Massive ad duplication

Is this new?

[vincevincevince]

I have two ad units, one large rectangle and one wide skyscraper. At present, positions 1-4 on the rectangle are exactly the same as as position 2-5 on the skyscraper. Precisely the same ads.

The publisher ID is identical for both ad blocks, the channels are different, both are on targetable channels. I can't see the value as a publisher in having the same ad twice on a page, and I'm sure advertisers don't like the idea of their CTR going down because of it.

[potentialgeek]

I've seen more repeats/dupes than usual. I'm guessing it's because arbit accounts were dropped and Google has a difficult time filling the ad space. It makes me think of dropping one ad unit, but my EPC has gone up so high lately, I don't feel like "fixing" anything.

Presumably G has tested this dupe issue and found no adverse or significantly adverse issues for CTR. One can only hope it doesn't charge advertisers for two clicks--one on each adjacent ad unit. So if it doesn't hurt us and doesn't hurt them, no worries.

Still, somehow it looks unprofessional, so I'm not thrilled about it. (I've seen other ad networks doing the same thing where adjacent Flash ads run in sync.)

p/g

[dirkji]

I noticed this today as well. Unfortunately my CPC is not very high, although it's slowly getting better.

[fearlessrick]

I've had three straight days of CR*P and I've grown really tired of trying to figure out what's causing the decline. My CTR and eCPM are in the dumps. June will be the 2nd straight month that 2007 earnings are less than 2006. Ugly, but, no, not evil.

Blah...

[MyNewPC]

I've been seeing duplicate ads for ages so I don't think it has anything to do with the arbitrage issue. Does anyone else remember that in the early days of Adsense Google specifically said they didn't allow more than one ad from the same advertiser on a page?