Tracking PSA / atlernate ads

Issue with Drop in CTR

[howiejs]

I never bothered with thinking about PSA / alternate ads in the past.

But I have seen a MAJOR drop in CTR
(same traffic site in the program since day 1, etc)

Any suggestions for setting up an alternate ad and tracking the number of times (AND what pages it is appearing on)

and do you need an alternate ad for each ad unit format / size?

(never tried this before)

[howiejs]

<bump>

[elsewhen]

you can use google's collapsing ad unit... which is a small file that you put on your server. if google does not have an ad to display (does not matter the size), this script is called.

the content that surrounds the space for the ad will collapse down and take its place.

then, to track how many times it was called (which will effectively tell you how many PSAs would have been delivered), just check your server logs for how many times that particular url was called.

you will have to change your google code snippets on your page to do this.

one thing i am not sure of... if there are two ad units on a page, and BOTH are PSAa: does this script get called once or twice?

to learn more, visit your adsense account and navigate to:

help >> your adsense account - alternate ads >> What are collapsing ad units and how do I implement them?