PSA Is Frequently Shown As First Ad - Not Good

Can you imagine the loss in income?

[Sally Stitts]

I always run just one ad block.

When I am checking my own pages, the first ad shown is FREQUENTLY a PSA. However, a refresh produces real ads, as well as all subsequent refreshes.

I suffer from "First Ad = PSA syndrome".
The problem is, just how many visitors are going to refresh?
Maybe 5%? So I see this as a HUGE problem.

I speculate that the AdSense Algo doesn't get quite enough time, before it MUST spit out an ad block. So it spits out PSAs. This is not good for AdSense profitability.

You only get one shot. The first impression is everything (pun intended). You only get one chance to make a first impression. There are no second chances. Blah-blah-blah, etc.

Is it possible to introduce some kind of artificial delay to allow the AdSense algo time to "get it right" the first time? This is so critical, it isn't funny.

[Sally Stitts]

Sorry - couldn't edit above.

ALL the ads are 336 x 280 format.

336 problem?

[Sally Stitts]

OK.
I've had a few hours to look into this.
I think that I have really stumbled upon something.

I have checked many webpages.
FREQUENTLY, the first Adsense ad shown is a PSA!
All successive ads after the first are normal (achieved by refreshing over and over).
Why doesn't G show the normal ads the FIRST time?

Ad format does not seem to matter - square, rectangle, tower, small boxes - I've seen it happen with ALL formats.

So, while you are surfing, keep this in the back of your mind. Do you see a lot of "first-time-only" PSA ads?

Funny. The first impression is THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS!

[Sally Stitts]

Seeing more of the same.
PSA Ad, then regular ad, regular ad, regular ad, etc.

I think that the lesson here may be -
ALWAYS provide an alternate ad URL in your Google AdSense code, because you have no idea just how many PSAs you may be showing.

Rats! More work.

[miguelito]

hell, is it really so difficult to click the little box to select a colour to show instead of PSA ads ? voilá- end of problem

[ClosedGL]

The PSA problem you're describing is real, but only for you. It will only ever happen to you on your site unless somebody sees a page you have just created on your site before you do. Once you view your page a couple of times, the mediapartners bot has had a chance to spider the page and then start serving real ads to you and your visitors. Your visitors won't see PSAs unless your page contains questionable content, has never been viewed before, could not be spidered accurately by the bot or in your visitor's local area there are no companies currently advertising in markets relating to your content.

By the sounds of it, you have low visitor numbers and a site solely focussed towards getting every last dollar you can out of Adsense. I'd be concentrating on things you can change rather than crying about the insignificant things you can't.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Sally_Stitts -

There are several reasons your site might be receiving PSAs. First, have you opted in to receive both text-based ads and image-based ads? To find out, check your html source code. If you are only opted in to image ads, we may have a limited inventory of ads for the content of your site. We recommend opting in to display both text and image-based ads to maximize your site's revenue potential.

Other possible reasons for this problem include robots.txt files, dynamic URLs, and frames. For a full list of potential reasons you are receiving PSAs, visit:

[google.com...]

Hope this helps,

ASA