Google counting ad units automatically?

Google blocks more than 3 ad units, but my script tries to show more.

[Kongen]

Hi there

I have a question

I want to put an ad unit in top of every post on my website.

Lets say i have 10 post on every page.

That will be 10 ad units. Only 3 is allowed.

Google automatically blocks, so no more than 3 is shown, which is totally fine with me, and then im only showing 3 ad units. Top notch!

But will Google look on this as im trying to cheat, by trying to show more ad units than allowed, or is this just a "service" from Adsense?

If you do not understand my question, please let me know, and rephrase.

[BigDave]

I don't know how Google will view it, but I wouldn't dare try it myself in case they don't like it.

[jomaxx]

The Program Policies are quite clear on this matter. (Hint: I'd read them right away if you're already experimenting with this.)

[Kongen]

Program policies say this:

"Up to three ad units may be displayed on each page."

And im not showing more than 3, because Google automatically cuts off the other ad units, when it exceeds 3.

But is it "illegal" that my site "tries" to show more.

I do not want more than 3 to show, but i have to place them inside a loop, and there are 10 loops on the page.

[gamiziuk]

I have visited a forum where the ads are placed automatically into the second post and the tenth post in a thread. You cannot write messages into the 2nd and 10th posts, the forum software takes them automatically.

Perhaps you would be satisfied with two ad blocks also. (When you place a third one, the click value $ usually gets much lower...)

[LifeinAsia]

I do not want more than 3 to show, but i have to place them inside a loop, and there are 10 loops on the page.

It's easy enough to code logic to not display ads after the 3rd iteration through the loop.

Example in pseudo code:
DO i=1,10
BEGIN
IF i < 4 THEN display AdSense ENDIF
display post
END

[BigDave]

If you are putting it in a loop, just count how many times you just count how many times you insert the code and stop after that.

adcount = 0;
while(posts) {
  if (adcount++ < 3) {
   insert adsense code();
  }
  write_post()
}

[joelgreen]

>> I want to put an ad unit in top of every post on my website.
What is the forum? Some (maybe most) forums have plugins for placing ads in the posts. Directing plugin to insert ad in posts 1,2, and 3 would resolve your problem.

[Hobbs]

Actually I've read on this forum and elsewhere thai it is totally fine to do this as Google will only show 3 anyway, this is exactly how bloggers on Blogspot can have ads in the first 3 blog posts on a page.

Disclaimer: Ask Google!

[Kongen]

Im doing it in Wordpress, and i do not have the developer skills to code a solution myself.

I have asked Google, because I need to be sure of course :)

But it seems like Hobbs got my answer :)

Thanks guys

[Kongen]

Got an answer from Google

<paraphrase>
and they said it would be ok for me to paste the code into each of my posts. They also mentioned that this only applied to me.

[edited by: jatar_k at 12:51 pm (utc) on Mar. 8, 2007]
[edit reason] no email quotes [/edit]

[BigDave]

In other words, they don't necessarily like it, but they have made note of your particular situation.

This is why the advice is always "ask google", even if google told someone else that they could do something. If the TOS is not clear, you want an email from them and a note in your file at google.

[Hobbs]

Yes ask G, there is also an additional explanation.

When your page requests 15 ad units for example, it registers in your ad impressions as 15, even though you get only 3 displayed, that would lead to your CTR, eCPM and eventually your EPC and earnings tanking, for the publishers that ask, they are exempted from their impressions being calculated the normal way and are assigned into another category where their ad impressions default to the max allowed and does not exceed it, they would need to be contacted in order to put a publisher in that category, and they do not like making it a "feature" for all publishers.

[leolapinos]

Hobbs, I think this is not correct, adsense will only count the 3 displaying ones as far as I know. I had the same situation in the past on one of my sites and I frankly never had thought about it until I realised it when reading the tos... But my traffic was matching what the adsense stats displayed.

I could be wrong though :)

[Hobbs]

Or I be wrong too, very possible, we can only guess.

I know for sure that Google counts every ad display requested as an ad impression, do they later on or on the spot count the total allowed only, or not do it at all I'm not sure.

I am saying this because Google counts even non displayed but requested ads that default to alternate ad or PSA as an ad impression.

But one thing for sure, and you can take that to the bank, is that they don't like over what's allowed requests per page, makes sense as they are efficiency freaks.

From a publisher business point of view, I am a one ad unit per page kind of person, and not even an additional link unit, minimalism works best at keeping my CTR high and EPC reasonable that is before that dark Friday :-)

[stormshield]

I have the same problem... no clue how to solve it. I've seen a site that somehow had its ads removed from the main page, while displaying it on other pages. I sent an email asking how to do it, still no answer.

I'm also quite sure that placing many Adsense codes is certainly nothing that Adsense would like, but I can't find a way around it - maybe I', just not trying hard enough bacause this particular website hosted on Blogger has very low traffic:)

By the way, any knows how to change the index page of a blog at Blogspot?