Google Adsense: How to Determine the URL of Ads

So you know how to block certain types of ads in Google Adsense, and how to block specific advertisers. But we haven’t covered how to find out the URLs of your Adsense ads without violating Adsense policies by clicking on them.

The main reason you would want to do this is so that you can find out the URL of a specific ad or advertiser that you want to block. To do this, right-click on the specific ad that you want to block.  Click “Copy Link Location”. This will copy the URL that the ad points to, which will be something long and crazy like this:

http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=BK4eKUMJKS-roLYWozAXc6-mACoizibMBiqfbxg7AjbcB8JWvARABGAEgvIzgCzgAUIGcmvYEYMnGiIfMo8QXoAHCt-AAgHIAqLZ4QOoAwHIAwXoA3roA-0C6ANH9QMEAACA&num=1&sig=AGiWqtyta3Mb0zE4_0kEDfGLU3XJfZ49ww&client=ca-pub-0537328194355177&adurl=http://3.xg4ken.com/media/redir.php%3Fprof%3D115%26camp%3D2812%26affcode%3Dkw481228%26i%3D%26cid%3D3807311430%26networkType%3Dcontent%26utm_source%3Dgoogle%26%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.AdvertiserURL.com&nm=3

Though it looks like a really long confusing URL, the destination URL (where the ad goes when you click on it) is really pretty easy to find – it’s the only thing that makes sense, really!  I’ve highlighted it in the above example.

So, now you know where that ad is leading.  To block that ad from appearing on your site, enter this destination URL into the Competitve Ad Filter, and you’re done!  This ad won’t appear on your site again unless you remove it from the filter.

One quick note – more and more Adsense ads are Flash, so you can’t right-click on the ad and copy the link location in order to discover the destination URL.  To find the destination URL of Flash ads, you can download the Adsense Preview Tool from Google.  Unfortunately, it’s only available for Internet Explorer.

Carrie Isaac blogs about deals in Colorado Springs at Springs Bargains, and does internet marketing for her husband, a Colorado Springs Realtor.  Google Adsense is one of her top revenue streams!