Yes I assume so. It should display whatever you show on the backup url.

That said, the Javascript will run within the context of the backup ad's url and not the page on which the actual ad unit is displayed. The backup ad is displayed as an iframe showing the backup ad url.

So if the ad looks at the context of the page, it will loo at the context of a blank page as its just a backup ad url. Is that right?

So if the ad looks at the context of the page, it will loo at the context of a blank page as its just a backup ad url. Is that right?

Yes most likely. It may be possible to write code to get elements from the iframe's parent page but I doubt that the ad code is written to do that, or if that would even be possible.

Hmm, so that begs the question, what backup to use. :S

As backup ads, you enter the URL of an HTML page. When Adsesnse has nothing to serve, it just inserts an iframe with the URL of your "backup ads HTML page". Then at this point, you should have enough knowledge, to understand what it means in practice. Sine it's an HTML page, you can do whatever you want , but javascript code will not access the top level parent page. So, all "contextual" based ads will not be efficient. However, ad networks like media.net can server ads related to the theme of your whole site , so it might be a compromise.

Personnaly, my backup ads page, is a PHP script, which decides what to display. This can be ebay search results ads, CJ banners (related to my site), or self promotional content. All depending of the country of the visitor. My PHP scripts knows on which page the ads will show, because on each page of my site, I set a cookie, with an ID, then my PHP script retrieves this cookie, telling it on which page the ad will be displayed, and it's how I can know which keywords to use, when I call ebay API.

Any suggestions for international sites (well, English speaking world)?

I have various affiliates that are fine for my UK only based sites but there's no point running them for US / Aus based users.

@surfgatinho : It depends of your knowledge and skill. But for example, the ebay affiliate programs, can help monetize (not as much as in the past), your international trafic. Your also have Commission Junction, and Amazon which are good places to look at.

I've never previously bothered with backup ads, but Mr. Amazon some time ago introduced an excellent product range which dove-tails perfectly with my sites.

So I've set this up - but is there any way to actually test it live?

Using the AdSense directions here:

[support.google.com ] [click view detailed instructions for URL]

Calling the page say example.com/adsense-backup.htm renders ok in Firefox, Chrome and a blank page in IE 11, and Opera.

It is simply a 729 X 90 clickable .jpg image.- zilch else

Bump...

So I've set this up - but is there any way to actually test it live?

Does anybody know of a way to actually test it live?

The way I have tested it, is not really testing at all, but simply implementing the ads and then going to my site and click on pages until the back-up finally shows. Again, this is a crude approach. If the ad doesn't display correctly simply fixed and try again. Obviously your users will see an errors you make. So this is not recommended.

A better solution would be to create a new ad-unit with the back-up set. Place the ad unit on a new page with no content, but that has a similar layout to a normal page. Hide the page from the public (no-indexed, no links pointing to it, cryptic url, etc...). Then go to that page and refresh until the back-up ad appears.

Thanks Nick, the latter makes sense.

As the clickable .jpg image includes a unique Amazon tracking code, I might wait and see if there is any activity - at least that is a positive test.