How to fix ad serving limits on AdSense [2024]

This post was most recently updated on January 7th, 2024

If you’re monetizing your website with display ads, the chances are that AdSense is part of your ad stack. For many publishers starting, AdSense is often the only ad network they use. Having your ad serving limited through AdSense is a nightmare to most. It essentially means that your monetization efforts are limited, and you’re not able to reach your full ad revenue potential through AdSense.

In this post, we’ll dive deeper into AdSense ad serving limits, why Google allows them, different classifications, how to overcome them, and more.

Want to get the most from your AdSense account? Check out or AdSense training course here.

Why does Google limit ad serving?

Google limits ad serving to protect the user experience and to ensure that advertisers are not overloading users with excessive ads. Excessive ads can make a website slow and difficult to use, which can lead to users leaving the site and not returning. By limiting the number of ads that are served to a user on a given day, Google can help to ensure that users have a positive experience on websites that use AdSense and are more likely to return to those sites in the future. Additionally, limiting ad serving can help to prevent advertisers from overspending on ad impressions and ensure that they are getting the most value for their advertising dollars.

Does limited ad serving affect Ad Exchange as well as AdSense?

Yes, limited ad serving can affect both Ad Exchange and AdSense. Ad Exchange is a platform for buying and selling advertising space on websites and apps, and it uses the same ad serving technology as AdSense. As such, the same limitations on ad serving that apply to AdSense also apply to Ad Exchange. This means that if an ad unit on a website or app has reached its daily impression limit, it will not be eligible to receive any more impressions until the next day. This can affect the performance of your ads on both AdSense and Ad Exchange.

Will deleting all ad units and recreating them fix ad serving limits on AdSense?

Deleting all ad units and recreating them will not necessarily fix ad serving limits on AdSense. Ad serving limits are determined by the number of impressions that an ad unit has received, not by the ad unit itself. As such, even if you delete all of your ad units and create new ones, they will still be subject to the same ad serving limits as the old ad units if they are displayed on the same pages and receive the same number of impressions.

How much time does it take to get rid of the ad serving limits on AdSense?

The amount of time it takes to get rid of ad serving limits on AdSense depends on the cause of the limits and the steps you take to fix them. In some cases, ad serving limits can be resolved quickly by making simple changes to your ad setup, such as spreading your ad units evenly across all pages on your site or using AdSense’s Ad Balance feature to distribute impressions more evenly among your ad units. In other cases, it may take longer to resolve ad serving limits, particularly if you need to make significant changes to your ad setup or if you are experiencing a high volume of traffic on your site. Ultimately, the time it takes to get rid of ad serving limits on AdSense will vary depending on your specific situation.

Different types of ad serving limits

Ever wondered why Google might limit the number of ads your AdSense account can show? It all comes down to the integrity of their ad network. They want to protect advertisers from fraud, users from bad user experiences and maintain publisher relationships. Often, ad serving limits can be temporary until specific issues regarding traffic quality are sorted out. Currently, two different ad serving limits exist:

Account being assessed

When this limit occurs, AdSense is busy assessing your traffic quality. Often, there is no set time to wait for limits to be removed. They will automatically review and update the limit as they discover more information on your traffic quality.

Invalid traffic concerns

Very similar to the situation mentioned above, here, your account is being limited because Google’s systems have detected some invalid traffic concerns. Again, they will automatically review and update the limit as they find more information on your traffic quality.

Not sure what invalid traffic is? Different types of invalid traffic exist, but generally, it is traffic that’s generated by bots that then click on your AdSense ads. It can also include accidental clicks and clicks from click farms.

Find out more about invalid traffic here.

What can you do to protect your AdSense account and get ad serving limits removed?

To fix this issue, you can try one of the following solutions:

1. Spread your ad units evenly across all pages on your site. This will ensure that each ad unit has the same chance of being displayed and will reduce the likelihood of any one ad unit reaching its daily impression limit.
2. Use AdSense’s “Ad Balance” feature to distribute impressions more evenly among your ad units. Ad Balance allows you to set a maximum limit for the number of impressions that each ad unit can receive per day. By setting this limit, you can ensure that no single ad unit reaches its daily impression limit and that your ads are distributed evenly across your site.
3. Use AdSense’s “Ad Review Center” to review the performance of your ad units and make any necessary changes to their settings. The Ad Review Center allows you to see which ad units are performing well and which ones may need to be adjusted in order to improve their performance.
4. Avoid placing your ad units on high-traffic pages or pages with little or no content. High-traffic pages can cause ad units to reach their daily impression limit more quickly, while pages with little or no content may not provide a good user experience and may not generate many impressions for your ads.

Next, move your attention to invalid traffic concerns. This part is obvious if you received an “Invalid traffic concerns” limit. It’s also a good option for any publisher that wants to protect their AdSense account from invalid traffic.

AdSense accounts often get banned for invalid traffic, so it’s not something you want to mess around with. You want to distance your website from any form of invalid traffic. Since ad fraud is a critical issue that the digital advertising industry is struggling with, MonetizeMore’s award winning IVT detection solution Traffic Cop will help you save time & money.

By signing up to Traffic Cop, we’ll make sure that your ads, AdSense or any other ad network, aren’t served to invalid traffic. We do this by using sophisticated fingerprinting algorithms and machine learning to detect and prevent invalid traffic from seeing your ads.

This way, you get to protect your ad accounts. It ensures that you can invest safely in your business without the looming threat of invalid traffic hanging over your head. By using a service such as Traffic Cop, you’ll also ensure that your traffic quality increases and improve your chances of having your AdSense ad serving limits removed.

Protect your AdSense account from invalid traffic and ad serving limits by getting started here.

---

 

FAQ

How many AdSense ads can you have per page?

There is now no limit to the number of ads you can have per page. Keep in mind that showing too many ads might offer a bad user experience. As a result, users could end up leaving your site, not clicking on ads, and installing ad blockers. When displaying ads, it’s always best to show them with user experience in mind.

How do I see AdSense invalid clicks?

Google has stated that they do not share specific data on invalid activity or invalid traffic/clicks detected on a publisher’s site for AdSense. They do this to protect the integrity of their detection systems. Google often removes revenue from a publisher’s AdSense account either through real-time filtering, by removing earnings during the finalization process or through deductions within 60 days after payment.

What is invalid traffic AdSense for content?

There are many different types of invalid traffic, such as general and sophisticated invalid traffic. It usually relates to traffic generated by bots or non-human traffic, as well as accidental clicks. What this does is make advertisers pay for invalid clicks on ads not seen by real users. It is an enormous risk to publishers as well, as it can cause them to receive revenue clawbacks and even have their AdSense account banned.

How do I stop AdSense invalid clicks?

Google does not offer a clear cut way for publishers to protect themselves from invalid clicks. Instead, they recommend avoiding low-quality traffic sources, which are typically filled with bot activity, not clicking on your own ads, and also not placing ads in locations where they are prone to accidental clicks. Those are great tips but won’t guarantee that you don’t receive invalid traffic. We recommend using a service such as Traffic Cop that uses fingerprinting algorithms and machine learning to screen traffic and block invalid traffic from seeing your ads.