amp-auto-ads do not work with "Overlay formats" (anchor, side rails, vignette)

[jeffwhelpley]

Description

I am in the process of converting some pages to AMP. The non-AMP existing version of the page that has worked for a long time correctly displays auto ads as configured through Adsense. The AMP version of the same exact page, however, doesn't work with any of the "Overlay formats" for auto ads. After a lot of testing, I do believe this is a bug within Adsense for sure and potentially within the amp-auto-ads component.

Reproduction Steps

Reproduction is pretty simple:

1. Configure your Adsense account to use auto ads AND (importantly) click on "Overlay formats" and make sure all 3 are checked
2. Add amp-auto-ads exactly as the documentation says
3. Then, use the Network inspector on Chrome to look at the exact configuration that comes back from Adsense. For me in my Network inspector, the URL request looked like this:

https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/getconfig/ama?client=ca-pub-5211547430456695&plah=gethuman.com&ama_t=amp&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgethuman.com%2Fcustomer-service%2FFedEx%2Ffaq%2FWhat-are-the-different-shipping-options-available-with-FedEx%2F4jpSN1&__amp_source_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fgethuman.com

Anyways, you will see that Adsense does correctly return placements for "In page formats" but it does not return placements for "Overlay formats". I have no idea where to file a bug with Adsense, but I strongly suspect the issue is on their side since the request to Adsense from amp-auto-ads looks right and the configuration returned DOES NOT reflect what is actually configured in the Adsense account.

If you want to see a live example compare these two pages that are exactly the same in content but one is non-AMP and the other is AMP:

Non-AMP version (auto ads working correctly) https://gethuman.com/customer-service/Verizon

AMP version (auto ads not working for Overlay formats like vignette) https://legacyweb.gethuman.com/customer-service/Verizon

Relevant Logs

Here is an example of the config I get back from Adsense for the amp-auto-ads component:

{
    "producerVersion": "20250709_104536",
    "placements": [
        {
            "anchor": {
                "selector": "DIV#lay-fl-right\u003eDIV",
                "index": 0
            },
            "pos": 1,
            "type": 1,
            "style": {
                "top_m": 10,
                "bot_m": 32
            }
        },
        {
            "anchor": {
                "selector": "DIV#lay-fl-right\u003e.min",
                "index": 0
            },
            "pos": 1,
            "type": 1,
            "style": {
                "top_m": 10,
                "bot_m": 32
            }
        },
        {
            "anchor": {
                "selector": "DIV#lay-fl-bottom",
                "index": 0
            },
            "pos": 4,
            "type": 1,
            "style": {
                "top_m": 10,
                "bot_m": 48
            }
        }
    ],
    "attributes": {
        "data-tag-origin": "ampa",
        "data-package": "8886251856"
    },
    "optInStatus": [
        2,
        1
    ],
    "adConstraints": {
        "initialMinSpacing": "600px",
        "subsequentMinSpacing": [
            {
                "adCount": 6,
                "spacing": "900px"
            }
        ],
        "maxAdCount": 8
    },
    "stickyAdAttributes": {
        "data-no-fill": "true"
    }
}

Browser(s) Affected

Chrome

OS(s) Affected

No response

Device(s) Affected

No response

AMP Version Affected

011905222334000

[vipinsao]

I like to try this is so can you kindly assign this to me?

[erwinmombay]

@powerivq could you take a preliminary look at this ? I can take over when you are gone, just need your assessment

[powerivq]

I believe these formats are distinct between AMP and non-AMP. I do not know all of them are supported on AMP. @zombifier Maybe you have some ideas?

[zombifier]

(Not something I'm personally familiar with, apologies)

[zombifier]

I've confirmed that these formats do not work with AMP Auto Ads per policy (AMP pages don't allow interstitials/overlays).

[jeffwhelpley]

Hi, @zombifier I appreciate the feedback. I think I found the documentation that says Auto Ads don't support interstitials:

https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/6352089?hl=en https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/7177589?sjid=10741621496406199100-NA

However, the reason they have doesn't actually make any sense:

"AMP works only with ads that do not cause content reflow. Therefore, some formats like interstitials or auto-expandables are unsupported in AMP."

An interstitial is a full-screen advertisement that covers the interface of its host application or website. They are typically displayed at natural transition points in the user flow, such as between levels in a game, after completing an action on a website, or when switching between different sections of an app.

There is no "content reflow". It doesn't change/modify the content on the page at all. It shows the ad for the full screen on top of all the other content like a modal. That is very different IMO than ads on the page in the content that is changing sizes and causing layout shift.

If there are technical issues with allowing AMP to implement interstitials that is one thing, but if it is simply a policy thing, I would strongly urge whoever has the authority to change that policy.