Google AdSense: Alternate Ads And PSAs
Let’s take the concept of AdSense a bit
further and check out 2 special case Ads : One that is served by AdSense as per
its wish and the other that is served by AdSense as per website owner’s
wish:
We all know that Google AdSense works by serving targeted Ads to
the websites that are enrolled with the Google AdSense program . However, there
are instances when no targeted Ads are available for a website e.g. the website
might be catering to such a topic or subject for which no relevant Ads
/advertisers are available. In such a case, Google serves alternate Ads i.e.
content of your choice. If you have not specified any content as Alternate Ads ,
Google AdSense program treats PSAs i.e. public service Ads as alternate Ads and
serves them on your website. These PSAs are charitable Ads that don’t contribute
to your revenue. So, unless you are looking to do charity (which could mean
lessening of revenue for you), you must specify Alternate Ads
upfront.
Here are the options that you have for alternate Ads (your
choice of content):
Color: A number of people use color for alternate Ads
. This involves specifying a valid hexadecimal color code (or you can choose
from the color palette provided by Google) for the alternate ad. The choice of
color would be such that the ad becomes invisible. This is easily achieved by
setting the color of the ad same as the background color of the page.
Image:
An image can also be used as an alternate ad. You can either have this image
link to some other web page (in such a case you will need to specify an html as
alternate ad) or you may just use it as such (for, maybe, enhancing the beauty
of your web page).
Another good option is to use ‘Collapsing
ad units’. ‘Collapsing ad units ’ code will squeeze the ad units that are not
utilized (instead of showing the PSAs ) on your website. This approach helps in
giving a cleaner look to the web page (since the blank areas or non-ad-based
images are done away with). It also helps in bringing more emphasis to the
AdSense Ads that are displayed on the website.