Problems with more than one Adsense adunit on same page.

Does anybody had this problem before?

[neocisco]

Hi everybody! I always had only 1 Adsense adunit per page in my site, mostly because for what everybody here says: that less ads means better ad efficiency.
But yesterday I tried to put 2 adunits on the same page and it didn't work.
The first adunit works fine, but the second one only shows PSAs (Public Services Ads). I checked with the Google Adsense Preview Tool to see if the available ads were enough in quantity to fill both adunits, and it was the case.
So.. any advices?

[Tearabite]

how long have the PSA's been showing?

[Khensu]

How long have they been up?

[neocisco]

Well, I tried to use 2 adunits about 2 1/2 months ago, and it also didn't work then. So I left them that way for about 1 month, just to see if they could fix in time. It finally didn't work out so since then I put only one adunit on all my pages.
Now I tried to do the same in another page (on the same site) and tried to put 2 banners (468 x 60) one over the other so I can have 4 ads showed. But it happened again: the second one only shows PSAs, even when there should be enough ads available for showing.
I just asked a friend of mine about this (he also have a site) and if he had ever tried to put 2 adunits on the same page, and he answered he had the same results as myself.
But I just saw a page having 2 adunits working seamlessly and I really don't understand what's going on.

[Tearabite]

i have 2 and 3 ad units on LOTS of pages.. i use collapasable units so i never see PSA's but i do occasionally see no ad at all for 1 or 2..

i'm guessing there just arent any targeted ads.

[neocisco]

If there aren't any targeted ads, then why I see more than 2 ads in the Google Adsense Preview Tool? If I see, let's say, 10 ads there.. then teoretically I should be able to see those same 10 ads on several adunits, right? Even when the maximun ad number per adunit is 5, right?

[david_uk]

From Google help section:-

The ads displayed in the AdSense preview tool are sample ads, based on standard AdSense targeting and filtering.

It's been my experience that the tool shows ads that I've never seen on my pages, it doesn't show ads that are on the page right in front of my very eyes, and it also shows ads I've blocked months ago. (Yes, Nitrous - I HAVE checked the landing page and it IS the same old landing page, not a new one).

So don't rely on what the tool says.

[ann]

Are you referring to the regular ads or the adlink units?

With the adlink units you are allowed only one of those per page.

Google Policies:

See ad placement in the lower half of this document.

[google.com...]

[neocisco]

Thanks david_uk for the tip. I've always suspected a little about this on the Preview Tool. Even if I've never seen in my site and ad not showed in the Preview Tool.
But... one awful thing comes to my mind now... if one can't trust what the Preview Tool shows.. then we can't use it to obtain advertiser's urls for filtering, right?
If that's true then that's something to worry a lot about, since I use the Preview Tool for filtering ads by geografic location. And I can't do that by right-clicking the ad for getting its url... damn...

Ann, I'm referring to standard adunits, not adlinks. I've already read Google Policies about ads location. Thanks for your advice.

Terabite, maybe you're right if david_uk is right also. My site's topic is avian flu, so one can expect not too many advertisers for this topic. Maybe there are simply not enough ads for by 2 adunits to be shown.

[ann]

Sorry, Must have been having a senior moment there :)

Ann

[mattg3]

I have a limited amount of ads too. I now use the alternate code to insert a menu that leads users to the places on my site that still have enough ads or convert well.

[shiva777]

I've found that sometimes the 2nd and 3rd ad unit will be blank...I think maybe when there are not enough targetted ads to show for those keywords on the page?

~shiva

[Foreva]

same problem on my site and im sure there are enough ads - this site is about freebies..
Anyone knows if placement of few ad blocks on 1 page is legal?

[neocisco]

Ann, I'm sorry if I sounded kind of "harsh" by my response. :-)
I'm from Argentina, so english isn't my first language. Really I'm sorry, it seems that what I've written expressed in a wrong way what I really meant. I meant that I've already read the policies, so I expected this not to be such kind of problem. :-)

[neocisco]

Hi mattg3. Well, that's a really really really smart idea! I've been using the alternate url feature, but for showing pictures since I only have adsense for ads.
But your idea is really brilliant. :-)