Discussing the Latest Changes to YPN

What has changed over the past month?

[garyr_h]

Many of us have seen some form of change of the program of the past month, some negative, some positive. I wish to discuss what we <b>know</b> has changed.

I'll start off:

I know that ads are now being rotated much more than before.

[Wiley]

In the last few days targeting has gotten much faster and better.

[krod]

RSS feed ads, experimenting with full ad unit ads.

[sailorjwd]

something is changing - today will be my worst revenue day yet.

Ebay ads showing in #1 slot. When that happens I know I'm in trouble.

Pages which had $2 clicks consistently are now doing $0.20 - down to what adsense was paying.

[garyr_h]

Wiley, I have noticed this also. However, that seems to be a bad thing for some of us, haha... as we are now getting lower paid ads in our sector. I have even experimented with changing the ad targetting, however it does not do a thing.

[Wiley]

Sorry to be the spoiler but revenue is up for me. Also I am getting more clicks on the same number of pageviews. My site is a travel site so maybe as we get closer to Spring Break (big travel time) I am seeing more activity. Also targeting is much faster. When I publish a new page by the second refresh it has new ads and withen 2 to 3 minutes the targeting is complete. Use to take hours a week ago. I heard that someone had an ad go from $2.00 to $0.20. How do you know it is the same ad?

[garyr_h]

Wiley, I can understand the increase in clicks and such for a travel website since there are many advertisers available to pay huge $$$.

It's the sites in the entertainment sectors which have went down (for me anyways); this is due to the 'better targetting'.

I'm not complaining or saying that better targetting is worse, because it's great to see on target ads. It's just that one of the things I loved about Yahoo! was that we could choose which ads to serve (at least 25%+ of them). Now it seems like it's far less, maybe down to 5% or so (maybe I'm exageratting) but it's caused a huge loss in revenue.

I would be more specific on what I mean, but it's hard to do so without breaking the TOS of this site. The targetting category which was chosen however, is directly related to the site, just not enough that ads would show for it with targetted ads.

[MichaelPB]

you should be trying to use ad targeting that is from diferent categories i have seen nothing but possitive results from doing this.

[sailorjwd]

There are only 3 targeting subjects that would apply to my site - all around computer stuff.

Does it make sense to any of you to use ad targetting for topics not related to the site?

[Wiley]

You guys bring up a real issue in that as Yahoo targets better (or thinks they do) they can actually send you better (in theory) targeted ads that have a lower CPC. Now we know why Adsense does not let you do this. Yahoo needs to let us have more control over the category or maybe have a "Category Target Only" option. This way at least you could keep the low paying (out of category) ads out if your content or Yahoo is having a hard time serving decent ads. This brings up a point that I think is worth talking about. If we all see an option that we feel Yahoo should implement lets all send in the recommendation. There is power in numbers and I think giving us more control over the category ads is an advantage that Adsense does not have.

After typing this I am going to go to the Customer Service area and recommend a "Category Only" option.

[Wiley]

Oh in addition this would mean more revenue for Yahoo too. Make sure you say that when making the recommendation.

[Wiley]

There are only 3 targeting subjects that would apply to my site - all around computer stuff.
Does it make sense to any of you to use ad targetting for topics not related to the site?

Sailorjwd,

In response to your question above. I would try some different categories even if they are not completely on target. On my travel site I had an article about santa fe style homes. Yahoo brought up home improvement ads. I changed it to Real Estate and doubled the revenue on the page. It take time before you see results so only make a change ever 2 to 3 days so Yahoo can sort it out.