Why there is white/blank space instead of AdSense ad on my website?

Usually if you see on your website a white/blank space instead of Adsense ads, this means that Adsense cannot show adds in that unit for some reasons (we are going to talk about possible reasons below) and also you have enabled the “Fill space with a solid color” feature (in the “Choose what to display if no relevant ads are available” settings of this ad unit). I probably should also say that if you set “Show public service ads” instead of the “Fill space with a solid color” one, the PSA will be shown instead of a blank space.

If you notice no usual ads for content being shown on your website first of all – don’t panic: even though some of the reasons may indicate your AdSense account is in danger of being terminated (or is already terminated), there are others reasons which mean nothing bad and just need a bit of attention from your side.

There are some reasons for blank space or PSA to be shown instead of the AdSense Ad:

Considering your AdSense account is in good stand with Google and is active

Reason #1: The ad unit has been just created or changed

Newly created ad creatives don’t start showing instantly: let it to be at least 10 mins (I would do 30 mins to be safe) since creation of the code in your adSense account before checking if it appears on the website. By the way this issue is also related to making changes to ads – like changing font and color settings: they aren’t instant either.

Reason #2: There are more ad units on the page than it is allowed by AdSense

In this case you will probably see first ads in proper way, but all ad units above the limit will show up as blank blocks. Amount of allowed ad units per page may differ depends of what type of product you are using, more information in this regard may be found in “Product-Specific Policies” section of AdSense Program Policies.

Reason #3: Browser you are using has JS turned off

AdSense ads require support of JavaScript to work properly. And I understand this reason might sound “stupid” for some ppl, however it happens: you maybe wanted to see how your page (or any other page you were browsing before) looks like when JS is turned off and then simply forgot to turn it back on. So check whatever your browser has JS turned on, when you see blank blocks instead of the AdSense ads and turn it on (in case it was turned off) to fix the issue.

Reason #4: Using Ad Blocker?

Ad blocking software is used to remove ad content for you from the pages you are visiting with your browser.

Such software can be installed:

• directly on your computer;
• on a proxy server configured in your browser settings;
• in some rare cases your ISP can forward all the traffic to go through a proxy configured in such way.

The possible purposes to block ads could be:

• increase a speed of page loading: pages without additional banner pictures are faster; it makes sense to use ads blocking proxy to speed your Internet up if you are connected using a slow cell-phone connection;
• to use less traffic (it makes sense to browse pages using an ads blocking proxy if you pay for traffic);
• some ppl just hate looking at ads, I can understand this purpose too

To make sure that this is not our reason for white/blank Adsense ads:

• check and make sure that you do NOT have any ads blocking software running (careful, in some cases it can be a part or special settings of antivirus/malware packages);
• check if you use any proxy… and if you are not sure about this proxy settings, try to disable that proxy.

Reason #5: The ad size is bigger than the place allocated for it by the surrounding content

If you are trying to fit an ad into space which is smaller than the ad unit itself the ad won’t show up. If you are doing it un-intentionally: check the size (height and width), margins and paddings of the block of space you are trying to fit the ad unit in, make sure the space is enough to display the whole ad. Check block sizes in various browsers: different browsers may render HTML/CSS differently and that could lead to the situation when in some browsers ad shows and in other you see a blank space instead.

Reason #6: Google can’t find a relevant ad for the page content

Rarely but that happens: it can be you page are soo unique so none of the advertisers purchased keywords associated with it. However much more often happening issues is that your page lacks content so google can’t find ads suitable for it. That is one of the most cases for pages with media content: images, videos, flash; but without good text support. My advice here would be to accompany your media with rich text descriptions, titles, alt tags and links: all those will help google to pick good relevant ads.

Those mean something is not right with your account:

Reason #7: Your account may be under review of blocked

If your account is blocked for ToS or Program Policy violations or is under review after appeal all websites with codes associated with this account will show blank blocks or PSAs. If you discover your sites are not showing ads properly first 2 things you should do are: login to your AdSense account to ensure it is still active, and if not then check if you did receive any emails from Google AdSense team (check junk folders and old emails, chances are you simply missed the email)

Reason #8: The page content or whole website isn’t suitable for the family oriented auditory

According to AdSense policy ads may only appear on the pages with content suitable for whole family. If AdSense indexing robot notices any kind of content which may be considered unsuitable (e.g. curse word(s) / profanity, content close to adult (text or media), advertise or sell alcohol, tabacco, etc.) of some of the pages of your website – it will flag such page and ads will not show at such page. AdSense team may also send you an email saying you need to fix the ToS or Program Policy Violation and a timeframe allowed for this. Check your mailbox for such kind of email and make sure no emails from google gets into the junk folder, as neglecting such kind of email may get your account banned.

Reason #9: You didn’t verify your PIN or Phone Number

PSA or blank blocks will be shown instead of the fully functional ads in case AdSense team asked you to verify your PIN code of Phone Number and you didn’t complete the procedure yet. See the Payment History page in your Google AdSense account for more details. If it indicates that you are required to verify phone: check the number on-file with your profile (make sure it is properly formated and contains country code) and follow the instructions to complete the procedure. For the PIN code you may need to wait for some time as it comes in a mail. Meanwhile make sure the postal address on-file with your profile is your proper current address. I believe for both verifications AdSence system sends out an email in advance – make sure check you junk mail folder as well. I believe a failure to verify PIN or Phone (when requested by AdSense team) may get your account blocked after the time period given to you in the email is over.

Source : http://yurko.net/blog/2010/03/website-related/white-space-instead-adsense-ads.html