@fredw, that's OK. Thy are static urls.

I may be missing something in the new interface.

I use the "Hold for Rieview" feature.

In the old version I had the option of approving individual ads "run immediately", without pre-approving approving all ads from that advertiser account. Those ads would then drop off the hold for review list.

I can't seem to do that in the new version. It seems like if I want to approve an ad, I just don't "block" it, and then it still stays on the "upcoming ads" list until the 24 hours are up?

That seems odd. What am I missing?

@keb_b, Allow and Block Ads > Settings > Hold ads for 24 hours so they can be reviewed > Save

ive just twigged that they've also removed the option to block 3rd-party ads. so we got this, and lost that

they've also removed the option to block 3rd-party ads.

That option still shows for me.

@londrum, You don't have "Ad Networks" listed under "Blocking options" in the "Allow and Block Ads" section?

my fault... yeah i've got that. dont know why i didnt see that (probably because im a bit dim)

My blocked URL list is closing in on 500 domains pretty rapidly. I don't bother using the URL blocker to block just certain paths, I block the entire domain.

Each page of 12 ads in the ad review centre has about 4 that need blocking still, and this is a week or so after having started the process!

The Ad Review Centre is a very good tool but it certainly isn't geared towards dealing with vast quantities of ads.

I don't believe it - max number of urls you are allowed to block is 500. That's frustrating as hell.

I don't believe it - max number of urls you are allowed to block is 500. That's frustrating as hell.

It used to be 200.

If I had to block 500 ads, I'd probably deduce that AdSense was not a good match for my sites. But that's just me.

@netmeg - it's taken me the best part of a full working week just to see all the ads that were displaying. When the ads were really poor quality, offensive or way off-topic I ban them by domain only. I have probably blocked tens of thousands in the ad review centre without blocking the domain...

What I'm saying is that if you are seeing that many off target ads, then Google is obviously having some difficulty figuring out what you're about.

Not really. There are quite a number that are on target for my site, but I assume they'll pay badly & block them for that reason. There are some oddities, sure, but on the whole they fit my theme, but not my idea of what I'd like my visitors to see.

"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse" -- Henry Ford

What I'm saying is that if you are seeing that many off target ads, then Google is obviously having some difficulty figuring out what you're about.

I don't see how. They have been extremely good over the years. Only since they took over doubleclick, was the start of the decline... and progresses to be worse as the weeks go on.

For those choosing to block ads, I'm curious if your earnings will drop as a result of having less competition for your ad space. I always assumed the marginally targetted ads were showing because of higher bid prices, even if they had a lower CTR.

I'm not choosing to block any ads (I don't have any offensive ads that were shown or I'd probably block those) as I figure Google will rotate the ads which yield the most revenue overall, even if some have lower CTR. If people have success blocking some ads, I will definitely reconsider.

The only ones I'm blocking are the ones where synonyms are mistargeting my site.

Blocking results in lower potential earnings. The trick is to identify where the ads are showing up and modifying the page to attract less unsavory ads(and create a better overall impression).

Then again the ads constantly change, spinning your wheels without going anywhere doesn't help.

I keep getting ads for "tote bags" and other garbage, so I block them. What's the point of higher CPC if my site is plastered with them, and my CTR is in the toilet?

At some point I realized that constantly fiddling with the dials was driving me nuts. So I stopped. Earnings went up, and I could reserve my insanity for other things.

ive come to the conclusion that this is a total waste of time. I've blocked bazillions of ads but they are still appearing on my site (the exact same ads) and they are still appearing in the box to be blocked too.

ive got one particular ad -- and image ad -- that has appeared about five times in the box to be blocked, showing the exact same image each time, and i've blocked them all, and it still appears on my site.
There must be a sixth instance of it in the list, but i cant be bothered to click through hundreds and hundreds of ads again trying to find it.

Presumably the advertiser is using a different URL for each one, and we have to block them individually. but when Google only shows us the domain name, we have no way of knowing that. You may as well save yourself a lot of bother and just block everything at the domain level.

I like to think that I have standards. To that end I block:

- ugly ads
- idiotic products
- ads with poor spelling or grammar
- snake oil ads
- people who have simply scraped my site and sell it on DVDs (yes, I've had to block a site like that :( )
- ads with telephone numbers displayed
- ads with inappropriate language
- ads that encourage dubious software downloads

I don't block any ads. But it is fun to see what is being displayed to my visitors.

What a shame they still don't tell us which of our sites these ads are appearing on.

Hey guys

Any idea how the ads are organized?

Do you think the highest paying ads are shown first?

I have been through pages and pages of ads, gave up in the end because there was too many!

From the adsense help pages

Ads are ranked according to the number of impressions they received, or will likely receive in the case of upcoming ads, so the first ads shown are the most important to review.

I spent about 20 minutes going through page after page, with no end in sight, so gave up. I'll block the odd irrelevant ad, but I generally just leave things as they are.

...just wondering if anyone still perseveres with this "tool", and whether they are having any success with it.

i've been using it on and off for a few months now, so i've given it a good go, but i have decided that it is totally useless.

there is one particular company who always has ads on my site, who has absolutely nothing to do with my subject matter, so whenever i see it i block it. they have every kind of ad going -- small boxes, big boxes, text ads, image ads, video ads, leaderboards... everything. so i block the lot. but everytime i return to the tool they have returned. and i have to block them all over again.

how do they do that?

are google blocking them purely by the URL? that is the conclusion i have come to. i assume that they are adding a query string to the end of the URL, or something like that, to track it, and google counts that as a complely new URL, so we have to block them all over again, every day, endlessly.

this tool would have a lot more use if it actually remembered the company that you blocked, and blocked all their other ones too. because as it stands at the moment, it is a total waste of time.
what is the point of us sifting through hundreds (thousands!) of ads and blocking them, if they are just going to return the very next day?

it's a shame, because when i go back to the beginning of this thread i see that people were happy that they'd been given a new and useful tool.

londrum, I had something similar a while back. I clicked on the "send feedback" button, and asked "what do I have to do to block these guys?" and told themn that I keep blocking them, but they keep coming back.

Although I never heard back from the Google team, I never saw the adverts again.