[ Update: we can now also use the Ad Review Center to allow or block ads: however, I personally think that this feature does not show all the ads which are shown in our sites.
Another useful tool is the Category Filtering: we can now choose the categories which are not relevant to our site. Ads will not show up from the chosen categories. This option is known as Sensitive Category.
Competitive Ad Filter can now be accessed via going to Allow & Block Ads -> Advertiser URLs]
Do you know that one of the ways to increase the money you earn via Adsense is to show relevant ads in your site?
But wait: do we have any control on what ads show up in our site?
Currently, we do have some options/features available in Adsense that can help us stop irrelevant ads in our site. From what I have heard: Premium Adsense Publishers can choose the exact ads that are displayed in their site: along with many other options that they can use which are not available for the normal publisher.
Normal publishers cannot choose which ads show up in their site: but what they can do is to try to stop irrelevant ads from showing up in their sites/pages.
The best tool to use is Competitive Ad Filter: this feature helps a lot in showing targeted ads in our site.
Here is what I recommended you to do in order to increase the money that you earn from Adsense.
Visit your site(s) once a day: visit few of the main pages and see what kind of ads are showing up. Look for irrelevant ads that might show up in your site:
But wait: what exactly will we consider as irrelevant ads?
I will show you an example of my own site. Assume that I open our main guide about free online jobs. In this guide, I have explained in detail how a person can get online jobs on the internet: these jobs include data entry, copywriting etc.
This guide does not talk about offline jobs where one needs to join an office. So now, if a user sees an ad in this guide that says something like this: “Submit your resume today: search our database to get a job in your city …” then will this be a relevant ad for the user?
Off course it will be consider as irrelevant ad as it is talking about the opposite thing which is mentioned in the guide. This guide talks about pure online jobs where the ad is related to finding offline office work via submitting resume.
Here is another example:
Consider the same guide again. In this guide, a person can learn how to earn money online without paying anything from his pocket. Assume that someone comes to this page via searching for such an opportunity [where one can earn cash without investing anything].
Now if this person sees an ad on this page which says something like this: “Make money online: Sign Up fee is only $50”.
Will this be a relevant ad for the user?
Just like these scenarios, there are many other examples of ads which may not be relevant to the content of your site/page. And Adsense has given as a feature called “Competitive Ad Filter” which we can use to stop irrelevant ads from showing up in our site.
