Targeting has gone off its rockers!

I think the mediabot has gotten its eyes crossed.

[icedowl]

No page on any of my sites has the slightest connection to the ads I've just seen on one page. The page content relates to a type of food but the ads I just saw are for paint, lamps, auto care and Nintendo. My only guess is that words such as "color" and "texture" that are on this page might result with the "paint" ads. The other ads are totally out of line, like they were slapped on there for filler.

Previously this page has always had appropriate ads for the content. It's not a new page by any means and has been onsite for nearly a year.

Anyone else seeing similar problems?

[jretzer]

I've noticed this today. The ads on my sute are suddenly serving up ads for industrial machinery and heating systems. My site has absolutely nothing to do with these, and I've been looking hard to see if there are any keywords there that could have triggered it.

I'm thinking about starting a site on industrial machinery and heating systems. :)

[miguelito]

Same here, yet another google error which will cost publishers in terms of revenue that they will never admit to and hope we forget about when they finally correct it.

Do i sound bitter? :P

[europeforvisitors]

I've had some really bad targeting in the past two days, such as New York and San Diego travel ads on European travel pages.

EPC, CTR, and eCPM have all dropped sharply (eCPM by about a third).

Targeting snafus happen every so often, but this is probably the worst in my experience, at least in terms of its effect on revenue.

[Visi]

Noticed a sharp decrease on Tuesday. Just thought it was same problem adwords users were seeing not getting service. Perhaps something else has happened. Starting to see some recovery late today from this.

[maxgoldie]

This is the biggest mystery to me -- I wonder what causes these ad targeting snafus across the board like this, for so many different publishers -- and across so many different niches, all at once like this?

[danimal]

my blocked sites list was already almost full, but i'm still seeing some bad targeting.

a record first half of the month for earnings, but way, way down for the last several days... this is a disaster, i hope they make up for it before the end of the month.

[indias next no1]

for the last 2 days, my eCPM and CTR getting down. worried

[incrediBILL]

The only thing I've reported lately is "AdSense Low or Slow" as I'm seeing good targeting but the ad servers are either running low on inventory or timing out under the strain.

What I mean by that is that my 3 ad blocks are randomly not appearing on pages which makes zero sense with AdLinks so I'm suspecting AdSense is suffering from growth problems.

Here's an example, hit reload on a page a few times you get 3 ads, 1 ad, 2 ads, 1 ad, 3 ads, etc.

That crap makes me wonder if they aren't hitting a threshold and about to tank.

[david_uk]

My main site has been fine for targetting. Earnings are only middling for the amount of clicks though. I wish they would vary the expanded ads occasionally.

My blog however has got some very mysterious targetting on, but I have been putting that down to the fact it's just moved to a new domain.

[remove]

i'm getting criminal defense on my politics site. oh well, i guess since politicians are criminals and all, it isn't too far off. :p

still, less focused than normal though.

[Mistra]

Same here. I thought it was due to my new web site that I just uploaded the other day.

[peewhy]

One of my sites has doubled its revenue with non targeted ads!

Its stranger than fiction.

[Hobbs]

what causes these ad targeting snafus across the board like this, for so many different publishers

- A contextual Algo change?
-Testing same sites for new topic opportunities? (Expanding horizons)
- A simple Screw-up

[endomorph1]

I think this problem may have started when I first posted this thread last week -

[webmasterworld.com...]

Probably is an algo update. Im sure someone said that the algo for Adlinks had been refined.

My problems have solved themselves now as I found our what was causing the problem.

I had the word "murderer" in a news topic title.

Boy did that mess things up. Took me best part of two days to realise this was the problem.

I took it out, all the ads came back fine. I put it back in just to test, and sure enough, the ads went screwy again.

I think I also discovered how to test if a particular word is a "stop" word.

1. Ensure you have the Adsense preview tool.
2. Go to Google and search for the suspect word.
3. No ads on the right? 80% this is a stop word.
4. Use the preview tool. Ads of totally no relevance? Definite stop word.

I could be wrong, but it worked for me.

[remove]

damn. i won't be able to use the adsense preview tool until they make it for firefox os-independent unfortunately.

[elfred]

Nice (?) to read that I'm not alone :-)

[Chris_H]

Ditto. I'd had enough when a tonne of Chinese ads were plastered around my blatently British tourism-related website, so I sent Adsense a screenshot, and got the usual "well, we examined your site and could only see targeted ads blah blah".

They're back to normal(ish) today, but earnings have plummetted.

[malachite]

but earnings have plummetted

Mine too, yesterday and today. I'm also seeing US-oriented ads on a UK-focused site, and god only knows what the rest of the world is seeing - obviously not too many ads they want to click on :(

EFV mentioned the ads he was seeing were mis-targetted, although they looked fine here (UK). Maybe G's got its geo-targetting screwed up.

[aparks859]

I had the same problem but I have taken control of them for the most part after reading Googles info on how it works. I now use Inline frames for my ads, I Have used Mortgage ads, sturctured settlement ads, vioxx ads, the problem is finding ads the will work for your viewers.

[edited by: martinibuster at 10:32 am (utc) on Jan. 22, 2006]
[edit reason] Removed URL per TOS [webmasterworld.com]. [/edit]