Google prides itself on its ability to show relevant ads... but is there any way to force it to show ads that aren't so relevant?

Google is designed to show targeted ads.

I hope none of the techs at Google see this - it just might be THE post that makes them decide to go ahead and jump off the building after all.

FarmBoy

Why put adsense on an ecommerce site in the first place? Do you really want to lose that Ray-Ban interested shopper to a weight loss ad?

Switch to something that isn't AdSense. AdSense IMHO is very good at contextual ad-matching.

Try Adbrite, they will serve up ads which have nothing to do with sunglasses on your sunglasses site. Unfortunately, their payments are so small as to be laughable. But that's what you get if you don't have the inventory to serve up relevant ads.

Two words

section targeting

make sure the ads you want to call are in the page keywords, title or description, if you can justify it and in the page copy, section target those words in the body.

Ads should obey! Just like a fat belly.

FarmBoy

I think the Plex is only 3 floors, they would probably survive. All the hot air in those Californians would probably make them bounce anyway. Remember it's all about them! (lived there for 3 years and hated it)

No, I think you would have to throw them through a window in a building like the one in the Watchmen movie.

First of all, I wouldn't put AdSense on an ecommerce; maybe it's just me, but it's not worth the pennies you'll get from Google.

That said - there is such a thing as being *too* relevant, and it took AdSense a couple years to get it right on my event site. The ads were targeting companies that put on the events, rather than the local people who like to attend the events (who make up most of my visitors)

I have to respectfully disagree on AdSense and e-commerce. Did anyone see the article yesterday in Ad Age about ads on e-commerce pages? I found it a very interesting read.

ASA

Why put adsense on an ecommerce site in the first place? Do you really want to lose that Ray-Ban interested shopper to a weight loss ad?

Not directly, but the site gets a pretty even mix of targeted and untargeted traffic, and this happens due to a constantly revolving inventory. Most of what's in stock has already sold out by the time a search spider visits, or will sell out shortly after, but I still get that traffic for however long I'm waiting between re-indexes. If someone was searching for a specific product, and I have it in stock, they aren't likely going to be distracted by an irrelevant ad - and if they are, the next person won't be, so I'm not really worried about it.

I also get a lot of remnant traffic from infomercial sites (after you buy your crappy $19.95 'as seen on TV' product, you're usually directed to one of my sites), which doesn't frequently turn into sales but the ad click-throughs on those are higher than the targeted visitors.

Frankly there are a number of reasons why it makes sense to run ads on ecommerce sites as part of an overall revenue model, but that wasn't the point of the question. It's about how, if there is any way, to force AdSense into some kind of 'negative keyword' mode where it can show content-matched ads that exclude specific keywords, even if those words are plastered all over our page. On a site selling sunglasses, I'd be happy to send them to anywhere but a place that's blatantly advertising sunglasses in their ad, because the graphical ads just look like something else to click on. Sort of a "analyze all of the other words on the page, but ignore *this* word" mode.

I've used AdSense to block specific companies before, like if I'm selling refurb'd magicJack units I can block ads for Vonage and netTALK specifically, but I currently have no way of blocking *all* VOIP-companies.

That's kind of what I'm looking for. So, is there any way to do it with AdSense?

I have to respectfully disagree on AdSense and e-commerce. Did anyone see the article yesterday in Ad Age about ads on e-commerce pages? I found it a very interesting read.

I assume you are talking about the one that discussed Martha Stewarts ecommerce?

Martha Stewart is a big hitting brand - . In my web space ecommerce (my store) easily out earns my contextual ads (content side). All I need is five average sales to trump earnings from ads delivered to 50K+ daily visitors. Also, I sell consulting services - one sale out earns six months of ad sales.

Any Ads on any of these revenue pages does make me sell my boat.

I know of many sites that that burn thousands of dollars a months on Adsense but they have never had Adsense on their website and in the industry it makes sense.

Personally, I think it detracts from the site to have ads on an ecommerce site. I've heard nothing but derision the Target site showing AdSense now (and I can't believe they're actually making much money off it compared to selling inventory) It makes sense ASA wouldn't agree, but that's why there's chocolate and vanilla.

I have no problem with adsense on ecommerce sites. I have it on one of my clients. The way I see it as... Here's our product, here are some related adverts - feel free to check them out - then come back when you know ours is best.

Then again, then it's another story if your product isn't good.

If you guys want to talk about whether or not a site selling products should or shouldn't have ads, start a thread for that. This one is about AdSense ad filtering...

If you guys want to talk about whether or not a site

Oh yeah, you're the one that wants non related adverts. Then is Adsense for you ?

I think Khensu has it as close as it gets...

Two words

section targeting

make sure the ads you want to call are in the page keywords, title or description, if you can justify it and in the page copy, section target those words in the body.

That's where I'd start.