Forum Moderators: martinibuster
We are getting thousands of impressions per day so it is a large sample pool. The only chance we have made is to add a few more sites which increased our impression count even more, but our overall click thru rate and earned revenue went way down.
Many of our sites are informational sites about products and services. I was wondering if it could be that people are just clicking less as the Christmas shopping season is coming to an end.
Anyone have any ideas what could have happened?
I've been in the program since it launched about six months ago. My AdSense revenue this month will be about 60% of what it was in September, but it should end up being almost identical with October's. Revenues have been on a slight upward path lately (with the obvious exception of Christmas Eve and today). And CTR has been cliumbing, too, after dropping off somewhat in the early fall.
Interesting, I see exactly the opposite. Month-by-month my revenue is increasing. And this month (26 Dec 2003) is already more than Nov 2003.
One thing I've noticed is that my CTR is the same, my impressions are a little higher (actually almost the same as Nov 2003, but more than Oct 2003), but my average CPM (revenue by total impressions in the month) is more than before.
Everyone reports drops, am I the only one reporting ups?
Perhaps competition in my keywords is gone up?
I think I know what it is. People using AdWords are not geting good results from our sites.
That simply isn't true. Chiyo, Shak, and others who buy AdWords have reported good results with content ads. (I seem to recall Chiyo saying that, for some keywords, AdSense ads have outperformed search-only Adwords.)
Also, if AdWords advertisers weren't happy with content ads, I doubt if I'd be seeing the same ads on many of my pages every day, every week, every month.
Fact is, there are no general rules. What works for one product, service, or advertiser may or may not work for another. Topic and audience are obviously important factors.
Keyword selection and copywriting may be even more important. Let's say, for example, that you're a travel agent selling high-end luxury cruises that cost a minimum of $500 per person per day. If you buy only search ads for "Platinum Cruises" (a fictitious cruise line that we'll use for discussion purposes), you probably won't get too many inappropriate clicks. But if you bid on "cruises" or "Caribbean cruises," you're inviting trouble unless your ad copy communicates the idea that Platinum Cruises caters to the mink-and-Monet-owning crowd. Why? Because the casual reader who sees your ad in a WASHINGTON POST cruise feature or in a Google search on "cruises" or "Caribbean cruises" won't know that only rich people can afford a Platinum cruise.
I've read more negative feedback from AdWords advertisers with regard to their ads on content sites than positive feedback and I've already seen some ads disappear from my site that are still showing up on Google searches.
In the example you used, if the advertiser allows broad matching, his ads will likely appear wherever cruises are discussed, resulting in the same poor ROI.
Yes, but that isn't a problem with content sites per se; it's a problem with broad matching (and, in some cases, with copywriting if the advertiser allows broad matching without "prequalifying" clicks through the use of appropriate ad copy).
I've read more negative feedback from AdWords advertisers with regard to their ads on content sites than positive feedback and I've already seen some ads disappear from my site that are still showing up on Google searches.
Again, there are no general rules or absolutes: there are only many different anecdotal examples, and what works for Advertiser A may not work for Advertiser B (and vice versa).
On my site, I see many of the same content ads month after month--in some cases, from advertisers who have long experience with PPC sales and affiliate programs. They're obviously having good results with ads on content sites, so the fact that Widgetco.com or Fuzzywhatsits.co.uk has been disappointed with content ads is irrelevant to them.
As far as negative feedback goes, we need to remember that the PPC advertisers who post on Webmaster World forums aren't necessarily typical of the advertising industry as a whole. The entrepreneurial PPC advertiser who focuses on immediate ROI has a different definition of success than the mainstream advertiser who's buying leads. To the latter, a $1 AdWords/AdSense lead may be a bargain compared to a $5 lead from a magazine ad or the cost of a direct mailing to a prospect on a rented list. (I remember seeing a post on the AdWords board by an advertiser who said that an AdWords lead would be a bargain at 50 times the price.)
Bottom line: Smart advertisers learn what works for them, and they base their media plans on experience instead of supposition.
This leads me to believe that the "Repeat Visitor" theory is the most probable explanation. We must be getting alot more clicks from initial visitors when they first see the listings, but than stop clicking when they come back for repeat visits. We've always seen this occur when running other types of ads, but the changes were far less sudden and dramatic as with what we're seeing with Adsense.
This leads me to believe that the "Repeat Visitor" theory is the most probable explanation. We must be getting alot more clicks from initial visitors when they first see the listings, but than stop clicking when they come back for repeat visits.
That's certainly a reasonably hypothesis. It's possible that AdSense works best on sites that regularly attract new visitors who are looking for specific information. If the information they're looking for is related to a potential purchase, so much the better.
