When AdSense runs out of inspiration (i.e.: no targeted ads are available), it displays public service ads by default. You can choose to replace this with a custom ad of your own choosing. To do this, you have to put a HTML page somewhere and change the alternate ads settings for the appropriate ad unit:
Alternate ads settings for HardhoutWiki leaderboard AdSense unit
Instead of the public service ads, I wanted to serve a banner ad to promote our beautiful family vacation home. I created this image a few years ago for an AdWords campaign started by my uncle because he wanted to reach more potential vacation goers.
The 728x79 banner image
I put put up a page with the image at http://www.bigsmoke.us/schuilplaats-banner-ad/. The HTML is very simple:
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<a href="http://www.hugovandermolen.nl/schuilplaats/startpagina.php"><img src="schuilplaats-banner-ad.jpg" /></a>
</body>
</html>
If anyone wants to promote our vacation home for free, all they have to do is to change Alternate ads or colors to Show non-Google ads from another URL
and fill in http://www.bigsmoke.us/schuilplaats-banner-ad/
.
Although I put the alternate ad up over a year ago, I was prompted to blog about it because two months ago, for the first time, I suddenly saw the ad actually being serviced on my Dutch HardwoodWiki:
The alternate ad in action
Thank’s for the tips. Great post
thanks, that really helped me
That’s great. I’m going to do that right now. Only a year to wait till I see it, but still…