If we don't use AdSense, do we still need an ads.txt file? Thanks.

I think you should look into. A couple ad companies piggy back to adsense/adwords inventories, and not having ads.txt can hurt setup with proper passbacks.

But in that case, you probably don't need the account number from adsense...but rather from those third parties.

If we don't use AdSense, do we still need an ads.txt file?

If you only use Adsense you probably don't need an ads.txt, if you use anything else you should have one.

Thanks, frankleeceo and NickMNS. I appreciate it.

I'm wondering just how Google got so much control over the internet, websites and advertising.

By sneaking in advertising everywhere. Remember when Gmail was ad free and there was not too many paid search results? Buying DoubleClick back in the day really solidified their place in the banner market and there really have been no competitor to Adsense ever. If there ever was one, they bought them before they grew too big. We all helped them by recommending everyone to use Google as a default search engine as they was less "evil" at the time.

And by buying everything they liked.

Everyone should implement ads.txt unless you sell direct deals. I have had non-Adsense partners tell me that moving forward they will only spend on sites with valid ads.txt

Analytics reporting delayed by two hours.

@MayankParmar
Is Adsense also delayed, or just analytics?

@Robbo55 Seems like AdSense was delayed as well, the stats just got updated along with Analytics. AdSense appears fine now but Analytics is still having problems.

@MayankParmar
Thanks for the update :)

I've had quite a few zero paying clicks recently - another one this morning. That particular page had only had 5 page views and the RPM after the click was 0.45 UKP, therefore the click value was only 0.225p, which was why it was rounded down to zero. How can Google be selling clicks so cheaply? I'll be removing Adsense soon (yet again). My site was sans Adsense for a few years, but I decided to give it another try at the end of last year. It started fairly well, exceeding my expectations, but this year has been awful - apart from 2 or 3 days - and whenever I have a good day it is only because of one solitary high paying click. CTR and RPM are abysmal. Adsense seems to be working for some people here, but not for me.

Adsense had a record day for me, but Adx is reporting fewer than normal clicks. I hope it's just a delay...

CTR and RPM are really low today. Anyone else?

I Spooke to soon.
Today is a nightmare! Why such variations?

@MayankParmar
All ok here for me, but Adsense has been very up-and-down in 2018
Seems like there's a bug to me so I emailed Google last week and they're still looking into it

Seems very delayed today.

@Mental Lol. Seems like stats delayed again!

@Robbo55 They will reply but whenever I questioned them about unexpected drops in earnings, they told me it is because of season change :D

I concur things look grim. But i don't see any anomalies in terms of coverage, 3rd parties or bid types. CPM impressions are up a bit, but not significantly.

one $12.00 plus click today. Probably the biggest click of the year for me.

Not complaining though.

Got an email about the upcoming GDPR. Says new terms are coming by May 25, that Google is working on a publisher consent solution and that there will be an option for sites that do not want to show personalized ads (which I thought was an option anyway). After going responsive, then https, then removing ads for the Chrome filter, all within the last year, here comes another hoop. I only receive 250 EU visitors a month.

I got that same email. I get about 6 or 7% European traffic, that is counting the UK, which is about 5% of the 7%. That is a lot of hoop jumping for 7% of traffic and <5% in revenue.

I've found some companies that let you redirect visitors based on country. I can send EU folks to a site with a page or two of content without Adsense, Analytics, etc. so no PII is collected. Almost sounds too easy.

What would be the problem if we show the personalized ads to European users? We can disclose the same in the privacy policy page. About Analytics, in WordPress plugin, there's a option to block recording of IP. I'm not sure whether Analytics without IP will work as expected or not.

Oh wait, what about Sucuri? It collects the IP of spammers/attackers, and email us (if enabled).

I might be wrong - there is a lot of GDPR discussion in other threads - but I think you have to get affirmative consent, like visitors checking a box to continue, to show personalized ads to EU visitors. So updating your privacy policy is not enough. I hope I am wrong and someone can correct me.

I'm about at the point of giving everyone a huge "V" and locking my sites down to registered trade-users only.

If it's not Google misery then it's the misery created by someone else when, in 25 years, I've not done one freakin' thing wrong to anybody, anywhere!

I have several days to say that I am not complying with ads.txt. however I have already added the file in my host. I have domain and own hosting.

wordpress.com/ads.txt

@Rbag, do you mean this: Earnings at risk - One or more of your ads.txt files doesn't contain your AdSense publisher ID. Fix this now to avoid severe impact to your revenue.?

Sometimes other websites offer your content on your site I believe via frames? In this case you'll see that message. Click through to "Action" to see if any of your own domains are on the warning list. If your domain is not you are good to go.

For me I have these:
answers.com/ads.txt
elmundo.es/ads.txt
foxnews.com/ads.txt
online-translator.com/ads.txt
tmz.com/ads.txt
y8.com/ads.txt
yahoo.com/ads.txt

So I have red bar permanently for the past 2 months I believe? :)

@frankleeceo I too have answers.com and yahoo,com in my list, and yes, the red bar has been there permanently.

I noticed my earnings today are totally pathetic. I looked at my site, and a lot of my adverts are no longer showing, and instead alternative adverts (that I made) are now showing. This happened around a month or so (like a lot of other people) When it happened then, my alternative adverts were being shown, but once the page was accessed, an adsense advert would soon appear.

Thinking the problem has risen again, I bookmarked pages from my site hours ago. I've rechecked them and they are still showing the alternative advert.