Meta tags
We use a series of meta tags to help scale your platform for ad serving. Below is a list of meta tags and their purpose.
Platform account
Meta tag syntax:
<meta name="google-adsense-platform-account" content="{host-property-code}">
Where {host-property-code} looks like this: ca-host-pub-1234567890123456. The host property code is your AdSense publisher ID, with "ca-host-" prepended to it. You can find your AdSense publisher ID by visiting AdSense: Account > Settings > Account information.
For the Direct model, this meta tag only has one purpose. It automatically adds the data-ad-host parameter to all AdSense ad requests from the page it exists on. It you're including the data-ad-host parameter in the ad codes, then this is redundant.
If there are multiple instances of this tag on the page, the value of the first tag on the page is passed to all AdSense ad requests, and the second tag is ignored.
Sub account
Meta tag syntax:
<meta name="google-adsense-account" content="{sub-account}">
Where {sub-account} is the second publisher ID from the Account name with "ca-" prepended to it. It will look like this: ca-pub-0000000000000000.
During the site verification process, AdSense will scan pages and perform an ownership check. There are multiple ways to help sub accounts pass the ownership check, including through ads.txt, ad codes or this meta tag. The best approach will depend on your URL structure and other factors. Please contact your account manager for a consultation on the best approach for your platform.
Platform author
Meta tag syntax:
<meta name="google-adsense-platform-author" content="{creator-username}">
Where {creator-username} is the public ID of the person who created the content on this page. We only require this meta tag for domains where the URL structure is such that the ID of the creator isn't available in the URL. See the example scenarios below:
| Use case | URL structure | Is meta tag required? |
|---|---|---|
| Subdomains |
Root: https://littlepig.example.com Content: https://littlepig.example.com/food.html |
No |
| Sub folders |
Root: https://example.com/littlepig Content: https://example.com/littlepig/food.html |
No |
| Combination of subdomains and sub folders |
Root: https://sites.example.com/sites/littlepig Content: https://sites.example.com/sites/littlepig/food.html |
No |
| Individual URLs |
Root (or creator profile): https://example.com/user/littlepig Content: https://example.com/nf8ag4n |
No |
The meta tag based on the example URLs in the table above would look like this:
<meta name="google-adsense-platform-author" content="littlepig">
We use the information in this meta tag to segment URLs by platform users which is used in our content checking systems. We recommend having this meta tag present, even if not required as per the table above.