Adsense Ads Showing Intermittently

Google Ads Not Always Showing On My Site

[FatHarryWhite]

Hi.

This is my first post on this forum, so apologies for jumping straight in with a question. I found the forum through a thread from last year about a similar issue but that thread is locked down so I’m starting this one.

I have an Adsense account that is showing ads intermittently. Sometimes the Google ads load fine and other times there is just a blank space where the ad should be.

The site is in a broad niche, it is a good quality site, nothing spammy, only one Adsense ad block per page.

I've done a lot of looking around and it seems like it could be one of the following causing the Google ads not to load:

1 - Lack of Adsense ad inventory for people looking to buy traffic in my niche.

2 - A technical issue caused Google.

3 - A technical issue on my site.

I find it hard to to believe there isn’t enough Adsense ad inventory. This site is in the finance niche with a broad range of hand written content in that niche. On top of that there is re-targeting so I'm not sure why there wouldn’t be someone wanting to advertise on the site. (Especially when I think of the spammy click bait sites with tiny amounts of written content but plenty of ads always showing).

If it is a technical issue with Google Adsense I doubt there is much I can do about about it. But I would be surprised if this is the case, they would be losing a lot of money if this was happening to multiple sites and accounts.

I could easily believe it is a technical issue with site, except I've gone though everything I can think of and not found any answers. The fact that the fault is intermittent also makes me thing its not a fault on this site. If the ad never loaded due to the way I had added the code that would make more sense.

So, I’m, kind of stumped as to what is causing the Goolge Adsense ads to be loading intermittently.

Anyone got any ideas or experience of this issue?

Thanks

[keyplyr]

Hi FatHarryWhite and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

Intermittent ad display is common. It usually means there isn't enough ad stock to fill the spaces. Some browsers seem to display the empty space more than others (that remains a mystery.)

There are several discussion about this. Try the Search utility in the upper-right corner.

Here's a few:
[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]

[FatHarryWhite]

Thanks I've read all those threads, they are all closed so the mod told me to make a new one. Two of them are super old so it might be totally unrelated issue, but this seems very similar to mine from last year:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[FatHarryWhite]

I cant find anything in them that I think will solve my issue, so I gonna keep asking and digging around.

A friend advised to me put an image as the secondary ad and then track it via server logs to see how much it is showing (it will only show if there is no ad inventory)

[FatHarryWhite]

I guess if the answer is as simple as a lack of inventory, what can we do to try and make out sites serve as many ads as possible?
Maybe longer articles with a broader range of KWs in the text?
Adding tag clouds to the sidebar to increase range of KW on each post? Try different ad blocks that might have more inventory?
Just thinking out loud. Its getting late and my sleeping pill is kicking in...

[keyplyr]

It's all with the advertisers. If/when they decide to create an add, add it to the inventory, add money to their account and bid for placement.

IMO it's futile to attempt to attract ads, but some my think otherwise.

[not2easy]

I don't know of any all-purpose answer to this kind of situation. As mentioned, a person can't know the cause so the cure is elusive. I don't know that the ad delivery should be expected to be more reliable that either the interface or or other components of the system. Judging by the recurring issues with the publishers' interface it almost seems to be something that inevitably happens to the consumer end of it. Unpleasant and disappointing for the publisher and the visitor.

Understanding that there is now more emphasis on mobile-first for search, and page speed is gaining importance - along with https - it might make a difference to make sure that all those things have been implemented and optimized. Are you checking your ads only on desktop? What happens when you use "Fetch as Google" for both desktop and mobile using "Fetch and Render"? Do you see blank ads on both? Have you tried creating new ads or different types of ads?

[martinibuster]

Is your site served via http or https?

[NickMNS]

There are some good suggestions already, but let me add a few.

What ad sizes are you using? Try sticking with the recommended ad-sizes.

First you can see how often ads slots are going unfilled by checking the coverage statistic in Adsense. In performance reports go to the custom tab and select coverage. Ideally you should be shooting for 100%. It appears, that Adsense sometimes algorithmically limits coverage, I had a period a few years back where I had a steady 50% coverage for about three month. Oddly enough it was during a period where I had the highest rpm. So it may not be all bad.

Be careful for what you wish for, if there isn't enough demand to fill supply, any excess supply will simply be filled with spam ads that pay nothing and promote thigs such as vinegar diets, download buttons, and horoscopes. This will erode the credibility of your site, so you will spend your time blocking this crap.

As your friend suggested with the images, you can, instead of images, implement backup ads. Either showing affiliate links or simply promoting other content on your site or some other site.

[netmeg]

I get this all the time. I even put in some graphics as fallbacks to load if the ads didn't load, so I could send AdSense Support some "proof" out of Google Analytics hat the ads weren't loading. They still couldn't come up with any answer for it. And I don't believe for one instant that it's lack of inventory. It's just one of those things, maybe they're timing out - I dunno. It's annoying, but beating on them about it for over two years (and it's happening on multiple sites) hasn't gotten me anywhere.

[FatHarryWhite]

Hi people, thanks for all the replies and sorry for the delay in replying.

Im still not seeing ads all the time but its got much better than it was and impressions and income are both back to being normal. But I still get the odd empty ad space and there is nothing to say it wont come back as bad as it was before or worse.

Having read all the replies and though it over, it seems likely there isn’t much I can do to fix this one.

“Are you checking your ads only on desktop?” The fault occurred on various devices, screen sizes, IPs and browsers.

“What happens when you use "Fetch as Google" for both desktop and mobile using "Fetch and Render”?” I didn’t test it at the time and now the fault isn’t as frequent its hard to test when I know ads wont show.

“Have you tried creating new ads or different types of ads?” Yes, it didn’t seem to help.

“Is your site served via http or https?” http I think if the fault comes back I will defo try https.

“What ad sizes are you using?” I tried this and it didn’t seem to make much difference.

I will keep an eye out and if it comes back I will post with more details.

[netmeg]

(FWIW it happened before I flipped my sites to https, and it happens after I flipped my sites to https)

[FatHarryWhite]

^Thanks^

[londrum]

are you on a mac, using safari?
i've had this a couple of times and i've always suspected it was something to do with me not downloading the latest version of java. safari always bugs me to download the new version and i always says no, and then the ads will start glitching. if java's not up to date i think safari just automatically blocks certain ads. when i update it the glitches seem to disappear.

i haven't got a clue whether that's what it is, but it always seems to fix it for me,

[FatHarryWhite]

The fault occurs on Mac, iphone and Windows VPS with a variety of browsers, IPs and IP locations.