For troubleshooting Google Ads there are a couple of tools you can use depending on the ad placement in question.

Bolt Web Reader

For the vast majority of issue Bolt Web Reader should be sufficient to debug your ad issues. 

All ads served by the Bolt Web Reader are Google Publisher Tag (GPT) ads. Debug information about each ad request can be found in the Google Tag Console. Some ads are shown on the top level HTML page, others on webviews/iframes within. To open the console follow these steps:

1. Open the inspector and go to the console tab.
2. In the drop down select top for sticky bottom banner ads, or bolt_timeline.html for all other ads.
3. Type in googletag.openConsole()

A window should pop up from the bottom of the page showing you the console. 

Google Publisher Tag Console

This will give you details about each ad request made to Google Ad Manager (GAM). It includes the ad unit, slot size and targeting info for the slot. It also has helpful links to GAM to debug why Google returned a particular ad or no ad at all. 

When ads do not appear as expected, a commonly seen message in the Google Ads Console is ‘Ad unit did not fill’, which means we're successfully requesting the ad but we are not receiving one back. There are many possible causes for this, all of which are to do with the way the Advert is set up in your GAM. Whilst we will try our best to help with troubleshooting, we cannot advise on how to set up the ad units or line items - in this case, support should be raised directly with Google. There are also many detailed Google Ad Manager docs which cover everything required to set up ads. 

In App

Sticky bottom banner ads and prestitial ads are served using Google Ad Manager's SDK. 

All other ads are served by GPT which can be tested on web. You cannot currently open the console in app but you can do the following:

iOS

What you can inspect

• The full GAM ad request URL and parameters (targeting keys, ad unit path, consent signals, etc.)
• The ad response from Google
• JavaScript console errors that may be preventing ads from loading or rendering
• Consent framework flags (TCF/GPP) that Google surfaces when it detects missing or invalid consent

Steps for iOS

Prerequisites

• A Mac with Safari installed
• Your iOS device (iPhone or iPad)
• Web Inspector enabled on your device (Settings > Safari > Advanced > Web Inspector = ON)
• The Pugpig app open on the device

Steps

• If you don't see the Develop menu, enable it via Safari > Settings > Advanced > "Show features for web developers"

• Hover over your device name in the Develop menu
• A submenu will appear listing open pages/webviews on the device
• Select the webview that corresponds to the timeline or article where the advert is displayed

• Network tab: Filter by "google" or "pubads" to find the GAM ad request. Click on any request to see the full URL, query parameters (ad unit, targeting, consent strings, etc.), and the response.
• Console tab: Look for any JavaScript errors that may be blocking ad rendering. Google will also surface consent-related warnings here, such as missing TCF consent strings or invalid GPP signals.
• Elements tab: Inspect the ad slot container to check whether the ad creative has been injected into the DOM.

Tips

• Navigate to the timeline or article before opening Web Inspector, then attach the inspector and reload the page to capture the full network waterfall from the start.
• If you are testing consent scenarios, you can trigger different consent states via your CMP and observe how the GAM request parameters change in the Network tab.
• Share the full ad request URL with your ad ops team or Pugpig support to help diagnose targeting or delivery issues

Android

1. Connect your Android device to a computer
2. Accept the pop up on the device to give the computer access
3. Open chrome and go to chrome://inspect/#devices in the address bar
4. Select your device and the page the advert is on. If your device is not present it could be outdated, a permission was not granted on the device or the computer, or the connecting wire may be at fault
5. You can see JS errors and Google flags if there are any consent issues in the console

You can now use Google Publisher Tag Console as described above.

Ad Showcase

Bolt has a hidden Ad Showcase page where you can test all your ads are setup correctly. You can access it through the secret in app menu or at /bolt/showcase/content.html.

This page displays a Pugpig test advert at the top, then it displays all the types of adverts (Ad units and sizes) that are in the app. There is also a link to the Consent Showcase page and a link to Google test ad page both locally in app and remote. The Google test page in app, shows whether Google's Webview API SDK is connected correctly with the page.