Forum Moderators: martinibuster
It looks terrible. Any ideas how to get it to show four ads?
(I have opted out of CPM and "advertise on this site".)
The bottom line is that
1. My pages have too much whitespace due to only serving 2 ads - thus the sites look badly formatted
2. There is less choice, hence my CTR is down
3. I'm earning less
4. Google is making less
Go figure!
And for the third hand hearsay that a Google rep said: "Publishers get exactly what they deserve." - I can believe that from a snot nosed punk kid from California. She arrogantly forgets her bosses are the jackasses that lowered the bar on who can get into Adsense, thereby lowering the reputation of all publishers who work hard to give value and build quality websites.
Bottom line: when Google makes decesions about the layout of your website without consulting you, you and Google are no longer business partners in this venture.
If there were too many people opting out of CPM ads, this could be a countermeasure to what G was trying to achieve on the advertisers ends of things?
(It just seems funny that they didnt give us the opt-out option here)
I have already started implementing new layouts with other ad sizes, I just can't afford my sites to look as if they are unfinished.
our technology has determined that showing fewer ads on a particular site represents a greater revenue benefit for you.
I followed this advice and replaced adsense with a competitor ad of the same format. Now I'm showing fewer adsense ads and I see my bottom line has benefited from it. Thanks Google, it's working!
With the recent poor results of the rectangle I figure it can't hurt to try something different.
After
Date Page imps Clicks CTR eCPM
Sunday, January 1, 2006 2,589 41 1.6% $1.09
Monday, January 2, 2006 2,763 50 1.8% $2.07
Tuesday, January 3, 2006 2,611 54 2.1% $1.30
Wednesday, January 4, 2006 2,744 57 2.1% $1.10
It annoys me we have to play around doing this instead of working on our site's content
This just sucks.
our technology has determined that showing fewer ads on a particular site represents a greater revenue benefit for you.
This is one of the funnier PR comments I've heard in quite a while..
When a business tells you they are doing something for YOUR benefit.. well, if you believe that, I've got some ocean front property in Oklahoma to sell you.
This is the frustrating part in dealing with Google. I love their services, I do. But when something like this happens there is no dialog whatsoever. There was mention about the change before it occurred either.
I haven't received a personal response to the email I sent, the Adsense Adviser hasn't been back to address questions, and you cannot leave comments on the Adsense blog.
I was hoping there would be a change back to the old format before I had to look at alternate ad layouts, but it looks like that might be the only option at this point.
Well, that's okay. I do it too. Just don't be a hypocrite.
On a side note, I am experiencing the same problems with the "2 ads" showing on a large rectangle block and it's getting me stressed out.
Google, please put it back to where you had it! Your new ad implementation is not helping me one bit!
I'm being forced to do the "4 image trick" on this until Google reverts to the original format.
[edited by: skunker at 4:46 am (utc) on Jan. 6, 2006]
I have no idea what MFA means. And the ads aren't better reflected.
"Just don't be a hypocrite."
Can you explain this? What is hypocritical about wanting your vendor to explain changes before they happen, and then help you deal with the aftermath?
Good point. Can you image how much worse it would look to have the bottom unpopulated?
I have only one ad unit (large rectangle) on every pages of my sites. When google made changes of showing only 2 ads on rectangles, my ctr dropped significantly, the epc didn't catch up right away so the income was way lower than normal. What I did was putting one skyscrapper at the right side of the pages in addition to the rectangle. The result was dismal. Though the ctr from two units combined were up, for some reasons, the epc dropped further. So I decided to removed the second unit and forget the whole thing and just hoped for the best. Few days later, the income is back. I think the system is still figuring out which ads is best for individual sites, eventually it will catch up and gives us higher income. So let's give it more time.
In my case the ctr is up, and the epc down so no gain or loss. No problems with ad targetting.
I'd like the choice to have them or not. We know our sites, and visitors a lot better than Google ever will - we should be the ones to choose, as we are in a much better position to make that decision than Google will ever be.
Offer the choice, and provide webmasters better reporting in able to make the choice.
Google "technology" *IS* flawed much more often than they care to admit. I've emailed them a couple of times with various questions. Each time I get the usual canned response from the fortune cookie generator department saying that the technology couldn't possibly be faulty, and each time there has been a silent correction in short order.
Google - I hope you are reading this thread.
What we need is:-
1. Some form of reporting on CPM ads.
2. Some form of reporting on how the expanded ads work in comparison to non-expanded ads.
3. The ability to turn both cpm and expanded ads on or off to suit look of site / better income based on our analysis of data unique to our sites.
What we don't need is:-
The "We know best" attitude problem that Google have. Please drop the attitude and start treating us as the partners we are. No websites = no search engines = no Google. You should remember that without us webmasters, nearly all of your management would be asking "Do you want fries with that?" 4000 times a day, as opposed to wearing a shiny suit and driving a company BMW.
Constant reassurance that the technology works, or offers an increase in revenue when as we see here is clearly does neither. I agree that each site is different, and what works for one webmaster is going to work against another. Therefore GIVE US THE CHOICE TO DECIDE OURSELVES - your technology clearly isn't capable of making that decision.
My CTR dropped slightly as well, but like a lot of people my EPC went UP, which is what you'd expect if Google are showing significantly fewer ads. You might need to look elsewhere to figure out why your EPC dropped so much.
I have a newer AdWords account targeted for "low paying" clicks. For the previous few months I was getting few impressions/clicks. Suddenly, after Christmas, it's like someone threw a switch. For January I have already doubled December's clicks in 5 days and the AdSense CONTENT network has already 6 times the number of clicks for December (remember, these are low-paying clicks).
My websites are for an industry that traditionally "gets busy" after the Christmas holidays. Organic search doubles-to-triples for my sites. So now I'm wondering if many of the big bidders for my industry left the advertising arena expecting the higher free traffic from the search engines. This would cause my low bids to suddenly start showing and getting clicked. It could also reduce EPC for my publishing side (which has occurred).
For my industry, and many in general, any change following the Christmas holidays may easily be tangled in the mire of increased or decreased business activity - maybe a bad time for Google to have instituted this change?
The "We know best" attitude problem that Google have. Please drop the attitude and start treating us as the partners we are. No websites = no search engines = no Google. You should remember that without us webmasters, nearly all of your management would be asking "Do you want fries with that?" 4000 times a day, as opposed to wearing a shiny suit and driving a company BMW.
ABSOLUTELY 100% CORRECT. This is roughly what I've been saying since the bourbon update trashed my business plans. I only wish that in 2006, more webmasters would resolve to treat Google (and Y and MSN) as the leech they are, rather than as some demi-god.
Webmasters built the web, the search engines are cannibalizing the efforts of millions for their own profits.
On the issue of missing ads from blocks, it's occuring in other sizes as well. I just saw 2 ads in a 120 x 600 block. Do I really want all this blank space? Not really. Was I asked? No. Am I sick and tired of being treated like dirt instead of as a partner. You bet. Am I dumping AdSense. YES. After being crushed by the bourbon update, and now this, it's a matter of "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."
Sorry, Google, you cannot be trusted.
It seems like it is a case of accept a diminishing return, or get sweet f.a. (Some choice!)
There is no practical way to "push back" against most systems, where one has no power. It is hard for people to vote with their feet while their bellies are empty.
I have complained frequently and loudly to Google and I'm in a different camp - the one that says, either pay me something worthwhile, not the pittance you usually shell out to small publishers, or I will not use your system and I'll work to find alternatives (I have some already).
The more people who just "take it" from Google, the more they are enabled to run roughshod over webmasters. Stand up, email a rep, and don't be shy. I've blasted Google in my emails and directed them to this thread. I've told them they can kick me out. Time and again.
Google needs to begin limiting the number of publishers. They need specific guidelines to eliminate the spammers, MFAs, scrapers, domainers and push that money to US, the honest publishers.
Why do you think they've cut down on the number of ad units in blocks? Could it be that there's not enough inventory to fill what's out there? If they had some policies that limited the scum from Adsense, this problem would not happen. AdSense is a poisoned pool and Google is the reason for that.
We need to demand accountability and transparency from them. They are screwing with OUR sites, not theirs. Pay us our due or find some other business.
I'll step down from the soap box for now, but I will not go away.
email Google and COMPLAIN. It's the only way they'll understand. I went through this with ebay and it worked on occasion, but especially when they were wrong.
I swear, they can make your stats do whatever they want, and that's what we get for signing blind agreements. If they want to pay you more, they will. Less, no problem. It's all under their control.
My advice: if you're not happy, complain. If nothing changes, complain some more. Always seems to work for me.
Such as, if you have a site and it's running 3 adblocks (which they encouraged) and now they see the problems it's caused, they can't really go back and say, "Ok, you all can only show 1 adblock on your pages at a time now."
All the adspace not serving ads on an MFA would really make their sites look bad now.
Today is even more amusing. CTR is way up, but eCPM is back in the toilet. Average per click is absurd. I am making almost as much with untargeted banners from another service. For all their vaunted technology, AdSense is, in my opinion, no big breakthrough, except for Google, that is.
I maintain my position that Google has gotten rich and powerful on the backs of hundreds of thousands of individual webmasters.
