Adsense Ads Screwed Up Across All Sites

[Joe Pace]

For the last few days my Adsense has been way down... I took a look at a number of my sites and many of them are showing loan related ads, which have nothing to do with my content. I am seeing ads like:

"Loan calculator"
"Get a mortgage loan"

Etc. Etc.

My ads have always been very relevant to my content and I haven't changed a single setting in months.

Most of these sites are a year old at least.

Can anyone explain why I am getting these ads all of the sudden?

[GuerrillaIM]

Just log into adsense and block the offers you don't want.

If a mortgage calculator offer uses your url or keywords as a trigger then the ad will show on your site.

Also the traffic might not have been converting for some loan offers and they manually excluded your site from their campaign.

[John Hixson]

Originally Posted by Joe Pace

For the last few days my Adsense has been way down... I took a look at a number of my sites and many of them are showing loan related ads, which have nothing to do with my content. I am seeing ads like:

"Loan calculator"
"Get a mortgage loan"

Etc. Etc.

My ads have always been very relevant to my content and I haven't changed a single setting in months.

Most of these sites are a year old at least.

Can anyone explain why I am getting these ads all of the sudden?

have you been looking at sites about these offers?

IIRC Adsense will tailor, to a degree, the adsense offers to what they know about people as well as site relevance. For instance I was shopping for some weight lifting equipment for the home over the last few days - and even now on unrelated web sites I get adsense adverts offering me fitness/weight lifting equipment.

Delete your cookies and sign out of your Google account and then have a look what they are showing.

[Joe Pace]

Originally Posted by John Hixson

have you been looking at sites about these offers?

IIRC Adsense will tailor, to a degree, the adsense offers to what they know about people as well as site relevance. For instance I was shopping for some weight lifting equipment for the home over the last few days - and even now on unrelated web sites I get adsense adverts offering me fitness/weight lifting equipment.

Delete your cookies and sign out of your Google account and then have a look what they are showing.

I don't recall looking at any kind of loan offers.

I thought they only showed those kind of targeted ads to people IF you change the settings in your Adsense though. If you don't activate that setting, the ads are suppose to be based around your content.

It is just very peculiar, because my ads have always been so targeted. It is frustrating because I honestly haven't changed a setting in my Adsense account for several months.

[CliveG]

Ask someone else to look at your site on their own computer and check what they get to see before you make any changes.

[Joe Pace]

Originally Posted by CliveG

Ask someone else to look at your site on their own computer and check what they get to see before you make any changes.

I checked on another browser (Chrome) and the Ads are relevant again to the sites content... so obviously when I'm using my primary browser (Firefox) I am being served individualized ads.

The things that concern me are:

1. I wasn't seeing these ads in my Firefox browser a couple of weeks ago when I checked over my network of sites. All ads were relevant to the content.

2. I am not in the market for a loan and I haven't been searching on Google for loan related information.

3. I didn't change the setting in Adsense to show individualized ads. I haven't touched ANY settings since last November maybe.

Yet I am getting served these ads on my primary browser when I visit my sites. I don't understand what the deal is here and it is a little upsetting...

If it is happening for me, then I am sure it is happening to at least a percentage of visitors to my site as well.

[GuerrillaIM]

Originally Posted by Joe Pace

I honestly haven't changed a setting in my Adsense account for several months.

^this

Block offers you don't want. New advertisers appear and campaigns change frequently.

[Joe Pace]

Originally Posted by GuerrillaIM

^this

Block offers you don't want. New advertisers appear and campaigns change frequently.

I understand what you are saying, but Adsense is suppose to serve relevant ads based around my content.

It hasn't been a problem up until now, and I can't understand how loan related ads would even ever be considered on any of my sites.

It seems like the ads I'm seeing are individualized, even though I'm not searching on any loan information.

How exactly would I block just loan ads?

[GuerrillaIM]

Originally Posted by Joe Pace

Adsense is suppose to serve relevant ads based around my content.

Have a look at how advertisers distribute adverts on the content network and you will see that anyone pretty much can advertise anything on your site if they want to pay.

I have done a lot of advertising on content network. It is the advertisers who decide what triggers their adverts. Have a look for yourself if you do not believe me.

To block offers, log into your adsense account and you will see filtering options. - https://www.google.com/adsense/urlfilter#finding

You can also filter categories in the ad review center but I dont think it will be specific enough for you, URL filetering is probably best.

[KirkMcD]

Originally Posted by Joe Pace

It seems like the ads I'm seeing are individualized, even though I'm not searching on any loan information.

You don't need to have searched in google to see the ads. All you need to have down is visit a site about loans that also shows google based ads or to have visited the advertiser's site.

[gatekeeper1972]

I Noticed the same happened to me, and I couldn't figure out how to change it. I tried, but it still kept coming up with these othere irrelevant ads. Then sometimes, I will see relevant ads. So as you can see in my site. (Which I am working on to make much buetter) I have added a google search bar at the top of every page that relevates it to my site such as right on my Home page , and just about every catagory, related to that particular catagory I have the search bar. On the "Home Page" I have "Simply type in the type of Job Your Looking For" (Right uner the scrolling marquis, and above everything else.) THE Same goes for my E-BOOKS Section- I have writen above the search bar at the top of the page "Simply Type in the Kind of E-book You're Looking for if you Don't want to use our E-Book Mall, in the Search Bar Below"
and so forth. Perhaps this will help. I know I get make the most money on my search bars than anything else, as I said, most of the time the things in my google adwords on the page are irrelivant, and sometimes they are. I don't knw why, and don't know how to fix it, so I just do it that way, so at least something will be rellivant, and I am in control of it. Just a suggestion, and I hope it helps.

[Joe Pace]

Originally Posted by GuerrillaIM

Have a look at how advertisers distribute adverts on the content network and you will see that anyone pretty much can advertise anything on your site if they want to pay.

I have done a lot of advertising on content network. It is the advertisers who decide what triggers their adverts. Have a look for yourself if you do not believe me.

To block offers, log into your adsense account and you will see filtering options. - https://www.google.com/adsense/urlfilter#finding

You can also filter categories in the ad review center but I dont think it will be specific enough for you, URL filetering is probably best.

No I believe you - that isn't the issue like I said.

I realized that I was signed into Google (when I went to Google.com I was signed in). Once I logged out, the ads returned to normal on all of my content sites in Firefox.

It just seems idiotic to have these ads on my content sites, when the relevant ads they have been serving were/are extremely relevant. I worked diligently to get the ads exactly how they are now... so it just irritates me.

The problem with filtering out these type of irrelevant ads, is that I don't know what others who are signed into Google are seeing. Know what I'm saying?

So it seems like no matter what your settings are in Adsense, they will show individualized ads to visitors who are signed into Google?

[paulgl]

Gooogle puts what it thinks is best. Sometimes the they are not
for your exact content. That's why I believe more ads is more
revenue. Sometimes the last ad will be more on target.

The problem with blocking, is that for each one you block, a worse
ad might appear. And as stated, there is a infinite amount just
waiting to take it's place. You can only block so many.

You can target sections of your content, but that may take weeks.

There are also more reasons for a decline in revenue. All of us
can attest to that. You hum along, them bam, shinola for a
little while, then back up as usual. Frustrating to say the least.

The more targeted traffic overall that you get, the better.

Probably the 2 biggest mysteries and head scratchers are
why is my revenue down and why are the ads lousy?

I've never found a 100% clear answer for each.

There are some advertisers that run large placement ads for
a limited time that can really screw things up.

Google did have a huge blog post on revenue:
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/03/...g-revenue.html
but it's not that helpful in explaining fluctuations, but
it sure does explain a lot of technical stuff.

Paul

[Joe Pace]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Gooogle puts what it thinks is best. Sometimes the they are not
for your exact content. That's why I believe more ads is more
revenue. Sometimes the last ad will be more on target.

The problem with blocking, is that for each one you block, a worse
ad might appear. And as stated, there is a infinite amount just
waiting to take it's place. You can only block so many.

You can target sections of your content, but that may take weeks.

There are also more reasons for a decline in revenue. All of us
can attest to that. You hum along, them bam, shinola for a
little while, then back up as usual. Frustrating to say the least.

The more targeted traffic overall that you get, the better.

Probably the 2 biggest mysteries and head scratchers are
why is my revenue down and why are the ads lousy?

I've never found a 100% clear answer for each.

There are some advertisers that run large placement ads for
a limited time that can really screw things up.

Google did have a huge blog post on revenue:
Inside AdSense: Diagnosing and treating revenue fluctuations (Part I)
but it's not that helpful in explaining fluctuations, but
it sure does explain a lot of technical stuff.

Paul

Thx for the reply, Paul.

I have done a lot of section targeting and really tailored my content to get extremely relevant ads. So I guess that is why I am a little irate as I said already.

It just seems odd that I didn't change a thing with my Adsense settings, yet when I am signed into Google, I see these loan ads across my network of sites.

Yet the minute I sign out, the ads are back to being relevant again.

I just assumed you had to change this setting in Adsense to show these individualistic ads to visitors. Obviously visitors signed into Google may not see loan ads, but they could see other non-relevant ads on topics they have been searching on or whatever Google deems they are interested in, as opposed to ads based around my content.

Oh well, not much I can do about it I guess... frustrating.

[k_a_babji]

You can try Account settings in your adsense account. Go to Interest-based ads: Edit it so that it reads "Do not show ads that are based on user-interest categories. Visit information from my sites will not be used to help create interest categories."

Normally, if you have performed a search for loan products and visited some sites, google would store that information and use it the next time you are searching or visiting any web sites.

Change this setting and your adsense ads should be back to context based, not interest based.

[Joe Pace]

Originally Posted by k_a_babji

You can try Account settings in your adsense account. Go to Interest-based ads: Edit it so that it reads "Do not show ads that are based on user-interest categories. Visit information from my sites will not be used to help create interest categories."

Normally, if you have performed a search for loan products and visited some sites, google would store that information and use it the next time you are searching or visiting any web sites.

Change this setting and your adsense ads should be back to context based, not interest based.

So I went and checked on that option like you said and by default it had:

"Show ads based on user interest categories. Visitation information from my sites may be used to help create interest categories"

So I changed it to:

"Do not show ads based on user interest categories. Visitation information from my sites will not be used to help create interest categories."

Is this the best option for most Adsense publishers?

Does this now mean that even when users are logged into Google, they will see ads relevant to my content?

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by Joe Pace

So I went and checked on that option like you said and by default it had:

"Show ads based on user interest categories. Visitation information from my sites may be used to help create interest categories"

So I changed it to:

"Do not show ads based on user interest categories. Visitation information from my sites will not be used to help create interest categories."

Is this the best option for most Adsense publishers?

Does this now mean that even when users are logged into Google, they will see ads relevant to my content?

Joe, I believe that you were probably the only person seeing those loan ads. I'm pretty sure Google tailors ads based on users past search history.

For example, right now I am in Tampa on a mini-vacation and while I've been here, I've done searching for best beaches tampa, sonny's restaurant tampa, etc. On some of my sites now I am seeing ads related to tampa.

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's what they do.

[Joe Pace]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

Joe, I believe that you were probably the only person seeing those loan ads. I'm pretty sure Google tailors ads based on users past search history.

For example, right now I am in Tampa on a mini-vacation and while I've been here, I've done searching for best beaches tampa, sonny's restaurant tampa, etc. On some of my sites now I am seeing ads related to tampa.

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's what they do.

Hey Jacob.

Ya I understood exactly why I was seeing the ads, but my point was that I never set the ads to be that way. I didn't know until about an hour ago that it was the default setting in Adsense.

I just assumed you had to turn the personal ads feature on.

I turned it off as I stated above. Not sure if this will help or hurt my CTR... but it should now make the ads targeted to my content only - correct?

[paulgl]

When I first joined this forum, I asked the same questions as you.
(Not exactly, but huge dips in revenue and ad questions)
I got slapped around, because everybody and their brother
kept saying change your keywords, change your keywords.
Which, when you actually think about it, explains nothing.
I replied with the same things as you, but..., but..., but...
Still the same tired replies. So, rather than arguing, I tried
to change keywords, ad setup, etc. I finally went back to what
I was doing and let nature take its course. Google nature, that
is. And eventually it went back up. But still to this day there
are times where the views are the same, and the revenue is
down on the ground.

I would suggest that the ads you are seeing have little or nothing
to do with the dip in revenue.

There may be some here who I will readily believe that they take
no significant dive in revenue. But I'd wager most are like me.

25 days of humming along, then you have a 25 cent day. Then
a 50 cent day. Or big percentage drops according to your normal
ratio. Like maybe from $100 to $30. And you feel the urge to completely
change everything. I never do that now. I don't fight it. It irritates me
to no end, but we are at the mercy of google. After reading through
google, it seems there are big adwords users who can overtake a
lot of different websites.

Paul

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by Joe Pace

Hey Jacob.

Ya I understood exactly why I was seeing the ads, but my point was that I never set the ads to be that way. I didn't know until about an hour ago that it was the default setting in Adsense.

I just assumed you had to turn the personal ads feature on.

I turned it off as I stated above. Not sure if this will help or hurt my CTR... but it should now make the ads targeted to my content only - correct?

I'm not sure if it will or not. I turned that setting off before and still had the same untargeted ads showing up. I used to change my settings a bunch and block certain advertisers but it never really changed anything for me. So now I just leave the settings alone and my CTR is always good and my earnings only fluctuate a little bit.

Might just be me, but as long as your CTR and earnings are good why mess with it?

[Joe Pace]

Thanks for the replies Paul and Jacob.

I guess at this point I have to decide if turning the "ads based on user interest categories" option off is best or not.

I usually hover between a 7-9% CTR, so I guess we'll see how it goes.

Do you guys have this option on or off?

Anyone else know what the best option between the two is?

Thx all

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by Joe Pace

Thanks for the replies Paul and Jacob.

I guess at this point I have to decide if turning the "ads based on user interest categories" option off is best or not.

I usually hover between a 7-9% CTR, so I guess we'll see how it goes.

Do you guys have this option on or off?

Anyone else know what the best option between the two is?

Thx all

I keep it on. Here's my thinking. Even if there are some ads that aren't relevant to my site, they are relevant to what a user was looking at previously so they still present a good chance that the user will click on them. So no harm even though they are irrelevant.

[k_a_babji]

Originally Posted by Joe Pace

So I went and checked on that option like you said and by default it had:

"Show ads based on user interest categories. Visitation information from my sites may be used to help create interest categories"

So I changed it to:

"Do not show ads based on user interest categories. Visitation information from my sites will not be used to help create interest categories."

Is this the best option for most Adsense publishers?

Does this now mean that even when users are logged into Google, they will see ads relevant to my content?

Yes. It is the best option that we can follow. I use the same option but some ads on my sites are not relevant too, but most of the ads are relevant so I assume this is best.