AdSense has disabled the ability to display multiple ad units

Only the first ad unit in the source code will display

[longen]

I've noticed that if you put two adsense units on a page, only the first block displays. The second unit just becomes a blank space instead. So no need to worry about being penalised for having duplicate units.

[richmondsteve]

Interesting, but I'm not seeing the same. If that's something they're testing with a subset of publishers that's encouraging. I'm looking at another publisher's site right now and it shows 2 leaderboards per page and all slots are filled with AdWords advertisers' ads. Also note, that bad JavaScript code and setting the alternate ad color to match the background color would have the same effect you described.

[Jenstar]

There are beta testers who are permitted multiple ad units (who are not premium publishers).

However, I can confirm that multiple ad units per page for non-beta has now been changed to display one ad unit maximum.

<added> It will probably cut down on all the reports on publishers who DO show more than one. </added>

[venuma]

Just curious to find out whether they have implemented it on framed pages or just one page displaying multiple Ad units.

[wwuser]

I saw multiple ad units on another page, and so I decided to try it. I already had a skyscraper and I added a button at the top of the page on Saturday the 31st. This is a simple, table based layout page with no frames.

Generally, both units display ads. Occasionally, one or the other appears blank, but I have the alternate_color set to be the same as the page background, so this would happen if they were in PSA-mode, too (which actually never happened with one unit, so it's probably not happening now).

I looked at the Program Policies for adsense, and it's arguably OK to do this:

"Multiple ad units may be displayed on each Web site page, but no ad unit shall contain any advertisement in common with any other ad unit. Serving two or more identical ads on a single page constitutes double-serving, which Google does not support."

The bit about not containing the same advertisement as another unit makes me wonder if this really applies, though. That part wouldn't make too much sense, since we don't control which ads appear where. Do you all know anything about this? I can say that I haven't seen the same ad appear in both units.

I'm thinking about taking the button unit down anyway, because it seems to be inflating my page impressions (doubling them for that page, I suppose), but the total clicks don't seem to be going up -- it appears to mucking up my good data without much benefit.

[Rodney]

wwuser, it is against google policies to display more than one ad unit on a page.

The TOS wording was clarified in this forum by a Google employee.

[wwuser]

ahem - thanks - I should stop by more often. Easy on, easy off...

[Sunflux]

I noticed this as well (in my ad management software which displays samples of all AdSense code units I have running on a single page). Up until three or four (or so) weeks ago, all ad units would show on this page with identical content. Now:

The first ad unit displays ads.
The second ad unit loads but is blank.
The third ad unit loads but is blank.
Fourth and higher ad units do not load at all (occupy no space).

This leads me to believe that they are indeed actively working on the capability of delivering non-identical ads to several (3?) ad spaces on a single page.