Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I also notice them as well. The funny thing is, I have noticed them off and on since I started the program in July. And whenever I get them, I see CTR and revenue drop. This usually lasts from a few days to a couple of weeks
And then out of the blue, I start getting better targeted ads, and sure enough CTR and revenue increase. So I believe sometime around mid-April Adsense will start sending better targeted ads my way.
Interesting side note:
In an e-mail that I received from Google yesterday, I was told that AdSense only targets ads based on "overall site content, not keywords." That's news to me--and to advertisers. (It also didn't make sense in the context of the e-mail, since ads for "marble vanities" or "mahogany entrance doors" might be related to keywords such as words "marble" and "door" on the page but certainly have nothing to do with my travel site's overall content.)
Also, I was told that Google is testing new filters that will offer publishers a variety of advertising targeting options. Let's hope we get the filters soon, and that they help to solve the problem of consistently mismatched ads.
My site is travel related for a popular destination in Europe.
Today I had ads for Colorado and Condos in Florida.?
The keywords in the Ads were not related to my page nor destination.
My earnings so far this month is only down slightly but if this carries on I can see a big downturn.
Above all I don't like the arrogance of Google saying we have it right in the newsletter. They said that with the Florida, Brandy and other major updates.
Will have to give it a full month before I or we can see any real difference.
In an e-mail that I received from Google yesterday, I was told that AdSense only targets ads based on "overall site content, not keywords." That's news to me--and to advertisers.
Any idea how they would implement this on a site that has only one page with AdSense and no pages in the Google SE?
The traffic to the site is 100% PPC, and the AdSense code only went on a page that was not making money to attempt to monetize it, at least in a small way.
MQ
I look forward to Google offering the capability for the publisher to specify which "categories" of ads each of his pages is more suitable for. To define the context in which the words on the page are to be interpreted.
At Pubcon Gokul Rajaram told us to place the AdSense code as close to the targeted keywords as possible to prevent mistargeting.
I've had some success overcoming mistargeting by moving text around on a few pages. In some case where moving text wasn't practical, I was able to addor delete words to achieve the better targeting.
It may be important to note that
AdSense code as close to the targeted keywords as possible
seems to mean as close as possible in the source code, as opposed to on the visible page.
I've also used the url blocking tool to dump some ads that simply wouldn't go away.
I've also used the url blocking tool to dump some ads that simply wouldn't go away.
I've tried that, too, but there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of irrelevant ads for certain topics. (Caribbean hotels, for example--if I try to block the high-bidding sites, I just get irrelevant ads from the low bidders.)
sigh.... I nearly took adsense off a couple of pages where I had a real struggle getting properly targeted ads.
On the other hand, I wonder if Google is still tweaking things. I suspect so.
That's good, but it can confuse the issue between what they do, and what the publisher does.
I have an annotated list of books that are recommended reading for college-bound high school students.
It used to have ads, when it was just a list. Then I annotated with brief descriptions of what each book is about.
Alt ads all the way. An amazing amount of classic literature involves murder, suicide, adultery, etc.
If the algo were really able to figure out what the page is about, the stop words wouldn't be an issue.
That's what I've tried as well but so far with little luck. Just minor improvements. And there is no doubt at all what the pages are about, and there is no shortage of on topic ads.
But it's a new site and I am patient to give it a try. Google promised some relevancy improvements in their recent newsletter so let's wait and see. But I'm very surprised the way it is now. Something I didn't expect at all.
Just added a site selling ad*lt stuff.
There is no way I will tolerate that sort of thing on my classic car site.
I'll run out of blocking options pretty soon at this rate. And that's after not having a blocked list before April 1, 2004 at all.
I did email the adsense folks about this decline in the accuracy of targeting. It'll be interesting to see their resonse.
It makes me wonder just how carefully Google reviews adwords ads submitted, and keywords/phrases targeted, by advertisers.
I can live with the money I'm getting, but not the mis-targeted ads.
It's amazing to watch really.
Interesting to note:
The Adsense letter talked about BETTER targetting, and possibly lower rates. We're getting worse targeting, but we aren't getting higher rates. It's almost comical.
I uploaded the file and viewed it in the browser. After Mediabot crawled the page the AdSense skyscraper displays 1 ad for widgets and 3 ads for gadgets, even though the gadgets were referenced just once on the page, in one tip out of a total of 20.
A Google search on buying widgets gives 3 pages of ads before repeating, and these ads show up all over other sites dealing with widgets, so the problem isn't due to a lack of available content ads for widgets.
Silly me, I thought the recent changes to the targeting algorithm were supposed to fix this problem.
I was tempted to redo my text so the ad targeting would be better, but these are important keywords. Wouldn't doing so affect my Google ranking also?
I look forward to Google offering the capability for the publisher to specify which "categories" of ads each of his pages is more suitable for. To define the context in which the words on the page are to be interpreted.
This would help so much!
I was tempted to redo my text so the ad targeting would be better, but these are important keywords. Wouldn't doing so affect my Google ranking also?
That's an important consideration Broadway.
I think such changes could well impact your Google ranking. Given such a choice, I'd be more inclined to favor the rankings over the ads.
Strangely, this isn't effecting CTR or the amount earned - yet. I just hope Google gets this straightened out soon - the ad quality over the last couple of days has really gone way down.
Edit : Just quick example - an ad for hiking Hawaii on a page about Montana history? And an ad for golf clubs on a page about skiing?
Jim
Hehe - and just found some others - for example a page on health insurance showing 4 for 4 ads about auto insurance. Nice!
And, I should add, that some of the pages are showing ads that seem to be targeted towards keywords that do not even exist once on the page - how is Google looking at a page about sport medicine and deciding ads about dry eyes are appropriate?
In an e-mail to me, a Google support representative explained that ad targeting is determined by the theme of the site and not by the keywords on the page. That contradicts what publishers and advertisers have been told in the past, of course, and it wouldn't explain why ads for marble vanities or mahogany entrance doors are in a review of a luxury hotel in Venice, Italy, or why ads for St. Martin/St. Maarten hotels are in an article about a Lutheran monastery in Germany where Martin Luther took his vows.
In an e-mail to me, a Google support representative explained that ad targeting is determined by the theme of the site and not by the keywords on the page.
I wonder how they think this would explain ads for videos or ad*lt t*ys on a site/page about classic cars.
My guess is they aren't all reading from the same script all the time. Not having everyone reading from the same script all the time may not be hard to understand, but it's still frustrating.
In an e-mail to me, a Google support representative explained that ad targeting is determined by the theme of the site and not by the keywords on the page.
This would seem to be a big mistake, and directly contradicts GG's recommendations for how to build sites for Google search.
MQ
Google, please change your adsense algorithm back to what it was before April 1st.
