Impact of Brand Safety Update on AdSense Earnings

Adsense Shows Blank Ads on Older Articles that Aren't Crawled

[Broaster]

It sucks why did they do this?

I have a lot of older articles and I was told that Adsense now doesn't show ads on articles that haven't been visited by someone, also if you put an article and it hasn't been visited in over a month apparently they removed the ads and leave blank spaces, then when you or someone else visits the adsense bot will start adding ads again

this hurts earnings, Ive had several visits to older articles and those visitors saw no ads, it hurts earnings

There is no more money in having adsense on blogs now with this new crawl to ad ratio going, before you could just visit any page even old ones that haven't been visited and ads show

now when you post a fresh article the ad spaces remain blank for 30 or so minutes before adding actual ads.

I doubt Adsense will go back to their old ways, the only issue is looking for an alternative, Im a blogger not an affiliate marketer so its harder to make money from blogging about a niche topic.

[NickMNS]

I don't know what passbacks ads,

passback are essentially the same thing as backup ads.

So, if the first responsive advert didn't show, it would try to load the second Adsense responsive advert.

This can't work. AdSense ads do not show in the first place generally due to a lack of demand, brand safety artificially limits demand. Thus if there was no demand, causing the backup ad to be called, there should be no demand for the backup so it will go unfilled as well. You need to use another network (eg: Media.net) or an affiliate or use the backup ad for self-promotion (another section of your website or another site that you own).

[Lame_Wolf]

passback are essentially the same thing as backup ads.

Thank you for clearing that up.

This can't work. AdSense ads do not show in the first place generally due to a lack of demand, brand safety artificially limits demand. Thus if there was no demand, causing the backup ad to be called, there should be no demand for the backup so it will go unfilled as well. You need to use another network (eg: Media.net) or an affiliate or use the backup ad for self-promotion (another section of your website or another site that you own).

But it does work. The stats shows that it works, as do my eyes when I visit the site.

The stats show x amount of impressions for the original Adsense advert and y amount of clicks.

It also shows (about a third of the amount of) impressions for the alternative Adsense advert and y amount of clicks.

Also, I made the alternative advert using different colours. I did this so I could see which advert is loading - as long as it was a text advert.

I agree, it shouldn't work if the 1st one doesn't show, but it does. I cannot find any documentation to know if it is allowed or not. Will it be seen as someone trying to inflate impressions? If the system was working properly, then there wouldn't be a need.

[NickMNS]

I agree, it shouldn't work

It shouldn't and the fact that it does in my view is evidence of an underlying issue. I would bring this up with AdSense-support. I would frame this as policy question "Can I do this?" and then add "this shouldn't work but it does is something wrong with the ad serving?".

Will it be seen as someone trying to inflate impressions?

No, I don't see how. You are at best getting the impressions you should be getting, likely less and certainly not more.

[iamlost]

AdSense has seen a bleed off of advertisers to FaceBook over past several years meaning total inventory is less than might be otherwise plus the advent of viewable impressions, various ad/brand 'safety' changes, and general advertiser 'quality' concerns means that Google no longer can simply serve ads to fill every ad block on their publisher network.

A easy simple algo solution response is to say: a page that doesn't get two visitors in any two week period (yes, I've simplified) really doesn't justify our serving it ads.

Granted, this does impact sites with zillions of pages picking up occasional cpm passersby, however it is quite likely a feature for G in selling to advertisers. And given the shrinkage in ad volume a no brainer.

If traffic converts at 2% a given page requires 50 visitors for each conversion. That is certainly well above 2-per 2-weeks (yes, most conversions are over n-pages not singular, however as a general function it holds). And it tells a very content-SEO tale:
* too few back links for content volume, and/or
* poor flow (site architecture, internal linkage), and/or
* content is insufficiently superior to competitors, and/or
* headers/titles/descriptions/anchor text are insufficiently enticing, and/or
* there simply aren't enough ads for every Adblock and there are other/additional requirements in play, and/or
* the world has changed, yet again, and one needs change in response.

There are potential critical changes underway in the ad business generally and while that is happening well above most publishers interactions it may have knock on effects that probably will.

I expect the screws to be tightened several times in various ways over the next few years by third party ad networks. Interesting times ahead.

[Dimitri]

AdSense has seen a bleed off of advertisers to FaceBook over past several years

That is so true. Also, Facebook is offering again more personalized tools to advertisers to target precise audience. I wonder if the recent and recurring polemics about tracking/analysing/leadking/sharing/etc... as well as the strengthening of regulations and laws will have an impact on the business model of Facebook, and if "we" ll profit again from a simpler advertising market.

[Runfun]

NickMNS and others, maybe it's my poor English but in Adsense you can place a html link towards a passback ad. I'm using it and when I'm browsing my website I see them often instead of blanks. I mostly use ads of affiliates so what Adsense can't fill still makes some good money for me.

[makeonlineshop]

So is there anybody still making a lot of money with adsense ?

[Runfun]

Not as much as years ago but it's not the priority to serve Adsense ads first. I'll serve affiliate ads first with a frequency cap, than header bidding competing with Adsense so at the end Adsense can fill they last 40% of the impressions because the other 60% earns me much more money.

That 60% impressions earns me about 75%/80% of all earnings.

[Dimitri]

So is there anybody still making a lot of money with adsense ?

It depends what you call "lot of money".

Let's say, you run a site which costs you $20 / mo, you earn $100 . Is that a lot of money? $100 is not a lot of money by itself, but 5 times your investment, that is a lot of money. See ?

[Broaster]

No5needinput

no not getting those women ads, most adsense ads show what you searched on your browser now, they dont pick up off keywords or website niche anymore

So if you searched things that deal with scantily clad women you might be getting those ads on your website

As far as you not seeing this, im guessing you have a high traffic website that is constantly being crawled.

[Broaster]

guys how does the Facebook ads work?

I run a news website for a niche subject, could I apply for facebook ads?

[Broaster]

makeonlineshop

im pretty sure no independent or small bloggers are making money anymore from website blogs, but already established multimillion dollar sites like LA Times, People, ESPN, etc are making even more millions off adsense, Google used to have stories of random small blogger becoming rich from adsense.

Now they only appease the rich and established, the smaller guy has no shot

Its why they say youtube is the only place to make money from adsense, but most of them are click baiting videos that dont get punished. I wonder why Adsense hasn't cracked down on those spammy reaction youtubers who make several thousand per video, yet they make it harder for honest website owners who have to pay for server and site fees to earn from adsense.

[Broaster]

Its still doing the blank ads but like one ad will appear when I post a fresh one, now its mostly blank for 10 minutes and then they appear but I have to constantly refresh to see them

apparently the only way you will get a click is if the visitor refreshes or visits twice as well

[keyplyr]

Broaster - not everyone sees what you see.

[IanCP]

not everyone sees what you see

Yes indeed.

Perhaps it might also be time to retire this tired old thread. There are no further constructive answers or solutions.

[Broaster]

keyplyr
you said you were seeing the same thing before, do you think google fixed it?

[keyplyr]

It's my experience that site by site, the missing ads will stop. As a site gets validated for brand safety, the ads will display normally *if* nothing else is contributing to the situation. This process has been unduly long IMO.

These other factors may eventually be explained at GSC's Ad Experience Report. This is frustrating because Google is not, and has never been, transparent.

[Lame_Wolf]

I am at my wits end with this. I have a section of my site that is approx 1400 pages. This are split over 8 sections or so. A-B, C, D-F and so on.

The site is old and was html4.
Because of disappearing adverts, I decided to rewrite that section using bootstrap and html5.

I rewrote P-S first (and took about 4 days to do) and uploaded the pages relating to that part. Every page passed validation, and every page was checked online to see if adverts appeared - and stayed. Mainly they did. There was the odd page where an advert wouldn't appear for 10 minutes or so, but I was expecting that. It showed the same results in FF, Chrome and IE7, so at least it was consistent.

Earnings were up a bit, (it only covered about 400 pages out of the whole lot) so it encouraged me to continue redoing the pages. The next section was "C" and again, every page passed html validation and every page showed adverts, except the odd one (but appeared 10 mins or so)

As more pages were created, the earnings did increase.

Today, I noticed that the impressions seemed rather low for that section, so decided to take a look at P-S. Blow me, no adverts (Firefox) I'd go to Chrome and more often than not, no adverts.

I know that if you upload an existing page that it can "reset the clock" on the adverts being shown, but this hasn't been the case.

I've cleared my cache countless times. My adblocker (FF only) is disabled. I am at a loss at to the problem.

I can rule out...
The cache.
Invalid HTML.
Re-uploading an existing page.
Not visited in a long while (I only started this project about 10 days ago)

I wish the Google guy was here so he could take a look. It's so frustrating.

[Dimitri]

I wish the Google guy was here so he could take a look. It's so frustrating.

I saw that @pubpolicycomms is from Google, apparently, it's been a while since he posted, but, may be he is still reading this forum.

[Lame_Wolf]

Thank you for the info. I hope he sees this thread and speaks to me. I've been working my fingers to the bone trying to solve this issue.

I've just checked some that I uploaded just 2 days ago. Some of the pages are showing no adverts on Firefox, but showing on Chrome. They will appear on FF, but no doubt go again soon.

[Edge]

Another AdSense earnings is crumbling thread.. I've been an AdSense publisher since late 2003 here's my advice. You're not going to be in control of your AdSense revenue. It's going to arbitrarily go up, go down, go sideways and in general have a mind of its own. Though, I think AdSense revenue can be helpful I recommend a business model independent Google AdSense. I've jumped through every flaming hoop you can think of and then a few more. I've done every optimization recommendation for more income that was ever communicated out of Google and every other so-called expert. Again, it's not you, it's the internet and Google.

[Dimitri]

I am wondering if bank ads / brand safety has a relation with the abusive ads / user experience which is showing in the GSC ? My sites still show as not yet reviewed. So ads are not disabled, but, i wonder if , once your site is reviewed, and passed the validation, does it soften the brand safety restriction(s) ?

In my case, only pages which are receiving several visitors per day, are showing ads. Pages which have one visitor per day, but this each day, do not have ads. So even if a page is visited a couple of times in a week, there are no ads showing. If I take such a page, and visit it sevreal times "myself" , then at some point ads are beginning to show. And it's not only a matter of "what I see is what others see", I monitor this through the backup ads which are served instead.