Filter Alert!

Time to check your ads --- again

[ann]

Just looked through some of the ads showing since I was concerned over the low clicks and, wow!.

Everything from shoe sales to ringtones...What happened to contextual advertising? Is it that badly broken? I see that and it is no wonder that clicks are down so badly----if people wanted to go shopping they would look for a completely different site than mine. Grrrrr.

I put about 15 into the filter and only visited a few of my pages! Will check more tomorrow as it is very late here.

Folks this "maintenance" seems to have thrown some things for a loop. Is anyone else noticing a sudden influx of bad ads?

Ann

[piatkow]

Mixed. For my "Elbonian Widget" site the home page ads are totally on topic, the page inside that I checked has a block of 4 ads, one on Widgets elsewhere and three on Elbonian dating sites.

So all picking up keywords but not always in a relevant manner.

[fredw]

Something definitely up over at G. On several of my pages, different sites, right now either one or the other of the page's two ad units is failing (psas) but not the other one.

[mzanzig]

Nope. Can't confirm this. Same ads as ever. Just the usual garbage here and there on deep pages, but all-in-all Google is right on spot.

[Scurramunga]

About seven hours ago I spotted a couple of mistargeted ads today. One was of them was an mp3 site.

[ann]

Well, mine have been on target lately but since the fiddling Google did (maintenance) a lot of MFA's (directory sites-riiiight) which amounts to a list of links and then Google ads, plus some off the wall shopping sites including a well known one using my keywords but that's the only relation to the widgets I write about.

What happened to checking the landing pages and quality control?

Low value clicks from this mix. geeeze---

Ann

[netmeg]

Since the last update (when the admin was unavailable last Saturday) I'm practically out of the AdSense business. Three times as much traffic because my site is seasonal and this is the season, but almost no clicks, and nothing contextual like it was. I'm putting as much in the filter as I dare, but it's almost filled up, the bad sites keep on coming, and most of them are 1 and 2 cent clicks. Two weeks ago my CTR was a solid 10 to 15%; now I'm lucky to get two clicks per thousand impressions. Something is *very* weird. Last year this time was MUCH better; heck it was better a month ago.

[greatstart]

I am also getting loads of those "ringtone" MFAs. I wish there was an easy way to filter all of them buy using the keyword "ringtone".

[youfoundjake]

Thats funny, you guys getting ringtones, those are affordable, I'm getting ads for CARS, and my niche is"nothing to do with cars" i.e coffee beans...

[netmeg]

yea, me too - and by the way, the video ads seem to be VERY slow to load.

[Content_ed]

We've been concentrating on removing pages which convert poorly and attract MFA bids, with the result that our targetting and eCPM are at an all-time best. Our revenue is down a little, since we've removed so many pages, but this seems like the way to go for the time being, and not displaying any ads helps with organic growth. Haven't added anything to the filter since we got really aggressive with this last week - an Adsense eternity:-)

[Play_Bach]

> Is anyone else noticing a sudden influx of bad ads?

Me too Ann. I tried to avoid using the filter for the longest time but was getting so many bogus "survey .. win a free gift" ads and directory crap that now I'm blocking over twenty domains! It's a drag.

[G_Smitty]

I have not added any ads to the filter in over a month. I typically only look at the advertisers when my earnings take a drastic dip. And my earnings have been steady.

[hunderdown]

I'm not seeing a sudden influx of bad ads, but this thread spurred me to check some pages. I found two directory sites and a "paid survey" thing that I've blocked.

I think it pays to do a quick check every month or so just to see what's new.

[carguy84]

Any chance these are ads which advertisers chose to display on your site via "Advertise on this site" links?

Chip-

[hunderdown]

To the best of my knowledge I've never been site-targeted (and we can now see if we are in the reports). And these really don't look like advertisers that would target my site....

[ann]

The ppc is up but clicks and everything else is down. My traffic is about the same so I am hoping for a click dump but with my luck :(

I just wonder if all the talk about checking landing pages, quality and all that for us was just that--talk or maybe just something they plan for the future. I sure hope they get around to doing it soon as Google is a good company and I have reaped benefits from them so I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Just checking ads and keeping on top of things is a full time job, let alone leaving time for site building.

Ann

Added: I opted out of site targeting when it started as it was not a good fit for me.

[annej]

Even if you opt out of the 'advertise on this site' you can still get site targeted ads. I wish we could opt out of them.

[ann]

Anniej,

You have to email Google support and ask them to opt you out of targeting. :)

Ann

[annej]

Thanks Ann, I didn't know that was possible.

[ann]

:)
Just something I found out here on the board.

Well, my traffic is up--clicks only slightly-- but the ppc is in the basement, like 5 cents to 8 cents....I can only hope it gets better.

Ann