want to prevent automatic updates or do not want to participate in the experiment, they can select “Do not automatically include commonly used ad partners”. This will create a custom list pre-filled with their current selections, which they can then modify as needed. If they are using a third-party CMP to collect GDPR consent, their list of ad tech partners is managed through their CMP provider.
Recent transition to IAB TCF v2.3
All publishers and CMPs were required to transition to the IAB Europe's Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) v2.3 by March 1, 2026. Failure to meet this requirement may cause the associated ad request to be defaulted to Limited Ads or dropped entirely.
As a reminder, bidding on EEA, UK, and Swiss inventory under v2.3 requires inclusion in the Disclosed Vendor segment of the publisher's IAB TCF TC strings.
There were no releases for this cycle.
There were no releases for this cycle.
By the IAB’s February 28, 2026 deadline, all ad tech partners must adopt TCF v2.3. In v2.3, bidding on EEA/UK/CH inventory requires inclusion in the publisher's Disclosed Vendor segment. Please co-ordinate with your publishers now to ensure you are correctly included in their Disclosed Vendor segment to avoid possible bidding interruptions.
There were no release notes for this cycle.
bcat sorting
Troubleshoot
Updates to bcat sorting
We are updating BidRequest.bcat from lexicographical to natural sorting to provide the correct order of values such as "IAB2" to come before "IAB10" and make it easier to read.
Policy
Pharmaceutical Products and Services Policy
On January 7, Google launched the Authorized Buyers policy on pharmaceutical products and services. Going forward, in addition to over-the-counter drugs, buyers will also be able to promote prescription drugs and prescription drug services in certain locations, in accordance with local laws and regulations. Authorized Buyers do not need to be certified with Google to promote this content.
The full language of the policy will be published on the policy page in January.