I miss the old AdSense Targeting

[too much information]

Sometimes I wish I could just kick Google, but the ads on my sites were once perfectly targeted for the content and now this whole tracking garbage has the ads showing up for random crap and it's not just my site but every site I visit.

I can't imagine why a Groupon Ad should show up on a Photography Forum and if my CTR on the ads goes down I'm going to have to find another Ad supplier.

Is anyone else having this problem?

[DaStarBuG]

This is called interest based advertising and you can deactivate it for your site. ;)

[Tashi]

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System: The following message was spliced on to this thread from: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/4236696.htm [webmasterworld.com] by martinibuster - 2:20 am on Nov 30, 2010 (utc -8)

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Did anyone see a rise in earnings after blocking Groupon ads?
They are all over my website and totally unrelated. They can't be interest based either, I'm not very interested in hamburgers :)

[AndyA]

This is called interest based advertising and you can deactivate it for your site. ;)

No, you can't. Clicking the box regarding interest based ads within your AdSense account only stops AdSense from using your site as part of your visitor's browsing history. Interest based ads based on your visitor's previous history will still be shown to those visitors while on your site.

Google apparently loves interest based ads. I visited a corporate website once to see what the company did, and they had Google Analytics on the site. Ads for that company followed me around for weeks afterward, and my interest in that company was ZERO, other than an old contact worked for the company. All those impressions were WASTED on me.

Just because a computer visited a site on robotic widgets doesn't mean the person at that computer a week later is interested in robotic widgets. Apparently, Google thinks this is the way to go though, since they sure love to show interest based ads based on sites visited weeks earlier.

[indyank]

Google thinks this is the most "brilliant" way to serve SERPS too...personalization is everywhere...it is the web's most criminal anti-privacy act committed by all the leading web properties - Google, Facebook, Bing, Yahoo etc. etc. you name them and they are all so obsessed with personalization...They are fighting a war to get access to personal data in all forms...

[DaStarBuG]

@AndyA: this is not correct. You can opt-out of interest based ADs

Interest-based ads:
Do not show ads based on user interest or demographic categories.
Visitation information from my sites will not be used to help create interest or demographic categories.

After I noticed that on my websites a toy Ad was following me around
(I run medical websites) I turned interest based ADs off.
Not only did I not see toy Ads on my sites anymore, but my earnings
increased significantly within a day. This would not have had happened
when interest based ADs would still be shown to my visitors.

[cien]

Dastarbug, change your ip address, clear your cache, cookies and visit another site with adsense. Then go to your site. Google is very clear on that. Google said you can't prevent users from seeing ads on your site based on previous interactions with advertisers. You can't turn off that side of IBA.

Maybe we are not on the same page here. You can turn off IBS as a user but not as an Andsense publisher. IBS meaning "showing your site's visitors ads based on previous interactions with other sites with adsense".

[edited by: cien at 6:44 pm (utc) on Nov 30, 2010]

[DaStarBuG]

The quote above is a setting within my AdSense Account.

This is a quote from AdSense Help

You can opt out of showing ads that are based on user interest and
demographic categories (for example, 'sports enthusiasts' or
'inferred age:18-34'). In turn, Google will not use visitation
information from your sites to help create interest and demographic
categories. However, you cannot opt out of showing ads to users
based on their previous interactions with the advertiser, such as
visits to an advertiser's website.

Opting-out of IBA does stop Ads following your users around
(like Toy Ads did for me). However if you clicked on Google AdSense Ads
before (this is meant by interactions with advertisers) then AdSense
will most likely show you Ads of this advertisers with a higher priority.

Non the less just visiting e.g. a toy website will not cause toy Ads
being displayed on my medical website and that is what counts.

Or do I see that totally wrong?

[ken_b]

[added: I see you found it]

Where does Google say that?

Here [google.com]

You can opt out of showing ads that are based on user interest and demographic categories (for example, 'sports enthusiasts' or 'inferred age:18-34'). In turn, Google will not use visitation information from your sites to help create interest and demographic categories.

However, you cannot opt out of showing ads to users based on their previous interactions with the advertiser, such as visits to an advertiser's website.

bolding added

[DaStarBuG]

You can opt out of showing ads that are based on user interest and demographic categories (for example, 'sports enthusiasts' or 'inferred age:18-34').

And what is with this part of the quote?

Some more interesting questions:
If users still see IBA what does deactivating IBA exactly do to Ads on your site?
What about reports of earnings increase/decrease with IBA on/off?
Did anyone made a real test on the effect of IBA on/off and posted the results?

[edited by: DaStarBuG at 7:00 pm (utc) on Nov 30, 2010]

[ken_b]

Or do I see that totally wrong?

Yes, I believe you misunderstand the issue.

Hunt around and I think you'll find that if you visit a toy store that uses adwords their ads will follow you from site to site for a limited time (I don't recall how long).

[ken_b]

And what is with this part of the quote?

You are looking at this as a whole. But it isn't a single issue.

You can block some ads but not others.

If you visit a Toy store that uses adwords, you can not block those ads so YOU do not see them on your site. That's a "previous interaction" ad.

But ads from other toy stores that use Adwords will not show on your site. Those would be "category" ads. Those you can block.

[netmeg]

I started making a lot more money when I stopped fiddling with things. You are *never* going to have the control you want, and you're *never* going to know if twisting the dials is what is actually making the difference, for good or ill, or it's something totally unrelated, like new advertisers, or new budget, or phases of the moon. Trust me; I'm being stalked by a large glazed donut everywhere I go and I never even used the site or clicked on the ad it's promoting. I hate it. But overall it must be making more money for Google (and theoretically publishers) or else they wouldn't be doing it; Google is all about the math. And if they go through with buying Groupon, it's just going to get worse. Unfortunately, as with everything, there will be collateral damage.

[too much information]

I agree netmeg, the people who use the internet are NOT the same as those who help create it. I have to remind myself of that every day.

On the other hand I think the whole internet is getting social obsessed so if everyone is going that way I want to go the other. I want to have the first site they visit where they see something different.

Too bad Google doesn't think the same way, they could make Facebook irrelevant for marketing by using social popularity as a negative ranking factor so that people using search would find *new* stuff instead of the same stuff they see in their social network. It would send Facebook in a different direction but at least we would have a choice in what we wanted to see instead of everyone fighting to show us the same crap our friends have already found everywhere we go.

[DaStarBuG]

I'll experiment with it. We'll see what is the better option at least for my account :D

[bbd2000]

I love interest based advertising

I have a site that about widgets that no one promotes through adwords. However the site is targeted at a certain demographic that advertisers like. The site makes good money from interest based advertising. In fact, I had almost abandoned the site, until I did realized that the site was actually doing very well compared to some other sites I have.

Even better for me, because no one uses adwords, mfa sites stay away.

I hope didn’t give away an internet secret…

[AndyA]

DaStarBuG:

Read the last sentence you quoted above from AdSense help:

"...you cannot opt out of showing ads to users
based on their previous interactions with the advertiser, such as
visits to an advertiser's website."

Really, you have no control over it, and Google will track actions even on sites without AdSense. As I mentioned in my first post, just visiting a corporate site that uses Google Analytics was enough to have AdSense ads follow me around for that company for weeks.

You have no control over interest based ads, except to prevent visitors to your site from having their activities while on your site monitored.

My experience with the ads following me around was shocking. I have zero interest in the company and in its area of business, yet I saw hundreds of ads for that company for almost a month afterward, just because that site uses Analytics.

Big Brother is watching.

[zerillos]

Google keeps saying we should have our privacy policy in place. why is that? because it tells the user how to stop that f*** cookie that makes the ads follow them around.

If you will be able to get your visitors to opt out of the cookie, they will start seeing relevant ads when visitng your site.

this is just a though i had. i might be wrong...

[ken_b]

... privacy policy ...

Being no fan of ads that stalk people I put a link to my privacy policy directly under the main ad block on about half of the pages in my most popular section, just to see how many folks would use it.

Answer: Out of the last 3.5 million main adblock impressions on those pages, 164 users clicked thru to the privacy policy page.

[I also have link to my privacy policy in the footer of every page.]

[zerillos]

maybe we should call it "stop advertisers from tracking your activity" than "privacy policy"...i bet the "CTR" would be a lot higher :)

[farmboy]

And if they go through with buying Groupon, it's just going to get worse.

Speaking of which - is anyone here blocking them?


FarmBoy

[zerillos]

is anyone here blocking them?

how do you block them? i can't find them in the third party advertiser list

[farmboy]

how do you block them?

Competitive ad filter?


FarmBoy

[too much information]

So obviously I'm not the only one with issues over the quality of ads through AdSense. I still think it's the exact wrong move by Google or Bing for that matter.

Does anyone know of another search engine that is ready to make a move? All it would take is a willingness to show something 180 degrees different than what Social Metrics says they should show.

Give me something different and I'll display your ads instead of the garbage I'm getting right now. If you do it right you might even get my search traffic as well because I don't want to do a search just to see what my friends like, I want to find something new.

Is there any way to fix AdSense or is there a good automated alternative?

[Tashi]

Did anyone try blocking the groupon ads?

[zerillos]

I first found out about this "groupon" in this post, but after some reasearch i guess its big thing with G.

really... did anybody block them?

[netmeg]

Is there any way to fix AdSense or is there a good automated alternative?

No and no. If you want more control over your ads, you're going to have to do the work. The automated part is what you get for giving up the control. Life is full of compromises.

I don't block Groupon because I don't know and can't know how many of my users see them. *I* see them. That doesn't mean everyone else does or doesn't.

[nomis5]

You may not know how many people see a specific ad but if you block it you know that no one sees it.

More to the point is that we don't know how much we earn from a specific ad so we don't what we are losing or gaining in money terms, by blocking an ad.

[Lame_Wolf]

There is talk that Google bought Groupon for $2.5 Billion.

[DaStarBuG]

Groupon declined Googles offer of 6 Billion Dollars