Don't want my competitors ad on my site...

[DavidIL]

I was thinking to put AdSense on my web page, but I afraid that they will show my competitors ads.
Lets say I sell Janet Jackson DVD's and I want the ads to be JJ related but no DVD related. Can I do something like that?

[Shak]

block your competitors URL!

Shak

[DavidIL]

I have 1000 competitors... Can't block all of them.
There isn't a "-keyword" option?

Many times I visit pages that sell a product and I see that they are advertising their competitors. Now what can be more stupid than that?

[Shak]

not gonna argue, but if thats the case, why bother with adsense.

you may think its stupid, others will think its very productive.

Shak

[too much information]

my take on it is that I know my service is better and my price is better. If someone wants to click through to my competator to find out, it's fine with me.

Although your product example makes that logic a bit tougher. But if someone is going to 'keep shopping' they are going to leave your site even if there is no link there. People already know you are not the only source for DVDs and they will price shop with or without your help.

At least with AdSense it isn't completely a useless visit.

[Nikke]

Stupid or not, but if you have thousands of competitors, and a lot of your visitors will compare your prices/services to them anyway, why not make a some money on the compairision?

[loanuniverse]

I think that your mileage might vary and you will only know by trying it out over a period of time and a large enough sample if it is worth it to let competitors in.

[birdstuff]

I make a lot of money from my "competitors". (Or should I say "partners"?)

A visitor clicks on an AdSense ad, my "competitor" pays me for the click, the customer compares our services and prices, then returns to buy from me. How could things be better?

Of course if your products/services/prices aren't competitive you may lose out in the end. If so, it's best to run a strictly informational site or drop AdSense. IMO of course.

[jomaxx]

A lot of people have asked for some kind of functionality to help them competitors' ads and wrongly targeted ads, but there's nothing available right now.

It's your call whether it's worth running AdSense or not, but my feeling is this: When I see AdSense on a content-type site, I don't think any less of the site. After all, labor- and resource-intensive websites have to have SOME business model. But when I see AdSense (or banner ads, or popup ads) on a site whose core business is selling me a product or service, I always wonder how serious and how successful they are. I may not be the typical web surfer, but I've definitely left sites cluttered with ads in search of more professional merchants.

[figment88]

you don't need to block all of your competitors only the ones that use AdSense.

You might take a few hits while figuring out who's showing on your site, but as others have pointed out competitor clicks usually pay pretty well and may help you close a sale if you are really better.

[loanuniverse]

But when I see AdSense (or banner ads, or popup ads) on a site whose core business is selling me a product or service, I always wonder how serious and how successful they are.

I agree.... seeing ads in an ecommerce site makes me wonder specially if the ads are for a competing product. Then again nobody here is a typical user.

[DavidIL]

Well, I also don't like ecommerce sites that show ads, but we are not typical users. I don't think most surfers think about these things.
Our page has lots of info on it and I think many of our visitors come for the info and not for the product. (50,000 visitors a month) But still, you have to remember that many people will buy in your shop simply because they got there first. If they like what they see maybe they will buy it. If they like what they see but will also see an ad for your competitor's page, they may click on the link and never come back.

[europeforvisitors]

I agree with loanuniverse: Try it and see what happens. With AdSense, there's no long-term commitment, and you can start running ads or pull them from your site at any time.

(Side note: I'm another one of those people who feels uncomfortable about buying from e-commerce sites that run third-party ads. To me, it just doesn't look very professional, and it makes me wonder how stable the e-commerce site's business is.)

[birdstuff]

I'm another one of those people who feels uncomfortable about buying from e-commerce sites that run third-party ads. To me, it just doesn't look very professional, and it makes me wonder how stable the e-commerce site's business is.

My net profits from sales are up 30% with just a 5% increase in traffic in the months since I began running AdSense. It appears that my customers don't agree (but it might well depend on the market sector).