Could AdSense team add this feature?

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who needs it.

[bcc1234]

When there are no ads available, the AdSense control panel gives three options: the public service ads, the color fill, and the custom url.

I stopped running public service ads a while back. And it wasn't because I didn't want someone getting my traffic for free.
One time, one of my site users (a relatively new user) sent me an angry email telling me to "stop pushing my religion onto people".

My site has nothing to do with religion.

I later found out that one of the public ads was from some Christian charity that used a language in their creative that really seemed too pushy for someone who is either not Christian or an atheist.

That was a reason stong enough for me to change all my ad units and instead use a color fill.

I don't have any alternative ads or content that I want to put in place of ads, so using custom url is not for me. I only use it sometimes to track the percentage of people who get to see public service ads.

The problem is, for some site layouts, you really need to maintain a certain size of the ad unit, even if there is nothing in it. The color fill does a great job there.

But for some sites, if that ad unit didn't exist at all, it would be even better. Much better than a white (or other color) rectangle in the middle of the page. And it wouldn't break the layout of the page.

So is it possible to add the fourth option to that list?

Something that wouldn't produce any html markup at all if there aren't any commercial ads available for display?

Then, people whose sites' layouts need consisntency would keep using color fill, while those who don't need it, would opt for no html output at all.

Could you guys please do that? I can't be that hard to implement.

[LifeinAsia]

Most poeple just accomplish this with a custom url. In that template, put a table with the same size as the ad block, with a transparent background.

[bcc1234]

That doesn't accomplish the same thing.
It still leaves a block of empty space on the page.
And when you are talking about large rectangles that are normally surrounded by text, that really looks bad.

Here is an example:

--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
*******-------
*******-------
*******-------
*******-------
*******-------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------

Where - is the text content of the page and * is the ad unit.

Maybe I'm missing something, but currently there is no way to make it disappear by using a custom url. You end up with an empty gap on the page.

Another case a post on the message board.
After the first post on the page, I insert a block.
So when there are no ads to be served, I end up with a large empty space between first and second posts in the thread.

[jomaxx]

Is this what you're looking for?

What are collapsing ad units and how do I implement them?

[google.com ]

[bcc1234]

jomaxx, yes. Thanks. That's exactly what I needed to do.

[LifeinAsia]

Sorry- misunderstood the OP. I thought you wanted to maintain the site structure with empty space. Otherwise, I would have suggested the ad collapsing.

[farmboy]

...sent me an angry email telling me to "stop pushing my religion onto people".

Hmmm. I wonder if anyone has ever received a "stop pushing your ringtones" angry email?

FarmBoy