Google announced late on Friday that AdSense for Search (AFS), AdSense for Shopping (AFSh), and Programmable Search Engine (ProSE) will stop serving ads over google.com and this will also mean that ad personalization will be deprecated for these products because Google cookies will no longer be available to them.
Google wrote, “Starting in November 2023, we will begin to move Search Ads publisher products from using “google.com” as their “serving domain” to the new domains listed below. Products in scope are: AdSense for Search (AFS), AdSense for Shopping (AFSh), and Programmable Search Engine (ProSE).”
Instead of google.com, publishers will see these served over these two domains:
- “https://www.adsensecustomsearchads.com”
- “https://syndicatedsearch.goog”
Google said they are making this change “to improve end-user privacy, while also preparing our products for upcoming changes to cookie behavior on common web platforms (including Chrome).”
Since these ads are not being served using google.com, they will no longer have personalization. Google said, “they will also no longer have access to any shared cookies with Google properties while serving ads.” “Users may still encounter Google or advertiser cookies after clicking on an ad. In the coming months, we also plan to stop using cookies shared with Google properties for measurement,” Google added.
Because Google cookies will no longer be available at ad serving time, ad personalization will be deprecated for these products. This means that publisher controls to enable/disable personalization (“personalizedAds”) will no longer trigger personalization. Users will also no longer be able to adjust ad settings via their Google Ad Settings, including blocking ads or otherwise setting preferences for ads that serve on your site via AFS, AFSh, or ProSE.
Google did say this is expected to have a “minor impact” on ad performance. Google wrote, “Because these Search Ads publisher products rely predominantly on the user query for ad targeting, this change is expected to have a minor impact on ad performance.”
But AdSense publishers do not need to do anything on their end for this change.
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