Google AdSense Rejected Ad Requests - Search Engine Roundtable

AppId is over the quota

A month and a half ago, I reported on a weird bug that was affecting some Google AdSense publishers where they were receiving notifications of rejected ad requests.

Since then, it was pretty quiet on the front, that was until yesterday where I guess the bug started to impact more publishers.

The WebmasterWorld thread with the original complaint saw a huge increase in complaints yesterday and I received several emails about the issue from publishers. I sent them to my previous rejected ad requests story.

The thing is, this time, Google is working on a fix. If you look at the AdSense known issues page, you will see this issue being directly addressed, where Google said they hope to have a fix out in the next few days.

We recently changed the way our system surfaces alerts related to rejected ad requests. This has resulted in some publishers seeing an alert in their AdSense accounts about needing to fix rejected ad requests, though no action is required on their part.

We're quickly working to fix this so that only publishers who need to take action will see the alert. We hope to have this resolved in the next couple of days, and we'll update the known issues page when the update is live. If you are concerned about this alert, please check your account after that, and if you still see the notice, follow the instructions in the Help Center to resolve the issue. Note that the vast majority (over 90%) of publishers now seeing this notification will not see it after the fix. If the instructions in the Help Center don't seem to apply to you, you are probably one of the publishers who should not be seeing this alert notification.

So hang tight, I hope this doesn't have a negative impact on your income and doesn't cause any of you additional stress.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Anyone else get a Rejected ad requests warning?

This 39 message thread spans 2 pages: 39 ( [1] 2 )  > >   Anyone else get a Rejected ad requests warning?
 10:44 am on Jul 18, 2012 (gmt 0)
Got this message in my account:

"You have rejected ad requests, which will result in lost revenue"

When you click on the details link - it says "Rejected ad requests"

Ad unit "UNIT NAME" has been shown on "Incorrect sites", and the site is: "googleads.g.doubleclick.net"

I've searched google, and see a few others have this message - which has to be fixed by the 15 August 2012.

I havent changed my ads - or my site, so don't know why i've got this message.

Has anyone else got it, or had it before, or know any more about it?

Cheers!

 3:13 pm on Jul 18, 2012 (gmt 0) 6:59 pm on Jul 18, 2012 (gmt 0)
Nope - i am including them with php "include("ads.php")";

But it's the way i've always done it - for years. So i cannot see why that would be a problem?

Has anyone else had this message?

 8:37 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
I got it too? My site is in wordpress? I don't hide anything? And I havne't changed anything. Maybe it's scrapers running your content on their server?
 9:18 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
Got it too today. Is this a bug?
 9:22 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
Same here just showed up. Seems like it might be your ads showing on a different website ?
 9:33 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
Weird. I came here to post about this too.

I was wondering if it had something to do with the fact that I am fighting malware on my site. Google hasn't detected malware but some users have complained...it's a sneaky one to get rid of.

My Adsense revenue has plummeted the last couple of days. I wonder if there is a connection.

I don't use iframes at all, but I do use an include in php like a previous poster mentioned.

 9:53 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
I just got the red bar notice too. It listed the incorrect site as view.atdmt.com. I have no idea what to do about it.
 9:57 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
Could it be the channel/ad unit that is affected is not performing well and it's giving this error message? What's the size of the ad unit that's giving the 'rejected ad request'? Mine is the 468x15.
 9:58 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
Just got it. I haven't changed anything. Weird. I thought maybe it has to do with dfp? The ad affected is the 728x90 on the homepage, and it has been underperforming for about a week.
 10:07 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)

That page has some very "interesting" source code, and in particular a javascript..

If one uses dragonfly, one can actually see what it is designed to do..( surprised it wasn't encrypted, considering) ..

However, if one allows javascript, it blocks the usual view source of the browser, and has other "designed in", "effects" on the browser..

The primary domain atdmt.com redirects to
[atlassolutions.com...]

Might there be a connection with the "problem"...?

added..it also drops a bunch of 5 cookies, 4 are 2 year cookies , 1 is a 24 year cookie!

 11:04 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0) 11:13 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
here too.. I just have the google adsense code in a widget on my left hand sidebar on my wordpress site, njplaygrounds.com; (the incorrect sites it refers to is the same as hiccupsheadache, "googleads.g.doubleclick.net"

never had a problem until today. looking at google adsense support, but haven't seen a solution: here's the thread I spotted [productforums.google.com...]

my problem is echoed by jca2112 "How do you get "page_url" to automatically be set for a dynamically created page? Putting this in manually for each page would not be possible -- ..."

I'll be monitoring thread if anyone has some words of advice!

thanks :)

 11:20 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
Where do you guys see the "incorrect site"? It doesn't show me that.
 11:30 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
Where do you guys see the "incorrect site"? It doesn't show me that.

Click on "Details" in the red bar, and it tells you the incorrect site. For me, it is partner.googleadservices.com.

No idea how to fix this.

Where is an ASA when you need him/her?

 11:32 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
Leosghost, I just went in and blocked atdmt.com. I hope that works.
jpch

msg:4488890

 11:44 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
Just got it today as well. My incorrect sites are:

googleads.g.doubleclick.net
ib.adnxs.com

Haven't changed anything on my site recently to cause this.

 11:45 pm on Aug 27, 2012 (gmt 0)
I'm thinking that there is some kind of glitch in the AdSense system.
 12:04 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
It has to be a bug if all of a sudden this is appearing to so many people.

Has anyone else who has had this message notice a decrease in Adsense revenue the last few days? I had been tracking along quite nicely for a while and suddenly my revenue is down to about 1/3 to 1/2 of normal for a few days.

 12:05 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
It appears that for some people's sites, that the adsense server thinks it is being called from pages that do not actually exist, it seems to be attributing some of them to dynamic ad serving systems outside of the true "target sites", some of these "non existent" pages (partner.googleadservices.com is a 404 ), even belong to competitors ad serving systems and platforms,( atdmt.com is a Microsoft system )..php includes are obviously also,"dynamic"..and some widgets are confusing it..

But not everyone who runs adsense via "includes" are having the warnings*..

Blocking the pages that it is "imagining" and which are not on your site, might be a hack around it for now..

*But given the apparent randomness of what are being identified erroneously as "errors" by Google's adsense system..a "glitch" at their end seems the most likely explanation, a "glitch" that only they can fix..

 12:10 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
It does seem like a glitch. Everything could be fine tomorrow.
 12:13 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
@LavingRunatic

I started to notice a decrease in Adsense revenue starting Saturday. When did it start yours?

jpch

msg:4488907

 12:21 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
Blocking the pages that it is "imagining" and which are not on your site, might be a hack around it for now

ib.adnxs.com is already listed on Unauthorized Sites list so I'm hoping it's just an AdSense glitch.

Earnings look about right for a Monday.

 12:38 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
FYI: I am having this same issue with adsense. I had an issue with Adwords a few weeks back. They sent me notice that my adwords could not be served in frames and they literally nixed my ads. I had no idea what they were talking about, I use WP and no frames at all.

I said "prove it" and they got back to me saying they had fixed the issue and I was at no fault, but now this adsense "glitch" and it seems like the same indications... Interesting.

 1:29 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
@jbayabas, my drop was dramatic on Wed Aug 22. It was down dramatically for 3 days and has been creeping up again.
 1:31 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
I got the same message today. The specific ad block they referenced, which has not had any changes in more than 6 months, specifies text only. I believe the rejected ad was someone who wanted to post an image ad in that space. I reject image ads because my site is a fairly narrow special interest niche, and in previous tests, all the image ads I have ever seen on my site have poor to terrible contextual relevance - dieting and other unrelated topics. So I have no qualms about rejecting image ads - for me they result in reduced revenues in spite of strong suggestions otherwise by G-adsense staff. I know the specifics of my own site better than they do. I have not seen any reduced revenues in recent days or weeks.
 2:55 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
I got the red bar alert this morning. (ib.adnxs.com) Huge drop on adsense earnings started 3 days ago. Hope it's a temporary glitch...
 3:58 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
I got it too for two separate ad units on two different sites of mine (Incorrect site: googleads.g.doubleclick.net).

I call the first ad via SSI on a static html site; the second one is on a wordpress site. Both are fairly old ad placements that I haven't changed in a long time. I don't use iframes.

I'm just going to check now whether I have these units set up as an "alternate" on the one other major ad network that I use, where they would appear only if the other network has nothing available. I seem to think that is the case. Could this be where an iframe might be used? And could this be the issue for me?

 4:07 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
Where are you guys seeing this warning,

In the "messages" on your control panel?

 4:57 am on Aug 28, 2012 (gmt 0)
Same message here.. nothings changed... red bar at log in...

Posting to stay notified... :)

This 39 message thread spans 2 pages: 39 ( [1] 2 )  > >  

Unmatched ad requests are suddenly way up!

Unmatched ad requests are suddenly way up!
Is this an AdSense bug, or is it just me? 6:34 pm on Jul 31, 2012 (gmt 0)
Over the last few days I've noticed a big increase in unmatched ad requests in my reports. It's enough of an increase to make me think it's a bug. Is anyone else seeing this?

I changed some ad units to "text only" a week ago, while the others on the same pages remain "text,image,rich media". I only use 2 adblocks per page tops. Could this small change be the reason? PERPLEXED!

 7:16 pm on Jul 31, 2012 (gmt 0)
Nope, not me. For the last 7 days, "unmatched requests" were only .018263 of my total requests.

I have different ad units for text and image (which I rotate on my own basis) and I only have the AdWords network enabled, for whatever that's worth.

Oh - one thing I noticed that when I took link units off a particular site, my unmatched ad requests all but disappeared. Are you running link units?

 7:31 pm on Jul 31, 2012 (gmt 0)
Thanks for the reply netmeg. I don't and never have run link units. I do have all third party ad networks enabled, but I can't see this being the reason, Hmmmm.
levo

msg:4480678

 8:01 pm on Jul 31, 2012 (gmt 0)
Could it be due to the end of the month?
 8:15 pm on Jul 31, 2012 (gmt 0)
@levo, I wish I knew.

I've decided to "un-block" some of the ads I blocked prior and see if this helps.

 11:02 pm on Jul 31, 2012 (gmt 0)
Whoa...am I missing something here?

I hadn't a clue what you were writing about therefore went to have a look at my own reports...what the heck are these?

Supposedly this year I have 39.75% of unmatched requests!

A flat line all year, DEAD, please, tell me this is nothing of concern, I've gone back to 2004 and it's totally FLAT, nothing, zero, niente, nichts, denada!

 11:12 pm on Jul 31, 2012 (gmt 0)
Supposedly this year I have 39.75% of unmatched requests!

This is nearly as high as mine! Yet 3 days ago it was around 0.5%

When I checked "ads shown" for the last day, only 9 ads are there! 6 text, 2 image, 1 rich media, and 2 where foreign?!? So I unblocked every ad I had blocked minus a few "obviously" poor ones. Now I wait, yet I don't understand. Maybe it's an end of the month thing? Seems buggy though. Ugg.

 11:27 pm on Jul 31, 2012 (gmt 0)
Not sure if this helps with your issue JCKline but here's a quote from [support.google.com...]

If you're using link units on your site, unmatched ad requests might be higher than expected. This is due to the way we count a matched ad request for link units. A matched ad request for a link unit is only counted if the user clicks on a term in the link unit. If the user doesn't click, the ad request is considered unmatched. As a result, coverage is lower for link units than other ad units.

I have a pretty high number of unmatched requests but I have adlinks on every page of my main site so I would expect it.

Did you add adlinks recently?

 11:43 pm on Jul 31, 2012 (gmt 0)
Mine says :
Unmatched ad requests15,438
Coverage 0.00%
(I have link units)
 3:47 pm on Aug 1, 2012 (gmt 0)
If the user doesn't click, the ad request is considered unmatched.

Aha, so that means 39.75% of people who clicked on an AdLink didn't go any further meaning that 60.25% did.

Ouch, that's a huge number if I'm understanding this correctly.

 4:06 pm on Aug 1, 2012 (gmt 0)
I have NO adlinks on any of my sites, they never converted well. I checked the "sites" report in AdSense and found some Middle Eastern sites who placed some of my pages in an iFrame, but the traffic is minimal. Added an iFrame buster to my global js file anyway. I use noarchive so the web caches are almost O. I just can't figure this out!
 4:58 pm on Aug 1, 2012 (gmt 0)
Mine says :
Unmatched ad requests15,438

Oh heck, I'm over 100,000

Time for the new ASA to advise about this please.

 6:31 pm on Aug 1, 2012 (gmt 0)
That is for the quiet account, HP. The other is higher, but doesn't use link units.

Plus, I only have adsense on about 20% of the site.

 8:54 pm on Aug 1, 2012 (gmt 0)
I feel a little better that I'm not the only one. Very strange though. It wasn't like this before a week ago. I can't say it's NOT a bug of sorts.
 7:14 am on Aug 2, 2012 (gmt 0)
Searching around the Google forums, it seems that many people are experiencing a similar issue as JCKline and Lame_Wolf, i.e. not using link units but getting unmatched ad requests.

Unfortunately there was no answer posted on the forums, so unless you have a contact at Google ....

 1:59 pm on Aug 2, 2012 (gmt 0)
@JohnNZ, no answer? That's ODD. I'll have to contact my cockroach friend who lives under the Google Plex for answers. Thanks JohnNZ.

24 hours into August and already 12% unmatched ad requests.

 2:36 pm on Aug 2, 2012 (gmt 0)
I have no idea if this is really an issue or not. I've never ever noticed a time when there were no ads in an ad unit. Isn't that what it means? That an ad wasn't available?

I guess if thought it might be a problem, I might set my own ad or graphic as the fill for an ad unit, and then after a few days look at my logs to see how many times the graphic displayed.

 9:17 pm on Aug 2, 2012 (gmt 0)
Isn't that what it means? That an ad wasn't available?
Yep, it was discussed here almost a year ago when it first appeared in the reports.

The OP doesn't mention which report is showing Unmatched Ad Requests.

I see it in Targeting Types and in Bid Types (in the bottom row).
You can see which sites are generating unmatched ads by clicking the Dimension button and selecting Sites.

If your channels for non-Adlink blocks are showing 100% coverage (or close to it) there shouldn't a problem.

 11:00 pm on Aug 2, 2012 (gmt 0)
Correction:
Unmatched Ad Requests are also generated by AdLinks
Adsense Help [support.google.com...]
If you're using link units on your site, unmatched ad requests might be higher than expected. This is due to the way we count a matched ad request for link units. A matched ad request for a link unit is only counted if the user clicks on a term in the link unit.

Unauthorized sites seem to generate them too, even though the Coverage shown for the site is 100%.

 2:28 am on Aug 3, 2012 (gmt 0)
So it does apply to non link unit ads?

Strange it doesn't mention that in the adsense help? But I guess it makes sense.

 

Anyone else get a Rejected ad requests warning?

As with any top site that achieves the success on the order that we have, expenses also grow. Dozens of gigabytes of bandwidth per day, multiple servers, legal and business expenses have all grown dramatically in the last year to account for our (just plain) awesome growth.

We have discussed moving the site to banner ads, text ads, or affiliations with developers. Given the we'll buy advertising if we get favorable treatment in the forums environment that all community based advertising models produce, we feel strongly that this is not the route WebmasterWorld would be comfortable following.

If you would like to subscribe to Webmasterworld please click on one of the PayPal links above and fill out the form at their secure https site. We are a verified PayPal Premier business member and you can verify our status by clicking on the verified seal in the lower right. If you wish to pay by check or money order (US funds), our postal address is on the about screen (link at bottom).

You may also subscribe via 2CheckOut by using one of the form buttons below.

Aside from supporting WebmasterWorlds continued operation and expansion, subscribing to the site has tangible benefits. Members receive: Access to the private supporters forum. It is made up of some of the best professionals in the business in a more relaxed atmosphere. An ad free environment if we should add advertising. A special discounted Supporters Only rate to all WebmasterWorld hosted conferences. Note: Given that this is a service, all subscriptions are final and refunds are not granted.

Thank You
Brett Tabke
Webmaster, WebmasterWorld