Another strange phenomenon: EMPTY ads

show only the "Ads by Google" link...

[tombola]

Since a few days, I noticed that CTR dropped significantly. To my surprise, I discovered that on a lot of pages, there were no Adsense ads at all, only the background color and the "Ads by Google" link.

I wonder whether these empty ads also count as impressions (thus causing a drop of CTR).
Did anyone else notice that phenomenon?...

[added]By using a proxy server, the ads appear normally...[/added]

[adfree]

Seen it 10 minutes ago, just once.

[illusionist]

yah i saw it for the first time on my site too, wonder whats up with google....

[longen]

Now that Windows doesn't crash so often we could borrow the phrase "blue screen of Death". for empty Google boxes. :)

[Jenstar]

At least it doesn't also have "This blank space is brought to you by Google" ;)

Is it limited to a certain ad size, such as just the banners? Or are people seeing them on all the sizes?

Should it something to do with the alternative ads gone awry, so they are displaying blanks instead of PSAs or the chosen alternative ad?

I have been watching but haven't seen anything yet.

[adfree]

I've seen it more often now tonight and I am running 300x250's...

[Visi]

Well finally got to experiance this lunar effect.....in a leaderboard ad format. Guess Google showing no favorites when it comes to this effect.

[Visi]

Jen, not alternative ads....seen it on page that does not have this feature installed. From not seeing this too 25% of main index pages in a few minutes. Is showing on pages where only one ad rather than four showing lately.

Seen on IE6.

<visi edit: added ie6>

[superpower]

I've seen this a couple times. It worries me a bit because also my Adsense clicks have dropped 50% with the same amount of traffic to the pages. Not sure if this has something to do with it...

[beggers]

I've had this problem all day today. No PSA's at all, just a blank ad. Well, I guess I should say that I'm assuming these are supposed to be PSA's. I hope they aren't supposed to be paying ads!

[Jenstar]

I still haven't seen any, but I have seen PSAs. Are those that are seeing these blank boxes still seeing PSAs as well?

Could there be some sort of weird geotargeting quirk that is only affecting certain countries/regions?

Next time someone sees one, click on the "Ads by Google" link - usually it will list the ads that appear in each AdSense impression. Is there anything unusual there on the ad feedback page?

[tombola]

Seems these empty ads have all disappeared now.

Like I said in message #1: when I used a proxy server to visit my site, the ads were there.

[adfree]

Looks a whole lot better now for me too, targeting is better as well.