Opted OUT of Gambling Ads? Poker Image ads all over my Cake Site!

[EarWig]

What a joke this is becoming.

I have clearly blocked all gambling ads on one of my sites yet PKR image poker ads are everywhere and image ads for Braun Razors on most pages as well.

How can Google Adsense server up the rubbish that is of NO interest to my visitors and detracts from serving correct ads that users may or may not click on.

Surely Google must be losing out also!

[nomis5]

Interesting to know how you have determined what ads your users are seeing?

After years in this busines there is one thing I am certain of, I have no idea whatsoever what ads are being served to my viewers.

[JCKline]

@nomis5, Good point! They may also be IBAs...have you been gambling online EarWig? Come on...you can tell us. :D I won't even address the "shaving". :)

[martinibuster]

...there is one thing I am certain of, I have no idea whatsoever what ads are being served to my viewers.

I agree. Contextual used to be in relation to your site. That is no longer the case. Now the ads shown are contextual in relation to the site visitor.

What JCKline said was my first thought, too. Possibly IBAs.

[mslina2002]

What if OP disallowed IBAs AND Gambling ads?

[JCKline]

You can't block IBAs from others viewing your sites. Only you viewing your sites.

[gmb21]

Surely if you have blocked gambling ads, they shouldn't appear -- whether interest based or contextual. Blocking should mean "do not put ads of this type on my site, even if the visitor is interested in them".

[EarWig]

@nomis5, Good point! They may also be IBAs...have you been gambling online EarWig? Come on...you can tell us. :D I won't even address the "shaving".

Haha nice one JCKline :)

Of course I play Poker and I recently bought a shaver BUT I opted out of google using my visited sites as history.

Of course I am not always logged in when browsing.

So there I believe may lay the answer

Or does it?! ;)

[EarWig]

Surely if you have blocked gambling ads, they shouldn't appear -- whether interest based or contextual. Blocking should mean "do not put ads of this type on my site, even if the visitor is interested in them".

One would hope so gmb21, but this is Google ....................?

[EarWig]

I agree. Contextual used to be in relation to your site. That is no longer the case. Now the ads shown are contextual in relation to the site visitor.

Hi matinibuster - long time no speak :)

How on earth can Google believe that showing ads relevant to a users history will earn their adwords clients higher traffic and increase their own revenue?

If I want to buy a shaver I`ll search and then go to the selected website.

If I search for a cake supplier for instance I do NOT want to see ads for shavers!
I cannot believe users want it that way either.

Maybe its just my age, but having been in sales and marketing for nearly 50 years, their thinking in this matter is, in my humble opinion, flawed.

However I am sure the great Google don't do things without full investigation and testing :)
Or do they ;)

[NorthIslandChris]

I first became aware of IBA ads on my own sites when I booked a hotel online and then hotel ads followed me everywhere for two months. Too bad my vacation was long over as was my interest in finding a hotel.

The experience was flawed and quite frankly what I am learning now is frightening: I have had almost a decade with adsense and until today I was unaware exactly how IBA worked. I thought it WAS my choice to allow them or not. And if I am unclear how this is working my users will certainly be clueless. In the end, they will blame me for hoisting those ads on them (and in some sense they are right since I authorize Google to serve them up).

[jpch]

I don't know if it'll help or not but you might try blocking specific ad networks that specialize in re-targeting. The two that I know about are Criteo and TellApart but I'm sure there are more.

[engine]

You may also want to clear your cookies to see if that resolves it.

[netmeg]

There's interest based ads, and there's remarketing. They're not quite the same thing. Interest based ads are shown based on categories that Google believes you'd be interested in, based on what they can tell about your browsing and shopping habits.

Remarketing is something that is triggered by the AdWords advertisers (and very few know how to do it correctly) [support.google.com...]

It sounds like you are being hit by remarketing. Not sure how or if you can opt out of that.

[IanCP]

How on earth can Google believe that showing ads relevant to a users history will earn their adwords clients higher traffic and increase their own revenue?

It is a totally retarded concept. A few days back I researched a Bluetooth PC Dongle. Within 10 minutes I purchased one on eBay.

Now what the hell is the point of me seeing ads for Bluetooth PC Dongles days later?

Retards.

[jmccormac]

@IanCP You'd expect that people with slightly over room temperature IQs (RTIQ) would have realised that the feedback loop of purchase was missing from their IBAs. But then I've come to the conclusion that much of Google's vaunted high intellect is the product of a well staffed public relations department. Google is rapidly becoming the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation of Search. It is so damned obvious that the feedback loop is broken.

[en.wikipedia.org...]

Regards...jmcc

[Leosghost]

Why, when I have never ever looked for **weight loss products or **teeth whiteners or **Groupon deals etc.do I see them on websites with content totally unrelated to either of them ..

I suspect it is because Google knows that no-one wants those ads on their adsense sites..but is happily taking the money from the advertisers of these, ( who have said "run on publishing network" ) and imposing the junk ads on adsense sites makes Google money, even whilst they know that it is detrimental to the adsense sites that get them imposed..

** you never see this crap in the serps alongside or over "organics" ..Google would never run this junk on their own properties..

The junk probably sells, eventually, at incredibly high margins ..but in the same way that email spam works..hit the dumb people with it enough times and if even a tiny percentage buys the advertiser wins, as does Google..

But the publisher's site looks like crap..and makes nothing ..

The stuff is the bad graffiti of the internet, nasty, ugly, annoying, irrelevant to what it is splashed over..

G are not the only ones who carry this stuff ..but at least with adbrite et al you know it is going to be nasty and tacky from the outset..

[nomis5]

How on earth can Google believe that showing ads relevant to a users history will earn their adwords clients higher traffic and increase their own revenue?

Google knows it works, serving up the same IBA ads time and time again. They know because, for the moment at least, they earn more money serving up those ads.

Take Criteo for example, they ONLY serve ads where they know the user has visited a specific site previously. They never serve ads based on the page content or subject. And the deal with Criteo is that they guarantee to pay more than Adsense. If they don't, you take their ads off your sites.

As an aside (there is always an aside), I tried Criteo and it worked for a couple of weeks. I think Google got wise to companies like that and did the same. So I have now removed the Criteo ads because Adsesne pays more or the same.

[netmeg]

yea, like I said - that's called remarketing, and that's driven by the advertiser, not Google.

The problem is, Google turned it on for advertisers without giving them good documentation and tips on how to use it, so of course, the puppy got excited and peed on the carpet. There are controls so you don't annoy your visitors, and you can cap impressions, and so forth, and only the bigger agencies actually know how to use them.

[Leosghost]

so of course, the puppy got excited and peed on the carpet

Read with my after lunch coffee .. near cost me a keyboard :))

[EarWig]

Update

Thanks for all the feedback guys - when will Google ever learn to market their products correctly?

I suppose ignorance is bliss for the advertisers who are being robbed by this.

I have got rid of the poker ad and the shaver ad by blocking domain. :)

Been replaced by the ever resourceful Google by banner ads for Google £50.00 free ad and an ecommerce product!

They have gone as well now - blocked ;)

Now they have gone, lots and lots of lovely ads about cakes have re-appeared, just what the visitor wants (and expects) :)
That is until I run out of blocked ads, 500 is a joke.

Way to go Google.........

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Glad your problem is solved, Earwig, but I wanted to add that I noticed Google being broken yesterday. I run the Firefox browser in privacy mode with do not track enabled to try and avoid targeting but after visiting a Flex Seal review site all of the ads on my own sites began being for flex seal(to me) also.

Same browser is also showing me the title of previous pages in weird places within Google tools (e.g. previous page title becomes alt text on analytics graph points) and not only am I sending all of the don't track signals I can I don't even have Google history turned on.

Google is not glitch proof at best and still gathering information despite my saying don't do so at worst. It may not be adsense related, but rather Google related(or my computer has been compromised by something my security is not detecting, yet). Whatever the case - keep investigating.

[fathom]

How can Google Adsense server up the rubbish that is of NO interest to my visitors and detracts from serving correct ads that users may or may not click on.

Cake & Bidding? ...seems like motherhood.

[Web_speed]

How can Google Adsense server up the rubbish that is of NO interest to my visitors and detracts from serving correct ads that users may or may not click on.

Probably CPM ads(?)... click or no click, they still charge the advertiser for an impression.

Massive publishers network, gazillion of page views per second...you do the math.

[zeus]

I just see the last days that the earnings goes down big time

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

google.com/settings/ads/onweb

Push the opt out button to block the google tracking cookie and then look up a permanent opt out option browser addon. Problem solved(for you, not your visitors).

P.S. Firefox "do not track" feature does NOT block adsense targeting (if it's supposed to its currently achtung).

[MarvinH]

image ads for Braun Razors

I don't serve image ads on my site. I've tested serving image ads on a couple of occasions in the past, but they seemed to be not related to the topic of the site, so I decided to allow only text ads.

you never see this crap in the serps alongside or over "organics" ..Google would never run this junk on their own properties..

Google serves only text ads in its SERPs :-)

[Leosghost]

Yes I had noticed that, down the years I've been doing this..

Ever wonder why they don't serve image ads,in serps, could it be because they are usually ugly, badly done, garish and irrelevant, and serving them would drive users away to another search engine..

[BillyS]

We switched hosts about three months ago, I was evaulating hosts online. After a couple of visits those were the only ads I ever saw - for months. That included our site, which has nothing to do with web hosting.

Google adsense is like a pesky marketing guy following you around.

[JCKline]

@EarWig, I would suggest opting out here:
[google.co.uk...]

Click: "How do I edit my ads preferences for interest-based advertising?"

And here:
[networkadvertising.org...]

This way at least you don't see the IBA's, then it'll be clearer what URLs to block.