336x250 only showing two ads?

[maxgoldie]

For the first time I see only two ads in my 336x250, where there normally should be four. Plus the fonts are almost twice as big as normal.

It looks terrible. Any ideas how to get it to show four ads?

(I have opted out of CPM and "advertise on this site".)

[GeorgeK]

Google will automatically pick the number of ads to maximize income. You don't have control over it. I've seen even 1 ad sometimes.

[maxgoldie]

I was afraid of that...

Its just that it makes the site look funny with all this extra whitespace. Kind of makes it look as if the site owner can't sell the empty ad space of something.

[Atomic]

I noticed that every ad on all of my sites changed to 1 or 2 ads rather than 4 this afternoon. This is striking me as odd since it's so widespread. Even a major news site is showing only 2 ads when they were showing 4 earlier today.

I'm looking for more examples but I can't find sites displaying 4 ads right now. I've looked at a good number of sites and it's looking like it's not business as usual at Google. This is gonna cost someone some money big time.

[Atomic]

I'm glad someone finally posted something about this because I've been fretting over it for hours.

[CommonSense]

I am seeing the same thing (2 ads) and it just started today. These are on sites that have had 4 ads for over a year and a half, so I know there is plenty of ad inventory.

[Frequent]

Just to confirm, I too have been seeing a lot of this today. I do however still see 4 ads on occasion.

I would say I'm seeing a 90/10 split of 2 versus 4 ads. Normally I see the opposite split.

$G is definately flicking some switches.

Freq---

[icedowl]

I've also been seeing this today. I do not like it as it looks tacky. It is not giving visitors many choices and the ads that are shown may not interest them at all. I'd rather get a lower value click than no click at all.

[BadSense]

I hate how it looks.

I believe they originally started doing this to counteract the effective strategy of combining images with the ads. When you knew exactly how many ads there'd be, you could line up an image to each one, but a varying number of ads makes it impossible (or just ugly).

[heyday]

I have also been seeing this on all of my sites today...... and yes it messes up the look of my sites.... plus I had a lower CTR today.. anyone else see this?

heyday

[elsewhen]

i am seeing this as well, and i also agree that it doesn't look as good.

on the other hand, what are you seeing in terms of performance? although i would have expected a drop, earnings seem to be holding up surprisingly well. anyone seeing an impact?

[maxgoldie]

A drop in CTR, but it has just been one day.

I dont know how to counteract this, maybe putting a couple of half banners on top of one another?

I know everytime someone in Google has a bright idea, it costs those of us with good content rich sites money somehow. (and I sure dont have no scraper site)

[jonathanleger]

This is the case with all of my sites as well (most of which have no images anywhere near the ads), and it's cut my CTR in half. I hope they fix this horrible problem soon.

[Frequent]

If you want to see something really goofy check out an adlinks unit with only one link in it. I've been seeing a ton of those on my sites and they look even worse that the regular ad units.

Freq---

[tdotn]

This has been happening for the last few months, and ever since it started, my earnings almost doubled. its a good thing, I think advertisers are paying more for those bigger ads

[Frequent]

tdotn,

This has not been happening for the past few months.

There have been changes to adsense including site targetting and google adspace revenue "optimization" (which this appears to be an extension of) that have a similar effect but this is a very broad change that started yesterday.

In my case I am seeing a huge drop in CTR that is most likely due to this change.

In your case it may be site targetted ads making up the earnings growth. Has you CTR increased or just your CPM?

Of course, every site integration is different and it may in fact be the expanded ads that are working well on your site.

Freq---

[tdotn]

I have 300x250 ads on my site and they have been showing 1, 2 or 4 ads interchangeably for the past few months, when 4 ads are showing, the fonts are smaller, when 1 or 2 ads are showing, the fonts are bigger. This has been happening since August. Before this change, my CRT average 0.7%, after this change, my CRT average 1.1%, and my CPM doubled.

Look here: [adsense.blogspot.com...]

[Atomic]

My CTR and earnings are surprisingly steady. For now. Whatever is going on can't be related to images because I am seeing 1 or 2 ads on sites without images and it's occuring in highly reputable websites.

Could it have to do with the AdSense landing page quality scoring? Could it have to do with advertisers getting wise to the fraud click/low quality traffic explosion in recent weeks? I sure hope so.

[ziajunu]

I see it in my several sites but it increased Page eCPM today.

[21_blue]

I see it on some pages, but the CTR and eCPM has roughly halved for us on those pages. As someone else has pointed out, Google probably introduce ideas like this because, on average they provide a better eCPM, but for some individual sites they will reduce income.

This is probably too much to ask, but it would be good if Google could provide a "control panel" where we could enable/disable all the variations of ads they develop, account-wide or by site, directory or page. That way, we could choose the options that work best for us, and it would thereby increase the average income overall for Google.

[Frequent]

That would be awesome 21_blue. However, I think $G is already having some capacity issues and that would definately take some power.

I would love to see that though.

Freq---

[jonathanleger]

I take it back. After reading this thread later in the day, I checked my eCPM, and it has risen by 70% (my CTR went back to normal, too).

Bring on the ugly ads Google! :)

[heyday]

I've talked to a few of my other associates who have seen their Adsense Income cut in half

Hopefuly it won't stay like this....

heyday

[Atomic]

Doing this can't mean that everyone makes more money. I think there's a lot more to this than increased CTR or eCPM. I have no data to back up suspicions but why is almost everyone experiencing this? Why is it happening now?

[beggers]

I expected to see some image ads in the 336x250 space but I've never even seen one.

[maxgoldie]

I have no data to back up suspicions but why is almost everyone experiencing this? Why is it happening now?

My thoughts exactly. Something is afoot here all of a sudden again.

What if their idea that only the best performing ads will display, doesnt actually work all the time, and if instead, we just get ads from scraper/MFA sites displayed?

[Frequent]

I too think that some big switch was thrown at the plex.

And, although I don't care for the look of the "short stack" ads I must admit that I am also seeing a much better ad targetting on many pages that Google has struggled with in the past.

Freq---

[maxgoldie]

Maybe part of G's motivation is a response to YPN ads.

Could it be that they want to differentiate the look of their ads from YPN, should people become "ad-blind" to contextual ads in general?

Maybe that idea is in here somewhere?

[annej]

I don't know how I missed it yesterday but my earnings were just fine. Today I'm down a little. The CTR has been fine both days.

The really strange thing to me is that is only happening on the rectangular ads. All my skyscraper ads are showing the full number of ads.

I wonder if it's just a temporary glitch in the rect ads. If it was just a matter of a end of the month shortage of ads you would think they would spread what ads they have over all sizes and shapes of ad units.

Anyway it's a great relief to find it's not just my sites.

[Atomic]

If it was an ad shortage you would think skyscraper ads would be effected. I have to admit that today's eCPM is right there with my best days this month but it's nowhere near my best. But it is the end of the month when advertisers often run out of funds. I guess I can't complain about the earnings but the way it happened had me in a panic. I wondered if I had done something wrong or had somehow angered the Google gods necessitating a trip to the high school computer lab in search of a virgin offering to appease them.