AdSense was born back before mobile phones were such a commonplace tool, before lots of technology we have now was created, etc.
Does anyone recall how or why AdSense was intended to have a maximum of only three ad units per page?
FarmBoy
trebuchet
12:57 am on May 7, 2015 (gmt 0)
Just guessing but I would say it was to balance advertising versus content and stop overloading.
If that was the case then it hasn't worked. The number of pages I see with one image or slide or paragraph surrounded by three ads is frightful. Conversely I have pages with 1,000 words of text and often wish I could place a fourth or fifth ad. Not sure if it's workable but the number of ad units should really be relative to the amount of content.
piatkow
10:14 am on May 7, 2015 (gmt 0)
Trying to recall how I built pages back in the good old bad old days of dial up and CRT screens when I first used adsense.
Content was more textual, getting across the web for each new page was slower so you packed more into the download. That gave you ads at top, middle and bottom which worked quite well. Since then I started designing for larger screens and a faster web so more shorter pages with the potential for overloading with three ads.
I am still having difficulty getting my head around creating designs that will work on both a full sized screen and on a phone.
child please
3:15 pm on May 7, 2015 (gmt 0)
If you want to use more than 3 ad units per page, just run DFP and enable AdSense - then there is no maximum in theory.
matbennett
1:35 pm on May 8, 2015 (gmt 0)
The 3 ad max is likely to have been more driven by trying to maintain the value of the network. Advertisers prefer to be on pages that are not overloaded with them.
"If you want to use more than 3 ad units per page, just run DFP and enable AdSense - then there is no maximum in theory."
This is not correct. The maximum number of AdSense units per page does not increase just because you use DFP. You can have more DFP units, but you should still not serve >3 adsense units per page unless you have specific approval to do so.
nomis5
7:03 pm on May 8, 2015 (gmt 0)
I'm not advocating anyone to do this, I don't want to be sued!
But where I have lots of content I have four ads per page in some cases. It's not caused a problem to date.
But then again, your definition of "lots of content" may be quite different from mine. Informational site, UK.
child please
9:15 pm on May 8, 2015 (gmt 0)
@matbennett - you are totally 100% wrong. You can have 4, 5, or even 6 ad units showing Adsense ads if you run them through DFP. The only requirement is that ad units 4 and higher must have another network in competition.
IanCP
12:38 am on May 9, 2015 (gmt 0)
I find it quite interesting no one has commented upon their user's experience?
I come across many pages when searching, chock full of ads. Unless it is compelling content? I'll hit the back button.
There are sites known to me, within certain different genres, prominent in Google which I now never go to for that very reason - because lower down in the Serps are other sites, with identical information but more user friendly, Especially print friendly.
trebuchet
5:58 am on May 9, 2015 (gmt 0)
But where I have lots of content I have four ads per page in some cases. It's not caused a problem to date.
nomis5, I have pages with 1,000 words plus. For a while I had four ads on some of them and all were rendering fine, so I assumed it must be OK to run that many on content heavy pages. I thought I'd check with G first and their rep told me it was a strict 'no no'. He said you'll get away with it until there's a human review of your site, then you'll get a tap on the shoulder. Having said that, I do know of another site that has been running four ads on some pages for some time. I wish G had some clear and immutable guidelines on it.
nomis5
9:46 pm on May 18, 2015 (gmt 0)
I think there is no need for a human review, G already knows exactly how many of their ads I have on my pages. They keep on telling me that x number of pages have less than 3 ads on them. On that basis they already know that x number of pages have more than 3.
trebuchet
10:28 am on May 19, 2015 (gmt 0)
Yes, of course. I am only repeating what I was told. Perhaps their machine checks don't prioritise ads-per-page infractions. Or perhaps they don't care, until they have some reason to care.
matbennett
8:38 am on May 20, 2015 (gmt 0)
@child please - That doesn't contradict what I said at tall. What I said is correct: "The maximum number of AdSense units per page does not increase just because you use DFP. ".
You are totally right in that you can traffic AdSense to more than 3 units per page if you are also trafficking other sources. However I was making the point that JUST switching to DFP and changing nothing else does not increase the number of units you can allow. Maybe that didn't come across as clearly as I intended.
