How to remove AdSense ads below the navigation menu

If you suddenly found an AdSense ad below the navigation menu of your website and want to remove it, you came to the right place.

If you ended here wanting to learn about how to place an ad near the navigation menu in the header of your site, take a look at How to place a header ad.

How did the ad get below the navigation menu?

There are a few ways how you could place an ad below the navigation menu.

• Use the Custom Position placement in Advanced Ads following this tutorial.
• Place the ad code in your theme files, most likely, the header.php file.
• Use Google AdSense Auto ads.

Blame Google AdSense Auto ads

Google AdSense Auto ads are the most common reason why our users contact us about unwanted ads below their navigation.

Once enabled, Google Auto ads place banners fully automatically and randomly. So you might sometimes see an ad below the navigation menu and sometimes not. It is the same for any other position on your site.

So how can you influence Google AdSense Auto ads not to place an ad below the main navigation?

While there is no perfect option for that, you have four choices:

1. Disable display ads

The AdSense ad units I have seen placed automatically below the main navigation are belonging to Display ads. This is one type of ads delivered through Auto ads.

You can disable types of ads, and if you do that for Display ads, then the ads below the navigation menu might be gone.

1. Log in to your AdSense account.
2. Go to Ads > Auto ads.
3. Click on the pencil icon next to the General Settings.
4. Disable the Display ads option.
5. Wait at least 30 minutes for the changes to take effect.

You should be aware that this also disables Display ads in all other positions, like your site’s header, sidebar, or footer.

2. Manage ad placements manually (and disable Google Auto ads)

Since completely disabling Display ads might cut deep into the performance of Auto ads in general, you could switch to managing ad placements manually. You can even do that while keeping Auto ads (probably with Display ads disabled).

Using Advanced Ads, placing ads from your AdSense account on your site is not complicated. The many automatic injections make it simple to populate your content with ads and even run your tests.

You can learn more from Placing AdSense ads manually.

How to disable Auto ads

If you decide to remove Google Auto ads for good then follow these steps:

• Disable the Verification code & Auto ads option under Advanced Ads > Settings > AdSense.
• Remove any other instances of Auto ads on your site, like those added through another plugin or theme
• Make sure that Auto ads are disabled in your AdSense account

3. Accept it

Your last choice is just to accept the fact that AdSense places ads automatically below your main navigation. You might end up with this non-solution after you read about the alternatives above.

Get help

If you struggle with any options mentioned above, then please reach out to our premium email support.