I'm serving something like 77 ad slots on my site.

For some period of time, this was fine.

About two months ago, I cleaned up the list of ad slots in the module and then I started having a problem where any ad being served in about the 22nd slot on the page wouldn't serve (I randomly move slots around on the page on a near daily basis).

Two days ago, I had some cancelled ads to remove and to consolidate ad positions, I needed to cancel some line items and restart some ads in new line items. I did this to about six ads.

(one additional wrinkle in my ad serving process -- if I serve a box ad (250x250), I can ad the slug right into the ad manager module and move the new block into the proper place in my right rail. My tile ads (120x240) run side by side, so for those, I need to ad the slugs to admanager and let the new generated blocks run as "none" while pasting in the Google tags into a block that I serve as full HTML, so the ads can run side by side ... as I said, this was working fine until a couple of days ago (also, it was these ad positions that I needed to consolidate).

Currently, I'm having about 11 ad slots not serve ads.

In Debug, I'm getting an error message that says the URL is too long.

I have no idea what is suddenly generating a long URL.

Having 11 ads not serve is a mission critical revenue problem for me.

Comments

jcisio’s picture

jcisio commented

To fix the bug, I'll need to know more about the error. In which "debug" are you getting the error? What does exactly it say? About which URL?

I'd recommend upgrade to 2.x branch as 1.x is no longer actively supported. The 1.0 version is dated two years.

Howard Owens’s picture

Howard Owens commented

Thanks for the reply.

Google AM debug, as in

http://domain.com/?q=query&google_debug

Typical error related to an ad not displaying:

8921 Error Truncated URL with length 2008 bytes to 2000 bytes: http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?correlator=1282930997059&outp...

Howard Owens’s picture

Howard Owens commented

You're welcome to view my site at thebatavian.com and see how I'm using google admanager. And currently, looking on the lower right rail, it will be quite obvious how ads are not showing up.

jcisio’s picture

jcisio commented
Status: Active » Closed (works as designed)

This is Google DoubleClick issue, as explained by Google Employee here:

Hi dexm and Ingraye,
We are aware the that the 2000 byte limit has been an issue for some publishers and are working on a way to better optimize URLs in order to reduce the instances of publishers reaching that limit.

Regards,
Beah

I think you got the answer, too, in other issue. I'm marking this as "works as designed".

Howard Owens’s picture

Howard Owens commented
Status: Closed (works as designed) » Active

How the hell does this solve the problem?

I'm not the one creating the long URLs. There is no human making long URLs.

It is being auto generated somewhere. This is NOT working as designed. It is definitely broken.

Also, we upgraded to the new version and the problem persists.

Howard Owens’s picture

Howard Owens commented

On further investigation, I'm not even sure that the truncated URL error is what is causing ads not to server.

I removed all but 50 ad slots from the page, so that there is only one ad unit that SHOULD be deliver and isn't.

And I still get multiple truncated URL errors. The order of them does not correspond to missing ads (if the ad being served in the debug order at all corresponds to the following truncated URL error).

Why the heck would GAM module stop serving ads after a certain number all of the sudden? It was fine four or five days ago.

jcisio’s picture

jcisio commented

I didn't say problem solved. I just said that there is no problem here.

This module does what Google Ad Manager tells, it prepare some code for you. If it works when you insert ad slots by hand, and it does not when using this module, it's an issue here. If not, I can't help.

I removed all but 50 ad slots from the page, so that there is only one ad unit that SHOULD be deliver and isn't.

You removed all but 50 or removed all but 1?

What is the code inserted by this module? Tell me more, if not I can't help.

Howard Owens’s picture

Howard Owens commented

Running Debug and checking slots ...

It's the 50th slot that always has the long URL problem. It doesn't matter what ad is being scheduled to deliver there. What ever ad I move into that position, it generates a too long URL.

Define Slot: A Slot or Placement I've created in GAM. It might be called Box_Ad_40_right or Tile_Pair_11a.

Define Slug: Box_Ad_40_Right. So when I refer to slug below, you know what I mean.

Uses: If Box_Ad, I create the Slug is copied into GAM Module. This auto generates a block. I can then move this block into the Right Rail.
If the Slug is Tile_Pair_11a, it will run in a pair in a block with Tile_Pair_11b. So, I copy the slugs for Tile_Pair_11a and Tile_Pair_11b into GAM Module. I then use GAM to generate HTML that I insert into a FULL HTML block in Drupal. This block is named Tile Pair 11 and move it to the Right Rail.

(Note: I have GAM served ads on the left, too, but since those serve first, those always appear; but, they do count in GOOGLE_DEBUG toward that 49 ad limit I'm suddenly hitting.)

So, I have these 70+ Slugs; mean, 70+ ad slots I _should_ be serving. And this was working until a few days ago.

The 50th slot (based on my troubleshooting up to this point) always, now, throws a long URL.

This is nothing I'm generating. It is also not specific to any creative or URL or slug or ad slot name, etc., that I am creating. The 50th slot, no matter what the Slot/URL/Slug, etc. is, throws a long URL.

My big question is, where is the Long URL coming from? Is GAM generating it, or is GAM Module generating it?

I can't say for sure GAM Module is generating it because I don't know enough how your code works. But here's the key variable that makes me think it's the module: I can move blocks around the page, and it's always the 50th ad that generates the Long URL. For example: Right now, the block slugged Box_Ad_22 is not appearing. If I move it up one slot, then Box_Ad_21 stops appearing and in Debug, I find it's now the one generating the long URL.

This makes me think it's entirely a Drupal-side problem. The URLs are correct in GAM. They're wrong on the Drupal side.

jcisio’s picture

jcisio commented

The answer is always in my first post.

Create a static HTML page with your 50 ad slots, use the code that Google gives you, check to see if the 50th slot is displayed (and I'm quite confident that it is not). Well, if there is a problem there, ask Google.

This module does not have any change. But I don't know if Google has done anything in the last few days. The cause is surely at Google's end.

Howard Owens’s picture

Howard Owens commented

I'll create the page and let you know what I find.

Howard Owens’s picture

Howard Owens commented
Status: Active » Closed (works as designed)

Well, you're right. GAM is generating its own error.