Adsense Site Targeting Causes a Re-Think

Ummmm.... you can opt your site out of site targeting ;)

How?

Where do you do that? I just looked in my control panel (UK so might be different)

Adbrite strikes me as a decent deal for publishers who are selling ads direct, at least a lot better than than Adsense.

You just need to contact the Google AdSense Team and request it. Opting out has been in place since site targeting initially launched.

>You just need to contact the Google AdSense Team and request it.

You're kidding me?

Then opting out hasnt really been in place since the beginning at all. It's been hidden since the beginning. That's not the same thing.

sorry this thread went walk about for a while, a bit of miscommunication with editors :)

GW told me he was actually dropping adsense because of some case studies he's planning that may cause GOOG some grief...

I requested an opt out and got this

Make of that what you will...

edit
I received a further reply late today, basically the info supplied to me as quoted earlier was incorrect and as Jenstar states, you can indeed opt out of site targetting upon request.

Jenstar, maybe you can opt out!

I've helped one of my clients do site-targeted ads... TEXT ADS, not graphics.

So his ads currently show, CPM-style, on several sites. Those sites could have opted out of graphical ads, and it wouldn't matter... so I can't fathom what opting out of graphical ads (per the AdSense person's note) has to do with anything!

LOL, actually no, I don't have super special preferential treatment on this. I haven't opted out nor have I wanted to, but I know people who have. robwatts confirms this above as well, that you CAN opt-out of site targeting.

Whish is SHIT, beyond belief.

...such SHIT.

Honestly. Enlighten me.

My gut instinct would suggest that humans (an advertiser) may be able to sense a better match, contentwise, than even a smart machine... thus bringing more relevant advertising to a publisher's site.

And if it's wholly irrelevant... well, they're probably gonna get crappy click-thrus and conversions, waste a bunch of money, and not be on your site for long.

What am I missing here?

Good grief....

How can publishers effectively sell advertising on their websites whilst running Adsense?

Advertisers can just bypass the homegrown program and site-target them...

I would bet that the vast majority of sites being site targeted are there because AdWords suggested them to the advertiser during the ad campaign set up, rather than chosen because the advertiser specifically entered in the URL.

When I set up one campaign as an advertiser, I added one or two URLs, then let AdWords suggest many more similar URLs - and I chose at least a couple dozen of those suggested ones as well. The ones I didn't chose were sites that were still on-target, but outside of the particular niche I was targeting at the time.

FWIW, I sell advertising on a couple of my sites too, and I have not seen a decline in that ad revenue since site targeting launched. I don't see advertisers bypassing my own advertising options to site target via AdWords.

Sorry for the newb question,
Do AdSense provide a way to see which sites you own are being site targeted and by which advertisers?

PaulH not really... unless you just look at your advertisers on your site.

..that if they provided you with specific data of who was targeting you, then you might be tempted to contact them directly and do a better deal..

That said, there isn't very much to stop an adwords advertiser, prompted via adword suggestion, from contacting the domain directly...is there?

All very shaky for google revs..or am I missing something too?

that’s what i was thinking :), if i could see an advertiser using site targeting they could be offered more prominent ads – don’t see why google would mind, after all it's all about making advertiser and publishers happy :D

If you are thinking of contacting advertisers to advertiser with you directly rather than through AdWords, tread carefully... it is against the AdSense terms to contact advertisers regarding their ads.

An agency could start brokering deals.

Traditional sales job, find two people who want to do business and get in the way.

I agree they should allow people to opt out, but for most smaller publishers this is really a nonissue. They just don't have the time, expertise, and money to effectivley persue selling and managing client ads.

But I would leave the message on the site. If people are targeting your site with site targeting, why not swing a better deal for both of you?

I think his idea is a brilliant move. How is Google going to know one way or another?

Good grief, you can even target specific pages!