Is there a way to FORCE adsense ads on topic?

Getting way off-topic ads when others ARE available

[MikeNoLastName]

We haven't been doing adsense long. Today when adding it to some new (new to adsense - long time in the G index) pages, I noticed the ads were almost totally off topic. In this case the page was obviously, predominantly about green widgets, and ranks in the top 10 on G for green widgets. Yet the ads were almost ALL about blue doodads. In this case, on a 50Kb+ page, blue doodads was mentioned once in bold as "blue doodads" and once in bold as "red doodads".

The ad results are somewhat understandable from G's view since the bids on Overture for blue doodads is at least twice that for green widgets, but another page which we have about small green widgets specifically gets 4 times the CPM of our other page which IS about doodads in general because the CTR is much higher and because the ads are on topic.

So is there any way to tell adsense, "hey stupid, I know better than you and I say display at least SOME ads for green widgets which is obviously what G has previously decided this page is about rather than blue doodads which you're currently getting paid more for, but which isn't producing click thrus"?

I also noticed that only the first ad unit was displaying anything. I checked and there are definitely at least a dozen ads about each. Could this be because we first put up the page with ONE ad unit then added the other two subsequently and G needs to recache between changes?

[annej]

Here is what I do. It isn't a sure thing but it gives a little nudge. Just above the adsense tower I put a little phrase that has to do with the page. "enjoy widgetry in your spare time" or whatever. The proximity helps.

[revelstoke]

MikeNoLastName, there may be less adsense advertisers than shown in the google slerps because the adwords advertisers opt out of showing their ads on googles content network (ie sites that show adsense).

You can also filter out certain advertisers if you like as well in the adsense backend.

[suzyvirtual]

I posted about a similar issue last week. I decided to take a "wait and see" approach, and now the ads are much better. They are about 50% off topic, and about %50 right. I figure in a few more days adsense will have it 100% right.

[MikeNoLastName]

Hi revel,
I was using the adsense preview toolbar on a closely related page to determine that there were plenty (i.e. >12) ads available in the category, as well as a google adsense search utility on a website. It was clear they were misconstruing the page topic since 3/4 of the titles specifically said "blue doodads".

I spoke to our G rep and she suggested, "well maybe the 'blue doodads' people were bidding on the term 'green widgets'". But I find this very unlikely since 1. When I search on the subject, NONE of the blue doodads ads show up, there's no reason to. 2. Out of 12 ads, NONE show anything about green widgets. 3. There is absolutely no true feasible relationship between the two items other than that we happen to mention them both on this one very large page. For example think about a 50Kb page about Santa Claus, where he lives, his reindeer, his elves, bios of each, a letter of recommendation from Mrs. Claus, etc. which has two sentences in the middle saying: "Last year I asked Santa for a stripper. I like strippers." and suddenly ALL the ads are for strippers - that's how rediculous it is.

Somehow I would find it truly amazing that so many "strippers" and ONLY strippers are bidding on the term "Santa Claus".

Item 3. above is further confirmed by the fact that we wind up with a .1% clickthru on adsense ads on this page compared with a 19.5% last 3-day average clickthru rate for the related green widget page which shows the correct ads. Makes one pretty sure SOMETHING is wrong, no?

I'm thinking G knows there's something wrong too since it's been three days now and noone has written me back from tech support about it yet.

[HughMungus]

I've noticed that my affiliate ads have affected which ads show (since the site I'm referring to has no overall theme). Try putting some affiliate ads (real or fake) near your adsense ads or as the first thing under the menu (play with it and you'll figure out a good position).

[oziii]

I've noticed that Google have been testing a new feature on some of their bigger publishers that lets the reader choose what sort of ads they want to see. It would be interesting if they not only allowed readers to make these choices but publishers - to ensure the 'right' ads.

[HughMungus]

I've noticed that Google have been testing a new feature on some of their bigger publishers that lets the reader choose what sort of ads they want to see. It would be interesting if they not only allowed readers to make these choices but publishers - to ensure the 'right' ads.

Wow. I suggested this on WW months ago. Something like "Don't show me this ad again." I mean, if you're gonna serve ads and if people must see ads, at least stop serving them ads that are meaningless to them.