wayne on September 2, 2008
I've never used the competitive filter in AdSense to filter out ads that might show up on my blog, however, I have now.
I began to notice a whole slew of John McCain ads on the site and really didn't want them there. Since Google AdSense picks up on keywords, I suspect that it was picking up on my last name 'John' and assuming that I would want 'John' McCain ads on the site.
Well, it's now filtered out, or so it appears. If you happen to notice any John McCain ads on the site, please let me know.
Obama? Well, he's alright in my book.
How I did it
If you have been following my blog, I recently wrote on how to get started with Google AdSense. You can take that a step further by eliminating your competitors from advertising on your own site pretty easily. Here's how you can do it.
Within the Google AdSense admin area, I went to AdSense Setup - Competitive Ad Filter. I had to click the ad to get the ultimate URL that a user would land on. Once I had that URL, I entered it into the competitive ad filter and waited.
It took a bit to realize the change on my site, but it appears it is now working.
That is the only time it is required that you click on your own ad, in fact, that is how Google instructions tell you how to work the competitive ad filter.
What about you, are you using Google AdSense, and if so, have you had to remove any ads via the competitive ad filter?
