Adsense & google_alternate_ad_url

What do you guys run for alt ads?

[twinsrul]

I just found out about the adsense alternate ad url option. Now I can get rid of all the stupid PSAs that appear sometimes. What do you guys run for alternate ads? Right now, I have a blank webpage temporarily for now, just to get rid of the PSAs but I'm wondering what else to do. Any ideas?

[dazzlindonna]

sign up for an affiliate program related to your subject matter and run an ad for it.

[jonknee]

I use ads from Comission Junction (an affiliate program service).

[adfree]

I use links coming back to general offers at my site, on those again I got AdSense ads running.

This way I do not lose any traffic for unpaid public ads served by Google and I get to promote specials, seasonal stuff etc.

[dhaliwal]

well its good to use the alternate ads,

i wish to ask if google would permit text ads from someone like bidclix which serves the same kind of advert as google adsense does?

any voilation as far as TOS concerned?

[adfree]

<if google would permit text ads from someone like bidclix

This is exactly what Google does not want, any type of competing ads in a similar format. You would violate the TOS in the most obvious and most dramatic way.

[JinxBoy]

I just use a blank gif in background color....

Looks clean, and no stoopid PS ads

[richmondsteve]

twinsrul, for the most part I load text promoting a small number of affiliate products/services which are a good fit for my site and my users with links to either click to the affiliate site or an internal page for more information. I've also used the AAs to display "did you know?" type facts about my site or the site's topic, to list top sections or new sections of my site and to encourage users who aren't logged in (and are therefore probably not registered) to register.

[ronin]

This is exactly what Google does not want, any type of competing ads in a similar format.

This isn't an issue with alternative ads. I contacted AdSense a while back about using **** as an alternative ad and they said this would be acceptable. Somebody else got confirmation from Google that an Amazon Web Services script called AGAR was also acceptable as an alternative ad.

You may not show competing ads on the same page as AdSense. But if you're using the ad to replace PSAs... it's not competing with AdSense.

Oh dear I appear to have been censored. The four stars replace a reference to A d S o n a r.

[twinsrul]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I think I'm just going to leave it alone & blank for now like JinxBoy does with my website color matching background. Looks a lot cleaner.

But by any chance, does anyone know a general affiliate program that actually has paid out recently? I here there's alot of fraud in that area with people not getting checks. I trust Google Adsense beacuse of the name. Like Amazon.com Associates?

[loanuniverse]

CJ Banners. And although I have made sure that the ads are in the widget family, the CTR is attrocious.

[yump]

Depending on your website, perhaps worth assessing the likely impact (+ or -) of PSA ads, regardless of whether you don't like giving away free traffic?

[loanuniverse]

I thought about letting PSAs run, but I already got a charity campaign going in my front page, and even with the poor CTR there are still a couple of dozen clicks in the couple of months since I switched from CPM.

I have even been able to get a couple of sales/leads from those clicks so they are worth the trouble in my case.

[Rodney]

I just let the PSAs run. My little contribution :)

[europeforvisitors]

What do you guys run for alternate ads?

I don't run alternative ads, because I hardly ever see PSAs on my site. Google does a pretty good job of serving "on theme" ads when it can't find keyword-targeted ads. (OTOH, it's possible that PSAs are being served by the bushel in other geotargeted regions, so maybe it's time for me to check!)

[loanuniverse]

(OTOH, it's possible that PSAs are being served by the bushel in other geotargeted regions, so maybe it's time for me to check!)

That is almost a certainty. For example, only 1% of the visitors to my website are from India "according to my log analyzer", but they make up 6% of the people seeing my alternate ads, when I filter "include" only the visitors that accessed my alternate ad file.

[europeforvisitors]

I don't mind PSAs, as long as they're relevant to readers in the target market. Do readers outside the United States get localized PSAs? (I've never thought to check.)