In this tutorial you will learn how to block Scientology or any other nut jobs undesirable companies from advertising on your site or blog using Google’s AdSense.
Category Filters
The first layer of filtering you can apply is by category. Remember, like any other money making cult, Scientology claims to be a “religion”. Google’s Category Filter allows you block religious ads from your site. Here’s an easy step-by-step on how to set up category filtering on AdSense.
Step 1
Login to your Google Adsense.
Step 2
Click on “AdSense Setup” tab.
Step 3
Click on the “Ad Review Center” tab.
Step 4
Next to “Filtered Categories” click on “change”.
Step 5
Select the category you want to ban from your site and click on “Submit” when you’re done.
If you have multiple Client-ID’s, make sure to switch over and apply the filters on them too.
You have now successfully set up category filters on AdSense. Changes could take up to 10 minutes to propagate.
Competitive Ad Filter
The second best way to filter out unwanted parties from advertising on your site is by using the Competitive Ad Filter. This is for those advertisers that don’t categorize correctly when they submit their ads (for whatever reason) or sites belonging to competitors that you simply do not wish to be associated with. We’re going to use it to block out Scientology. Here’s how in works:
Step 1
Again, click on the “AdSense Setup” tab but this time select the “Competitive Ad Filter” tab below it.
Step 2
Enter the URL of the offending website (scientology.org, scientology.com, scientology.net) in the “AdSense for Content filters” box and click “Save changes.”
Finding the URL of the advertiser can be tricky sometimes. Since it’s against Google’s policy to actually click on the ads to find their URL’s, you will have to use the Google’s AdSense Preview Tool to do it.
Don’t forget to update your list of sites for Mobile ads as well (if you have them).
As you can see from my screenshot, I have all kinds of organizations on my lists, including www.newsmax.com, a right wing propaganda group operating in the United States, but you can compile your own lists as you please.
