Anonymous (In History) for Sites in Display Planner meaning?

[#1]

Hi there,

I'm trying to place my display ads on Imgur. In Display Planner after I entered the only targeting criteria as Imgur, the top placement result Sites/Channels1 expands into:

Sites: Anonymous (in History), Anonymous (in History), Anonymous (in Online Image Galleries), Anonymous (in Colleges & Universities), Anonymous (in Celebrities & Entertainment News), Anonymous (in Humor), Anonymous (in History)

see screenshot:

What does that mean? Are these Imgur pages/domains? Or related domains that aren't Imgur?

Similarly, when I changed from Sites to Mobile apps, the only result is iOS App 1:

Does iOS App 1 mean the Imgur app?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!

[#2 · Accepted solution]

There are a number of websites that sell ads on their pages - they sell this space at premium rates, because people want to target their visitors - these are often sites like the major newspapers, or the TV companies.... but... they then sell the "remnant" space - i.e. space they don't manage to sell to their own clients - using the AdSense platform.

Of course, this remnant space is not sold on their rate card, but rather is subject to the auction model that Google imposes. So, you could, theoretically, get similar space on one of these sites using AdWords display cheaper than buying it directly from the publisher.

So they have an agreement with Google that their site is "anonymous" so you have no way of knowing which site your ad appeared on.

Many people assume (wrongly) that it is Google that wants to keep this information secret - it is not. It is the publisher. And it seems fair. If you really want your ad to appear on the news site then you should buy that space directly from them - it is certainly not the same being the front page banner as being a banner on a news page 5 levels down into the content. And simply knowing that your ad appeared on the news site would not mean that it was on a prime page.

Many people also block anonymous as a placement because they also feel it is kept anonymous because it is of poor value - this is not the case either and you should monitor your anonymous traffic to see how it performs in comparison with the averages.

[#3]

Thank you for the thorough explanation, Steve! Really appreciate it. 

A follow-up question: in the second scenario where I chose Mobile Apps instead of Sites for placement, does the only result iOS Apps 1 mean that it is the Imgur app?

Tako