Can't see ads on pages with multiple ads

[vistasoul]

Hi, recently I've added a 2nd banner ad to my site.. but for some reason.. the ad doesn't show up all the time.. infact most of the time when I access the page.. the ad just shows up blank. other times I see it fine.

why is this?

[jardin]

Sometimes adsense can't find enough relavent ads to show, so it doesn't show up at all. Consider yourself lucky that at least one of the ads shows :)

[vistasoul]

Thanks very much for the reply... but question..

Do you think it's doing this because the 2nd ad is so close to the first one?

Here is how my ads are laid out, so you have a better understanding of what I'm talking about:

I have a forum.. it's an invision board. The first ad is at the VERY top of the page... the 2nd ad is between the first and 2nd post in the thread.

Do you think that's too close?

[jardin]

I don't think the AdSense robot can tell how far apart your Ads are. For topics that are fairly broad, like in a forum, it's not uncommon for this to happen. I visit a forum very often that uses AdSense and a lot of the time I see PSAs and they only have a single banner ad.

If your site is fairly new, it will take the AdSense / Google bots a while to come up with decent ads, and a decent amount of ads. In good time you'll probably see the empty ads fill up.

[vistasoul]

I just thought about something... if the bot can't find anymore keywords to create the ad... shouldn't it atleast show the public service ads?

It doesn't even show that.

[david_uk]

I just thought about something... if the bot can't find anymore keywords to create the ad... shouldn't it atleast show the public service ads? It doesn't even show that.

Didn't for me either. Whilst I was trialling two blocks, I never once saw ads in one block and PSA's in the other - it was always blank.

I would say that if the ads aren't filled, then it may be an idea to remove the block. My personal experience with multiple blocks was that the ctr of the page went down, and I have a feeling that smart pricing reduced the cost per click of the good ads accordingly. Removing the second block restored the ctr and earnings. Use channels to monitor the performance of ad blocks, and remove them if they don't pay their way!