Open workspace

For MCM partners and agencies

MCM partners: review your whole network by the same standard

When a child publisher gets a policy violation, the MCM partner has work to do too: under Ad Manager policies, the parent is responsible for the inventory it manages or represents. ConsentMode points out content, pages and ads that may be outside the guidelines across your whole portfolio, shows each client what to review and repeats each site’s audit at the interval you choose.

Audit my network's sitesTalk to the team
  • ✓Every finding links to the Google policy
  • ✓Report ready to hand to the child publisher
  • ✓Read-only: no access to client accounts
360MCM is only available in Google Ad Manager 360
2types of delegation in MCM: Manage Account and Manage Inventory
1Manage Account partner per child publisher, at most
15Manage Inventory partners per child publisher, at most

The partner's role

In MCM, the client's problem is also yours

Multiple Customer Management, or MCM, lets a parent publisher manage the inventory or the account of child publishers within Google Ad Manager 360. It is the model used by agencies, networks and partners that monetize third-party sites.

The Ad Manager program policies are direct: the parent publisher is responsible for all policy violations in the inventory of the children it manages or represents, and the child is also responsible for its own inventory. In other words, both are responsible.

That does not mean one child’s problem reaches the others. According to the Policy center FAQs, a Google action restricts ads only on the affected child’s page, site or app and should not affect the parent’s other children. The burden on the partner is of another kind: fixing work, conversations with the client and the revenue from that inventory. That is why it pays to review every domain in the portfolio, not only the largest clients.

Types of delegation

Manage Account or Manage Inventory

Both exist in MCM and change who sets up what.

Manage Account

The child gives the partner access to its own account. The inventory stays in the child's account, and the partner sees everything except payment data.

  • The partner adjusts everything inside the client's account
  • Revenue share agreed between 0% and 100%
  • Each child can have only one partner of this type
  • Settings spread across many accounts

Manage Inventory

The child delegates specific inventory, which the partner manages in its own network, without access to the child's account.

  • Privacy and restricted categories set up in the partner's network
  • A child can have up to 15 partners of this type
  • Parent and child must both have their own networks in Ad Manager
  • The child's site must use the partner's tags

The partner's challenges

What weighs most on an MCM network

Common situations when the same team is responsible for dozens of child publishers, and how ConsentMode helps with each one.

A child publisher out of policy

Prohibited, copied, or low-value content on a single site weighs on the partner, who is accountable for the inventory it represents. ConsentMode points to the exact page and what to fix.

Different consent on each site

Each client uses its own CMP and theme. Under Manage Inventory, the parent and child publishers must ensure, under the EU user consent policy, that personalized ads only appear after consent. ConsentMode checks every site against the same standard.

Outdated ads.txt

If the domain publishes an ads.txt and the account selling the inventory is not listed in it, buyers that follow the standard may treat that inventory as unauthorized, and the domain’s revenue may drop. ads.txt is an industry standard, not a law, and Google says using it is recommended, not mandatory. ConsentMode shows what each domain’s ads.txt declares.

MCM approval stuck

Child publishers with another AdSense, AdMob, or Ad Manager account under a different email are rejected, and sites with policy issues delay joining the network. Review each site before sending the invitation.

Policy center

Where the issue appears and who requests the review

It depends on the delegation type. Summary of the Ad Manager Policy center FAQs.

Manage Account

  • The violation appears in the Policy center inside the child account, which the parent can access
  • The parent reviews, fixes and requests the review
  • If the child account is terminated, the child is notified; the parent currently is not

Manage Inventory

  • The parent sees the child’s violations in its own network’s Policy center
  • The child reviews, fixes and requests the review
  • If the child account is terminated, the child is notified; the parent currently is not

In both cases, the action restricts ads only on the affected child’s page, site or app and should not affect the parent’s other children.

Consent message

Only one account publishes each site’s messages

When the child has AdSense and the parent uses MCM tags, both accounts may try to show the consent message on the same site.

Best practices

What to do and what to avoid with the client portfolio

Good practices, not Google rules: they help you spot a child publisher’s problem early and resolve it with the client.

Recommended

  • Audit each site before inviting it to MCM
  • Use the same certified CMP and the same setup on every client with European traffic
  • Check each domain's ads.txt every time the network changes
  • Schedule repeat audits and check what changed between them
  • Give the client a report with a screenshot and a task per page

Avoid

  • Accept a new site after looking only at the home page
  • Let each client choose any cookie banner without checking the signals
  • Ignore client subdomains that also load the tag
  • Fix only after the warning arrives in Ad Manager
  • Keep a client in MCM that repeats the same violation

Routine

A compliance routine for the whole portfolio

  1. Build the listGather all of the clients' domains and subdomains, including test ones that still load the tag.
  2. Review before the invitationEvery new site goes through an audit before it is invited to MCM.
  3. Standardize consentDefine one CMP and Consent Mode setup and check that each client follows it.
  4. Repeat the auditMonitoring audits each site again at the interval you choose: daily, weekly, every two weeks, monthly or, in continuous mode, every 1 to 24 hours. Theme, plugin or content changes show up in the next round.
  5. Pass it on to the clientSend each child publisher the fix plan for their site, in plain language, and track what has already been resolved.

Illustrative example

Simulation: a network with 60 client sites

Training simulation, not a real client case.

Before

The team checked the sites by hand, one a month. Three clients used different cookie banners and one of them did not send a consent signal to the tags. An old subdomain of another client was publishing copied pages with the network's tag.

After

With every domain in ConsentMode, each client in its own workspace and repeat audits, each client would receive the fix plan for its own site, the consent setup would be standardized and the copied subdomain would have the tag removed.

In this scenario, the partner would find many of the problems in its own audits, without relying only on Policy center notices. An automated audit does not replace Google’s review and does not prevent a notice from arriving.

What ConsentMode does

Review at scale for your MCM network

  • Site review before the MCM invitation
  • Your entire portfolio in one place, with a workspace for each client
  • Each subdomain assessed as a site of its own
  • Repeat audits at the interval you choose, showing what appeared and what was resolved since the previous one
  • Fix plan per site, ready to hand to the child publisher
Run an auditTalk to the team

Frequently asked questions from MCM partners

If a client violates the policy, is it only their fault?

No. The Ad Manager policies say the parent publisher answers for all violations in the inventory of the children it manages or represents, and the child answers for its own inventory.

Does one child with an issue affect the network’s other children?

According to the Ad Manager Policy center, the action restricts ads on the affected child’s page, site or app and should not affect the parent’s other children. The parent remains responsible for the inventory it represents.

Can two partners publish consent messages on the same site?

It is not recommended. Google advises that only one account publishes and manages messages for a domain. With more than one, Privacy & messaging picks one of them and that account’s messages apply to all visitors.

Do I need Ad Manager 360 to work with MCM?

Yes. Google states that MCM is only available in Google Ad Manager 360.

Can I use a different CMP for each client?

You can, but each one must work properly. For personalized ads in the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google requires a certified CMP integrated with the IAB TCF. Standardizing makes checking easier.

Can I show the report to the client?

Yes. The report is written in plain language, with an annotated screenshot and the site's fix plan, designed for whoever will make the fix.

Can I review a site before inviting it to MCM?

Yes. We recommend auditing each site before the invitation: that way, policy issues surface before approval, not after the site has already joined the network.

Does the audit need access to the client's account?

No. The audit is read-only: it doesn't ask for your WordPress, AdSense, or Ad Manager password, makes no changes to the site, and doesn't trigger ads.

How do I contact the ConsentMode team?

Through the Contact page. Tell us how many sites your network has and what is happening, and our team will reply to the email you provide.

Library

Official sources

This guide was written from these official pages, checked on Nov 6, 2026. Read them at the source:

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