Avoiding multiple versions of the same ad on a page

[eRAZOR]

My site displays two ad units. One 728x90 banner and a 160x600 skyscraper. I witness quite often that both units display the same ad. Is there a way to force unique ads for both units?

[netmeg]

What is happening when you see this is that for whatever reason, there aren't enough ads available that Google thinks are appropriate to your page. So you get doubled served.

Three things you could try: first of all, you could either entirely remove one of the ad blocks, or else change it to a link unit. When I went down to one ad block and one link unit per page, I never saw any more double ads.

Next, try and add some more content, so that Google has more to go on when trying to figure out which ads to serve for your site. Give it a week or two, and then try two ad blocks again and see if you get a better mix. You could also use the Adsense Section Targeting on your content; you'll find info on it here: [google.com...]

Another thing to try would be setting one ad block to text ads only, and the other to image ads only, and see if that helps.

Remember the formula: adsense + navigation + site-wide content < unique content on a page; otherwise you will continue to have problems.

[eRAZOR]

Hmm I don't think its a problem with targetting. The ads are 100% spot on related.

[Sunflux]

Are you displaying them in iframes?

[eRAZOR]

Not I am not. Why?

[Leonard0]

Here is a probable reason why ads appear twice on one page:

Google actually runs two auctions: one for ads at the top of the page, and one for ads on the side of the page. Only ads with particularly high quality are eligible to compete in the top-ad auction. Ads that have particularly low quality may be disabled, and not shown at all.

From the Google blog 5/12/2008 [googleblog.blogspot.com...]
Posted by Hal Varian, Chief Economist

[farmboy]

Google actually runs two auctions: one for ads at the top of the page, and one for ads on the side of the page. Only ads with particularly high quality are eligible to compete in the top-ad auction. Ads that have particularly low quality may be disabled, and not shown at all.

That sounds like ads on Google search page results are being discussed, not ads on content pages where there may or may not be ads at the top or side of a page.

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This topic was discussed here a couple of years ago and the ASA at the time asked anyone experiencing this to email support and let them know on which page it was observed.

Of course now some caution against contacting AdSense with something like this for fear it will bring scrutiny to your site, maybe even a subjective opinion that your site doesn't comply with their terms. So publishers have to decide for themselves when it's worth contacting them about a problem.

I see duplicate ads on some of my pages from time to time - sometimes side by side. I just ignore it and it eventually goes away.

What is happening when you see this is that for whatever reason, there aren't enough ads available that Google thinks are appropriate to your page.

That could be, but I've seen them reduce the number of ads in a display, from 4 to 2 for example, so they should be able to just reduce the number shown instead of duplicating an ad.

FarmBoy