Is it stuck?

Single ad appearing instead of four

[oaktown]

On my homepage, I have the 300 x 250 AdSense rectangle, which usually serves up four individual ads. For the last few days it has been serving up a single ad that is related to the general topic of the page. Until now there have always been four ads related to specific topics related to specific subjects featured on the page. No I get only this one ad, which is pointing to a major player in the industry. Is it that these people are paying a premium price to have the space all to themselves? Or is it that G's ad serve is stuck in a groove and can't get out? Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[Jenstar]

I would suspect it is due to lack of inventory - either for your IP location, or across the board. Perhaps the others have opted out of content. Or they have turned off their campaigns over the holiday weekend, or dropped their bids so low that it is rarely showing up on the content network, if at all.

Once the AdSense preview tool is up and running again (probably Tuesday) check and see what ads show up in the preview mode. If it only shows one ad, then it is definitely inventory related.

[markus007]

Its definately not inventory related as i constantly get that and i know there are 80 + bidders for each keyword. They have some major problems matching ads to keywords...

[alika]

Are you sure that those 80 bidders are currently bidding on your keywords -- and not in a beach somewhere or evacuating from Florida? This is a long holiday, people are out of their homes and living their lives.

[oaktown]

Thanks to all of you! Please guys, keep it coming.

Jenstar, thanks much, but the problem ONLY occurs on the homepage. I have literally hundreds of other pages running both horiz banners and vert skyscrapers and almost without exception they are running nice targeted ads in the proper amount. Based on this, I have a high level of confidence that lack of inventory is not a factor here at all, since G finds plenty of ads for the other pages. The page in question has lots of good keywords for adsense to latch onto.

markus007, how can I find out how many people are bidding on my keywords? Pleas sticky me if you cannot post the URL.

alika, you're right, the disruption in Florida is probably have an impact, but I would expect it to be reflected on the click-through side rather than the bidding side of the equation. My prayers are with those fleeing for their lives and driven from their homes, but I have questions about what percentage of bidders reside in that particular geographic zone. And yes, given that this is the last big holiday weekend of the summer, there is likely a substantial effect on bidders taking a few last days off.

The question is still before us though...

Why is only ONE ad showing in a box that should have four ads? Is G now allowing advertisers to "buy the table"?

Thanks again folks for the comments. As usual, I'm learning from you and hope to be able to return the favor someday.