Age restricted ad inventory: using private deals to keep ads in front of adults
Part of Curated deals and PMPs
The short answer
Age restricted ad inventory is supply chosen so that an alcohol, cannabis or gambling ad reaches an audience of legal age. A private deal helps by limiting the sites and sections, but it cannot verify each viewer's age. Buyers ask each publisher for dated audience composition data, exclude youth appealing sections and record the evidence on the deal sheet.
Key takeaways
- A private deal narrows supply to vetted publishers and sections; it carries no verified age for the person viewing.
- OpenRTB 2.6 deprecated the year of birth and gender fields, so age is not something a bid request reliably states.
- California's cannabis rules ask for audience composition data showing a share of adults, and exclude census figures as that data.
- Platform age settings rest on estimates and include an Unknown group, so they support evidence but do not replace it.
- The deal sheet should name the jurisdictions, age threshold, evidence per site with its date, and excluded sections.
How can regulated advertisers limit ads to adult audiences?
By stacking controls, each covering a different gap. The rules differ by product and place, and separate guides cover them: alcohol in the US, alcohol in Canada, cannabis in Canada, US sports betting and Ontario igaming. They share a demand that the advertiser can show why it expected the audience to be of age.
| Control | Who sets it | What it does | What it leaves open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher selection | Planner | Keeps sites whose audience evidence meets the threshold | Audience mix can change after the evidence date |
| Section exclusions in the deal | Seller, at the buyer's request | Removes youth sports, gaming, school and family sections | Youth appealing articles filed in adult sections |
| Platform policy acceptance | Seller and platform | Limits the category to sellers that accept it | Says nothing about the audience on a given page |
| Buyer side age targeting | Buyer | Excludes age groups the platform estimates | People whose age is unknown or estimated wrongly |
| Access controls on the publisher site | Publisher | Age gates or sign in for the content itself | Gates that can be bypassed |
Platform policy sits in the middle of that stack. Google's alcohol policy (opens in a new tab) says "Display & Video 360 users must comply with this Google Ads policy," that ads must not target those under the legal purchase age "in the country they target," and that on Ad Exchange, alcohol ads can show in certain countries "on partner sites that have opted-in to show such content." Its gambling and games policy (opens in a new tab) requires certification and says gambling ads must "never target minors." A deal does not exempt a buyer from either policy.
Can a deal guarantee an adult audience?
No. A deal guarantees access to inventory, and in a guaranteed deal, that the buyer will bid. It does not guarantee who is looking at the screen. OpenRTB 2.6 (opens in a new tab) lists the User object's yob and gender fields as "Deprecated as of OpenRTB 2.6," so the bid request is not where a buyer learns a viewer's age. The Deal object's guar flag means "the bidder must bid on the deal," a commitment about bidding, not about audience.
Platform age data is an estimate with known gaps. Google Ads' demographic targeting (opens in a new tab) page says Google may use demographics from signed in users' settings and will "sometimes also estimate people's demographic information based on their activity," that "Google Ads can't know or infer the demographics of all people," and that "Unknown" covers people whose age it has not identified. Display & Video 360's report dimensions (opens in a new tab) describe Age (Targeted) as "based on the signals used for targeting at the time of ad serving." Both are useful layers. Neither is proof of age for a single impression.
What audience composition evidence should a buyer ask for?
Ask for evidence the buyer could hand to a regulator or client without explanation. The California regulation is a useful model even outside cannabis. It defines the data as "data regarding the age and location demographics of the audience viewing a particular advertising or marketing medium," says it "does not include data from the most recent United States decennial or special census" or the state's county population estimates, and requires a licensee to provide it "Immediately upon request."
| Evidence | What it shows | Limits to check |
|---|---|---|
| Third party audience measurement for the site | Estimated age mix of the site's audience from a stated method | Method, sample, date and whether it covers the target country |
| Publisher registration or subscriber data | Declared ages of signed in readers | Signed in readers may differ from all readers; how age was collected |
| Reader survey by the publisher | Self reported ages of respondents | Who answered, when, and how many |
| Platform demographic reports | Estimated age groups of served impressions | Estimates, with an Unknown group that can be large |
| Census or population data | Who lives in a region | Says nothing about a site's audience; excluded by California's cannabis rule |
What each site's age evidence should state
- The source of the data and the method behind it, in a sentence the client can read.
- The date range the data covers and the date it was produced.
- The geography it covers, matched to the campaign's jurisdictions.
- The age bands reported, including the threshold that applies, such as 19 and over or 21 and over.
- The share of the audience whose age is unknown, and how it was treated.
- Whether the data covers the whole site or only the sections in the deal.
Which publishers suit age restricted campaigns?
Publishers whose evidence clears the threshold, whose sections can be separated, and whose selling partners accept the category. Topic alone is a weak guide: a food site can run a teen baking series, and a sports site can cover school leagues. Judge each site on its evidence and structure, then confirm the seller and exchange accept the category.
Screening a publisher for an age restricted deal
- Ask for the age evidence first. Request dated audience composition data for the site and for the sections proposed, in the jurisdictions of the campaign.
- Read the site for youth appeal. Look for school sports, gaming, toys, family activity and teen culture sections, and list them for exclusion.
- Check child directed content. Under the FTC's COPPA Rule, obligations fall on operators of services "directed to children under 13 years of age" and on operators with actual knowledge that they collect personal information from a child under 13; leave out child directed sites and sections.
- Confirm category acceptance. Ask whether the publisher and its exchange accept the product category, and in which countries.
- Confirm section separation. Check that excluded sections have their own ad units or key-values so they stay out of the deal's targeting.
OpenRTB 2.6 also has a Regs.coppa flag, "indicating if this request is subject to the COPPA regulations established by the USA FTC." Ask whether the seller sets it on child directed inventory, and exclude flagged requests on the line item. The flag helps only where the seller fills it.
How should age restriction be shown on the deal sheet?
As its own block, with evidence attached per site. The Trustworthy Accountability Group's Brand Safety Certified Guidelines (opens in a new tab), version 5.0 of July 2026, require certified direct buyers to "define the criteria to be met" for ads to appear and to communicate them to intermediaries in the supply chain. For an age restricted product, the criteria are the threshold, the jurisdictions and the evidence rules.
| Term | What to write |
|---|---|
| Product category | Alcohol, cannabis, gambling or another restricted category, as the platform policy names it |
| Jurisdictions | Each country, state or province in scope, with its age threshold |
| Composition threshold | The share of adult audience the applicable rule or code requires, with the rule named |
| Evidence per site | Source, method, date and covered sections, attached or linked |
| Excluded sections | Youth appealing and child directed sections kept out of the deal's targeting |
| Buyer side settings | Age groups excluded, treatment of the Unknown group, and the COPPA flag rule |
| Evidence refresh and remedy | When evidence is renewed, and what happens if a site falls below the threshold |
Treat Canadian cannabis with extra care. Health Canada's page on cannabis promotion (opens in a new tab), modified June 18, 2026, says online promotion is permitted only where the person responsible "has taken reasonable steps to ensure" it cannot be accessed by a young person, and that "steps that may be easily circumvented by youth may require additional steps." That is a standard about access to the content, which an adult skewing deal on an open site does not meet by itself.
What does an age restricted deal look like on a real brief?
Fictional example
A craft brewery's deal in Puerto Rico
A fictional craft brewery in San Juan wants display ads beside food, music, nightlife and island travel content for adults in Puerto Rico, in Spanish and English, over a summer flight. It follows the beer industry's advertising code, which sets an audience composition test for placements.
The planner shortlists 26 sites and asks each publisher for dated audience composition data. Fourteen supply measurement or registration data meeting the code's threshold; eight offer only platform reports with a large Unknown group and are held back; four do not reply and are dropped.
The deal sheet lists the code, the evidence per site with its date, and excluded sections, including a music site's high school band contest page and a travel site's family activities channel. The trader confirms with the exchange that the publishers accept alcohol ads, applies the brand's age exclusions on the line item, and sets a review of the evidence before the flight is extended.
How does PlacementGraph help with age restricted site lists?
Frequently asked questions
How recent does audience composition data need to be?
California's cannabis rule asks for "reliable up-to-date" data without setting a period in section 15040. Write the date range of each site's evidence on the deal sheet and set a renewal date before the flight starts. A site that redesigns, changes owner or adds a youth section needs new evidence sooner.
Can platform age exclusions alone make a deal safe for an alcohol brand?
They help, but they rest on estimates. Google says it cannot know or infer the demographics of all people, and its age groups include Unknown. Use line item age exclusions as one layer, on top of publisher evidence and section exclusions in the deal, and decide in writing how to treat Unknown.
Does a sign in or age gate on a publisher site change the evidence?
It can strengthen it, because declared ages from registered readers are a different kind of data from platform estimates. Ask how the gate works, what share of the deal's impressions come from signed in readers, and whether ads also show on pages outside the gate. For Canadian cannabis, Health Canada notes that easily circumvented steps may need additional steps.
What happens if a site falls below the threshold during a flight?
Follow the remedy on the deal sheet. Pause the site on the buyer side if possible, ask the seller to remove it from the deal, and keep the new evidence with its date. Record what ran on the site between the evidence date and the removal, in case anyone asks.
Sources
- Text of Regulations, section 15040 Advertising Placement and Prohibitions (in effect October 1, 2026) (opens in a new tab)California Department of Cannabis Control
- Promotion of cannabis: Prohibitions and permissions (opens in a new tab)Health Canada
- Alcohol (opens in a new tab)Google Advertising Policies Help
- Gambling and games (opens in a new tab)Google Advertising Policies Help
- About demographic targeting (opens in a new tab)Google Ads Help
- Dimensions in reports (opens in a new tab)Google Display & Video 360 Help
- OpenRTB 2.6 specification (opens in a new tab)IAB Tech Lab
- Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) (opens in a new tab)Federal Trade Commission
- Brand Safety Certified Guidelines, version 5.0 (July 2026) (opens in a new tab)Trustworthy Accountability Group
Researched and written by PlacementGraph Research. Read how we research, source and update these pages. Corrections: diana@placementgraph.com.