Auto ads- I WANT OUT!

How Do I Get Out?

[Sally Stitts]

Once again, I trusted Google's advice.
Once again, big mistake.
Five ad blocks per page, ALL THE SAME, WAY bigger than they should be.
Performance is terrible.

Since I hand code, and have no CMS, I am searching all my pages to try and determine just where I placed all the auto code.

Issue # 1 - In reports, all I can see is "Automatically inserted Auto ad code", but it doesn't say WHERE?
Is there some way to see WHERE? This would be IMMENSELY helpful, but I don't know how to do it.
Are we denied that data? WHY?

I want to return back to 100% hard-wired 300x250 ad code, EVERYWHERE.
I don't want to see "Automatically inserted Auto ad code" EVER AGAIN.

Issue # 2 - The Responsive ad code has the line in it, " data-ad-format="auto"

AND, it also contains the line " data-full-width-responsive="true", which has got to go,
because it blows right out of the specified container.
So, apparently, I must replace ALL my "Responsive" ad code, to get rid of all the "auto" ad placements.
I'm glad I saved all my 300x250 ad code, But they will probably just ignore and overwrite it.

Suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

Let me reiterate.
I went from an average of $500/day throughout 2013, to $3/day today,
after vastly improving my site, and jumping through all the Google hoops, mobile, https, etc.
What used to be fun, has turned into a nightmare.
The little guy has been deprecated by Google, with a jackboot to the throat.
My Google traffic has been WIPED OUT!
And, to add insult to injury, we are now blessed with "auto-cr@p".

[thecoalman]

The only thing I can say is after opting out of them 6 hours later I was still getting one. It was giant sized ad right at the top of the page just below the navigation. at least on desktop.

[notriddle]

That and, you know, ad block penetration is over 25% and is only expected to go up.

[businessinsider.com...]

[statista.com...]

[tangor]

I have been adsense free for years ... so this might be a dumb question:

What is the value/selling point for auto ads in the first place?

And secondly,

Why would you hand over any control (what little you had) to a third party who is not your friend and business partner?

Just asking!

[ken_b]

I tried auto ads on two sites.

On one I'm fine with the results, anchor and I-content ads. Most of the pages only showed one in-content ad, some longer pages show 2 or 3, but they don't really interrupt the content too much, so I'll let it run for a bit.

But on the second, nope. I set up the anchor and in-content ads. They put a big (maybe 300x250) between the images ond the descriptive content for that image. That lasted about ... ohhh ... 3 seconds before I turned off the in-content ads. The anchor ads on this site seem awfully slow to appear.

I'm turning off all adsense on this site.

[skaterpunk]

What is the value/selling point for auto ads in the first place?

Easy monetization of pages that are text heavy may make sense as there is little involvement on the publishers end and very basic code implementation.

E.g.
<p>
<p>
<p>
<ad>
<p>
<p>
<p>
…etc.

Why would you hand over any control (what little you had) to a third party who is not your friend and business partner?

Reference my first reply…easy monetization. A single person blogger with limited time and resources may find a plug and play method of monetization the perfect solution. Well, it was, when it paid better.

P.S. I have been Adsense free for several months now. I'm still deciding if there is a point in trying Adsense again, hence still following this thread, but the comments don't sound promising.

[Sal Collaziano]

I woke up this morning to two things:

1. Much higher ad revenue
2. Many complaints about huge ads all over the place

I chose to shut down Auto Ads.

[ember]

Easy monetization of pages that are text heavy may make sense as there is little involvement on the publishers end and very basic code implementation.

My pages are text-heavy because I have literally written millions of words over the last 15 years. Doing so took a lot of publisher involvement.

P.S. I have been Adsense free for several months now. I'm still deciding if there is a point in trying Adsense again, hence still following this thread, but the comments don't sound promising.

My RPM is as high now as it's ever been. It is not all doom and gloom.

[skaterpunk]

@ember

My statement about "little involvement on the publishers end" was describing the Adsense auto ad implementation and maintenance process, which Tangor was asking about. Not content.

[ember]

I apologize for misunderstanding you, skaterpunk.

[Sal Collaziano]

I think many publishers are going to be very happy with the revenue being earned from AutoAds. My revenue, for half a day, was back up to what it used to be years ago before ad blockers came into play. AutoAds will be great for blogs and other sites that don't accept comments. Any site with comments will receive relentless complaints about the size of the ads and how they interfere with the page flow. Eventually, however, everyone will start using ad blockers - and the new revenue will go away...

[tangor]

Having watched g operate over the years this feels like another move to take control away from publishers and put it all in g's hands. Opt in at the moment, but there will come a time it is required (after enough players are on board) and from then on g will control all aspects of advertising ... and will eventually reduce the "cash incentive" which gets folks to play in the first place.

YMMV

[ember]

Ugh. I'm testing auto ads again and a page that has three manually placed ads now has a total of six ads. It's insane.

[Broaster]

Same here, Auto Ads are horrible. When I first implemented it months ago and saw they put ads in places that were difficult for me to ad a code for I was amped and couldn't wait to check my earnings after a few days

They added mobile ads too, so I was thinking yes im going to get in increase in click thrus and earnings.

Then I check and I barely got any clicks on any of the auto ads. Im thinking a lot of people clicked but google was slick and didnt pay.

But the scary thing is when I removed the code from my header they still were placing auto ads on my website.

[Sal Collaziano]

@broaster you have to go in and manually turn off AutoAds... My earnings doubled when AutoAds was automatically initiated - but the ads made the user experience very bad.

[ember]

I should clarify that it is the in page auto ads that are useless. The vignette ads work very well and I wish I had more of them.

[IanCP]

Auto Ads? Yesterday I encountered a blatant one as a searcher.

I can't remember what I was searching for but I landed on a page full of information, well laid out, just black [not grey/gray] text on a white page.

Nice!

Scrolling down the page my view was suddenly blocked by a quite large floating ad which wouldn't go away. It was from a firm I had purchased from several weeks earlier, advertising the very identical product I had purchased, and was now sitting on my desk.

IBA and Auto Ads - Just how dumb can some people be over at Google? Don't answer, we've had nearly 20 years of experience.

Eventually, I found a contact page and reported to the site people how my visit was ruined by the advertisement. Curiously there were no other ads on the page before that intervention, and when I reloaded the page as a desperate measure to remove the ad, - that was that - it didn't reappear.

Yes folks go for Auto Ads and alienate your site visitors. Cuppla folks reported increased earnings - then let's see how it goes for you long term - my bet is you will likely suffer long term damage.

[Edit - typo]

[mcneely]

I reloaded the page as a desperate measure to remove the ad, - that was that - it didn't reappear.

... go back in as a unique visitor and the ad will reappear

Cookie placement on these sites are such that some ads are only meant to be served once --