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Why am I getting Google Adsense Public Service Ads?

I signed up for Google AdSense and included AdSense on my new Web page, with the tweaks you recommend [see Getting started with Google AdSense]. Problem is, all I'm seeing is PSA's (Public Service Ads) from AdSense, I'm not seeing real advertisements, so regardless of what I do, there's no way to make a nickel off the program. Dave, please, why the heck am I trapped with AdSense PSAs?


Dave's Answer:

I have my own ideas about the most common reasons that some sites get PSA adverts when they're part of the AdSense program, but let's start with what Google itself says in the AdSense help area (here's the link -- Why am I getting PSA ads? -- but you need to be logged in to your AdSense account before you can see the page):

  • Our system has not yet crawled all the pages of your website.
  • Our crawler can't reach your site.
  • Your page may contain sensitive content for which relevant paying ads will not be displayed.
  • Your account may be disapproved or awaiting review.
  • Your site has restricted access using a robots.txt exclusion.
  • Your website is using session IDs in the URL.
  • Your website is using frames.
  • Your ad unit is set to display image ads only.
  • Your web page may not contain enough content.
  • The AdSense ad code was placed within an IFRAME.
  • Your web pages are behind a login.
  • There are too many URLs added to your account filter list.
  • Your site content is primarily in an unsupported language.
  • Your ad code has been modified.
  • Your page contains a refresh tag.

Two important notes to also be aware of:

  1. The Google crawler indexes by URL and therefore considers http://site.com and http://www.site.com different URLs. Because their crawler will visit these URLs separately, you may notice ads appear differently on these pages.
  2. The Google crawlers are unable to derive meaning from any of the following:
    • audio and video files (.wma, .mpeg, .mov)
    • mp3 files (.mp3)
    • images (.jpeg, .bmp)
    • Macromedia Flash movies
    • Java Applets

The most common causes of PSA ads in my own experience are pages that haven't yet been indexed (though loading the page a few times seems to quickly teach the AdSense system that the page exists and gives it time to spider and analyze that page for content) or pages that have content that's marked as being questionable or inappropriate.

There are plenty of topics that you should avoid, but honestly, most of them are unlikely to be a topic of your page, site or weblog anyway.

One more thought: log in to your Google AdSense area, then click on Reports --> Site Diagnostics and make sure that there aren't any problems with your site. Here's what you should see:

Google AdSense: Site Diagnostics

If you still can't figure out what's going on, don't forget that you can always email the AdSense support team and ask for advice. I have emailed them a number of times and found that they're quite responsive, though it can take a few days...

Good luck figuring this out!


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Categorized: Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising   (Article 6795, Written by )
Tagged: adsense for content, adsense psa, google adsense, public service ad
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Reader Comments To Date: 12

a said, on September 11, 2006 12:15 AM:

Also I believe if your ads aren't getting clicked on Google makes no money and the advertisers would be paying more for each ad because of the low click thru rate, so google disables ads on the site to prevent low click through rates.

I had a site with decent traffic at one point but no one was clicking on the ads, and was eventually getting Public Service Ads all the time.

This is just my opinion.

Vijeth said, on April 12, 2008 8:07 AM:

I am too facing the same problem. I think my web host some problem and i need to contact the webhosting support rather than contacting google.
I think this will save plenty of time to sort out the matter.

thanking you said, on July 28, 2008 2:03 AM:

Thanks for the tips, It helped me out greatly. Thankfully, now my issue is also resolved.

martak said, on September 12, 2008 6:29 AM:

By the way, is mine getting the PSA ads because it is a proxy site?
However, I am only getting PSA if I don't type www before the URL.. Otherwise the ads show correctly..

Any advice?

Thanks

Maria said, on June 10, 2009 6:20 AM:

Big problem for lot of people

PiresPORTUGAL said, on July 12, 2009 4:45 AM:

I like volunteers and i acept "Public Service Ads by Google" in my blogs. But why have english publicity in my blogs in Portuguese and Italian?

Novaida said, on September 3, 2009 4:56 AM:

i think no one have the solution of this problem here

Sonia said, on November 17, 2009 10:47 AM:

its dont help much .

Alamin said, on February 13, 2010 10:40 AM:

Hi my site is learning-insurance.Blogspot.com but i've rejected from google due to page type they mentioned it. But check out study-insurance.Blogspot.com this Blog has only 1 small post. Thats site gets adds from google but why my site doesn't. Pleas help me

widgia said, on February 24, 2010 1:26 PM:

Add more content, so google can see wht typ of ads they have to place.

marck_don said, on May 5, 2010 3:23 AM:

That is natural on adsense.

Martha said, on October 1, 2010 9:28 PM:

It's been a few days and I still have a PSA on my scrapbook site instead of ads. I'm looking forward to AdSense as a revenue stream, so I hope it changes soon!

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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