Same ad over and over - how does this make sense?

[avalon37]

In the last couple of days, I am noticing that if I do a search and arrive at my site the ad that shows up looks pretty relevant. But then I click on a second page and it the same ad. Click another page, same ad. This goes on and on and on. I'd say the same ad is showing for the first 5-6 impressions. How does this make sense for the user or me the publisher? It's like ads are not rotating evenly.

[netmeg]

Highest bidding ad in the auction wins.

[avalon37]

Yes, but I'm failing to understand how the same ad is showing 5-6 times in a row. An advertiser cannot occupy bid rankings 1-6 at the same time. It's not like they have 6 separate adwords accounts with the exact same ads. Also, this just started happening in the last couple of days.

[netmeg]

I'm not sure I understand. Didn't you say this traveled from page to page? Each impression is another auction.

[avalon37]

Yes I did say I would click around my site to multiple pages. I guess I never really thought about each impression being another auction. However, assuming that's the case - why wouldn't the top advertiser ALWAYS show then. If it truly worked that way you would only ever see the top Adwords advertiser - but that's what typically happens. Yes, it's kind of what is happening currently on my site, but I think something is wrong currently. Because this just started happening.

[avalon37]

Meant to say "but that's NOT what typically happens".

[martinibuster]

Is the same ad showing for other users on completely different Internet and location?

[netmeg]

The various factors that go into each auction change - I dunno, maybe in a fraction of every second? There's a bunch of factors on the advertisers side, and a handful on the publisher's side and who knows on Google's side. The top advertiser at 14:55:03 might not be the top advertiser at 14:55:04, but might be the top advertiser again at 14:55:07.

[avalon37]

This is absolutely something new what is going on with my site. Every now and then I've seen the same ad a couple times in a row, but nothing like what I am seeing today.

It's either a bug or a new AdSense test. Not that you can do anything about it, but you might all want to look at your ads to see if you are experiencing the same thing. I have over 250 brand pages on my site and it's happening essentially on all pages.

[RedBar]

Also, this just started happening in the last couple of days.

I've been seeing this for months and months now, it drives me crazy however I have no idea what other users are seeing.

[netmeg]

Yea I've seen it for a long time too.

[avalon37]

netmeg - now it sounds you are agreeing it's a bug or change? Earlier in this thread it sounded like you were saying this was normal based on the auction format and that everything was being served as intended. So I am curious if you think it's a bug or a test or how the system is designed.

[netmeg]

No, I'm sorry; I was unclear. I meant to say that I don't think it's a bug, and it's not unusual (at least from what I've seen on my own sites, over years and years) I'm more surprised you haven't seen it before this, but if your site is large enough and wider in scope, then it might not come up so often.

My sites mostly get ads targeted to locations, rather than, say, national or international ads. So there's less inventory.

[piatkow]

Not new for me but varies according to inventory and presumably on what keywords are being bid on from time to time.

[netmeg]

With the display network it's not so much keywords you bid on than concepts. You might use a couple keywords so Google can figure out how best to place your ad, but it's not a one-to-one bidding thing like the search ads are.

[londrum]

i get the same ad all the time.
at the moment i'm getting one for a particular webhost — my webhost. i logged into their site the other day to do some stuff, and now google is showing me ads about them. a total waste of time... because i'm already their customer!

[avalon37]

Thanks All. Like I said this behavior is totally new to one of my sites; also noteworthy is that it's just text ads I am seeing this on.

[SnowLeppard]

]re. i get the same ad all the time.
at the moment i'm getting one for a particular webhost — my webhost. i logged into their site the other day to do some stuff, and now google is showing me ads about them. a total waste of time... because i'm already their customer!

Me too. I logged in and restarted my VPS. Now ad for that webhost appears multiple times on nearly every page I visit no matter if I look up a recipe for chocolate fudge or research IVF for my wife.

Maybe best ads are being reserved for Google sites like Youtube.

[netmeg]

No, you're being remarketed. The advertiser is doing that, not Google. I mean, obviously they're using Google AdWords, but it's based on the advertisers campaigns and settings - not Google's.

[SnowLeppard]

No, you're being remarketed. The advertiser is doing that, not Google. I mean, obviously they're using Google AdWords, but it's based on the advertisers campaigns and settings - not Google's.

This behavior seems to correlate to my declining RPM. Tipping point is approaching. Have you heard if Google can walk on water?

[roshaoar]

remarketing

[moTi]

Highest bidding ad in the auction wins.

wrong. highest performing ad wins. performance = cpc x ctr

[buckworks]

it's based on the advertisers campaigns and settings

Smart advertisers will set impression caps on their ad campaigns to prevent the kind of overexposure described in the OP. Overexposure, especially for remarketing ads, drives down the clickthrough rate which in turn will drive up your costs.

Like many things in life, remarketing is most effective if you keep a light hand about it.

[netmeg]

Well yea and don't get me started on that subject. Google unleashed a bunch of these shiny objects to advertisers and many of them have no idea how to really use them. Hence I get stalked by a donut.

[avalon37]

This problem appears to have been fixed. I've not seen it happening in the last 3 days and coincidentally my last 3 days have been far and away the best of the month.

[webcentric]

Funny, how this thread doesn't mention interest-based vs contextual or Adwords vs Third Party ads. Having said that, my main site covers many topics (from widgets for him and completely different widgets for her along with a variety of services, thing-a-ma-bobs, etc, etc). I can see an interest-based ad following someone from page to page but contextual ads should not do this when jumping from topic to topic. I've seen this phenomenon and the auction alone does not explain it except where interest-based ads are concerned. Of course, doesn't seem to matter how you set up Adsense these days, it's becoming overwhelmingly interest-based. I have less of a problem with this with TPN's turned off but it's not a magic fix either.

[moTi]

it's becoming overwhelmingly interest-based

any stats to back that up? my interest-based share is around 1/3 of ad display. slightly climbed up a few percent in the recent months, but far away from overtaking contextual-based ads.

[avalon37]

In the last 30 days, interest based impressions were 50% that of contextual; so contextual still in the lead 2-1. However, the first 6 months of 2013 interest based was about 10% of the overall mix. So in my situation interest is up big, but that's great with me...higher CTR equaling better RPM.

[avalon37]

Just confirmed the same thing - interest based way up on a site that has 300 million monthly impressions.

[webcentric]

any stats to back that up?

On a day to day basis, I often see interest-based competing heavily with contextual which is the root of my statement (sometimes the analysis involves looking at certain time frames in a single day). I've also been watching the overall interest-based share continue to grow to the point where it's accounts for about a 35% of the impressions for this year. Overwhelming might be the wrong word unless you look at a single day and I was looking at a single day when I made the statement. Just went back through my reports and have had 9 days this month when interest-based was over 40% with one of those days at 49.6% and three more over 45%.

I'm noticing that generally interest-based advertising drops off over the weekend (0% interest based for last Sunday and earnings were very poor that day). Earnings for the previous two days was more than double that of Sunday (each day) and interest-based was over 40% for both days.

So, this double-edged sword of interest-based advertising seems to pay better unless you end up with some very persistent ad following your visitors around that they are totally not interested in. Then it becomes a nuisance. I think it's just a matter of time before this program is serving predominately interest-bases ads. Seems to be the wave of the future sweeping over us. I don't mind the revenue but not sure I care for what it's doing to the Privacy arena.