Lots of great ads in ad center

But way off target ads showing on my site

[Jane_Doe]

I'm working on improving the revenue on one site. Currently the home page gets some nice traffic, but the ads are totally off topic and that is the highest traffic page of the site. Some of the inner pages have on target traffic, but many of the ads are simply off the wall. The ads are often from name brand advertisers, Fortune 500 companies, but stuff that doesn't have anything to do with my site. I think they are getting free branding at my expense.

When I click through the little arrows on the ads, it is one off topic ad after the next. Yet, when I review the ads in the ad center, there are many ads that would be perfect for my site. Totally on target and I'm sure would get many clicks. But none of then ever show up on my home page.

Any suggestions? Am I doing something wrong? How can I get some of the ads in the ad center on my home page?

[incrediBILL]

Do you have interest based ads enabled and/or are you seeing ads about your interests?

[Jane_Doe]

Do you have interest based ads enabled and/or are you seeing ads about your interests?

I do have interest based ads enabled.

However, I checked on two different computers, cleared all history, signed out and the ads were the same. But that is a great point and I'll check that out even more.

The CTR isn't great overall so I don't think it is just the ads I'm seeing that are the problem. And I do see well targeted ads on some of the inner pages some of the time.

[incrediBILL]

Do you have interest based ads enabled on your site?

If so you'll probably see wacky ads no matter where you go and I'm a firm believer that interest based ads, when shown on an off topic site, results in a lower CTR because people aren't looking for that topic on that site.

[Jane_Doe]

I'm a firm believer that interest based ads, when shown on an off topic site, results in a lower CTR because people aren't looking for that topic on that site.

That is a good suggestion, incrediBill. I will do some A/B testing with interest based ads enabled and disabled.

[iridiax]

I have had interest-based ads disabled in Adsense from the start and I still see them on my site (totally unrelated ads based on my recent shopping history). There is no escaping them.

[denisl]

I have noticed the same as you jane-doe.

I had assumed that those companies with ads in the ad review centre, whilst relevant, may not be bidding enough to be displayed on the site.

[Jane_Doe]

I had assumed that those companies with ads in the ad review centre, whilst relevant, may not be bidding enough to be displayed on the site.

That could be true. But the way off topic ads aren't getting many clicks and don't seem to be paying much either when they do get clicked.

I guess it is time to do some testing, ad blocking and tweaking and experimenting with other ad and affiliate programs.