How do you block a Doubleclick ad?

[netmeg]

So I have this one 160x600 image ad that seems to have taken over my site this weekend. Not terribly relevant to my site - it's a rather generic computer company ad, and probably got some clicks, but nowhere near as well targeted as my usual text ads. I could be wrong, but I believe it is *both* site placed and regular CPC.

I went into the Ad Review Center, and it was there, so I blocked it. 24 hours later, it was still all over my site. So either the ad was not really site placed, or else the Ad Review Center blocking feature doesn't work.

So I looked at it with the AdSense Preview tool, but it didn't show up. Then I tried blocking it by the computer company name, but 18 hours later it was still there.

So then I went back to the Ad Review Center to investigate further. First of all, there's a line that says "Advertiser of <url>" I click on the url, and get a 404 on the advertiser site. That's not encouraging.

Then I notice when I mouse over the sample ads or the link under them, I get a Doubleclick tracking url with no indication whatsoever of the company name. So from this I have no idea if this is a CPM ad, a CPC ad; I'm pretty sure it's not a referral ad because I didn't sign up for one.

So it appears that if I want to get rid of this *one* ad that I'm tired of seeing, I either have to block *all* image ads from that spot, or I have to block Doubleclick ads from my sites, meaning I'm probably cutting out other ads too - or most likely, both.

I don't think it's supposed to work like that, is it?

[ken_b]

have to block *all* image ads

That was my understanding, but I could easily be wrong about that.

But I think (and hope) something may be messed up with ad serving at the moment.

I have image ads turned off on most of my site, but yesterday one the the "text only" blocks ran about 10% targeted ads. Thats WAY higher than I've ever seen in that situation. Text only is my default setting for the site.

That was also the spot with the worst CTR for CPC ads on the page, (I'm just testing the location).

[netmeg]

Well as I mentioned elsewhere, I like having occasional image ads, but I don't like it when a particular ad 'moves in' and doesn't seem to rotate with the other ads. For one thing, I can at least format the text ads to the colors of my site - I can't do anything about a particularly jarring image ad except block it. Also, I seem to have this situation where I have an ad that is showing non-stop on my site, and I can't tell which Google property it's coming from, nor can I block it without putting overly harsh restrictions on my ad block.

The bottom line here is - Google knows which ad pays the best, and presumably it's serving that ad because it pays the best. But Google can only guess about the targeting.

Now, I *know* what my audience is, because over the years I've talked to them and received many emails from them. I can only guess about how much the ads pay.

And therein lies the rub. Google could well be serving me the best paying ad in that prime spot, but it's not necessarily the best *earning* ad for me. I probably made more money off my lower paying better targeted ads than I did off this generic one that would only appeal to a few of my users.