336x250 only showing two ads?

[maxgoldie]

For the first time I see only two ads in my 336x250, where there normally should be four. Plus the fonts are almost twice as big as normal.

It looks terrible. Any ideas how to get it to show four ads?

(I have opted out of CPM and "advertise on this site".)

[GeorgeK]

Google will automatically pick the number of ads to maximize income. You don't have control over it. I've seen even 1 ad sometimes.

[maxgoldie]

I was afraid of that...

Its just that it makes the site look funny with all this extra whitespace. Kind of makes it look as if the site owner can't sell the empty ad space of something.

[Atomic]

I noticed that every ad on all of my sites changed to 1 or 2 ads rather than 4 this afternoon. This is striking me as odd since it's so widespread. Even a major news site is showing only 2 ads when they were showing 4 earlier today.

I'm looking for more examples but I can't find sites displaying 4 ads right now. I've looked at a good number of sites and it's looking like it's not business as usual at Google. This is gonna cost someone some money big time.

[Atomic]

I'm glad someone finally posted something about this because I've been fretting over it for hours.

[CommonSense]

I am seeing the same thing (2 ads) and it just started today. These are on sites that have had 4 ads for over a year and a half, so I know there is plenty of ad inventory.

[Frequent]

Just to confirm, I too have been seeing a lot of this today. I do however still see 4 ads on occasion.

I would say I'm seeing a 90/10 split of 2 versus 4 ads. Normally I see the opposite split.

$G is definately flicking some switches.

Freq---

[icedowl]

I've also been seeing this today. I do not like it as it looks tacky. It is not giving visitors many choices and the ads that are shown may not interest them at all. I'd rather get a lower value click than no click at all.

[BadSense]

I hate how it looks.

I believe they originally started doing this to counteract the effective strategy of combining images with the ads. When you knew exactly how many ads there'd be, you could line up an image to each one, but a varying number of ads makes it impossible (or just ugly).

[heyday]

I have also been seeing this on all of my sites today...... and yes it messes up the look of my sites.... plus I had a lower CTR today.. anyone else see this?

heyday