Forum Moderators: martinibuster
From what I've read on WW.com, Smartpricing roughly determines a cost/click for ads on sites displaying AdSense, based on the content.
I'm running AdSense across both sites, in all areas; my worry is that the Finance clicks probably aught to be worth loads more than the Showbiz and News clicks, but does Smartpricing bring down the click values across the sites because of the mixed content? I guess the ultimate question is, should I remove AdSense from all areas except the finance to maximise revenue, or does Google work out that there are different sections of the site, and price them accordingly?
Finanlly, if I do remove the ads from everywhere except from Finance, how long would I have to wait to see a difference? I've heard people mention Thursday as a smart-pricing recalculation day? Is that substantiated, or a best guess, or different for everyone? Is it definitely once a week?
Sorry about all the questions; I've been doing AdSense for quite a while, but only recently looked at optimising it, and have found the expertise here invaluable.
If the non-finance sites have good content, and are getting targeted traffic, and are showing appropriate ads, I see no reason why their conversion rate shouldn't be at least as good as your finance site. So they wouldn't drag your account down.
One very rough way to check that would be looking at CTR for the different sites (I assume you are using channels). If they are are all getting similar CTRs then I think it's a reasonable assumption that they are all in the same ballpark when it comes to smart pricing. If one site has a much lower CTR, then I'd experiment with taking the ads off it for a week and seeing what happens....
The inverse logic is, if I do remove the lower CTR ads, and Google smart prices the site up - the lower impression pages with the higher CTR should perform even better. Does that make sense?
From what I've read on WW.com, Smartpricing roughly determines a cost/click for ads on sites displaying AdSense
You need to do some more reading on Smart pricing. Here are some of my thoughts:
1. Smart Pricing is based on both on-page factors and off-page factors. What these factors are and how they are weighted is unknown.
2. I disagree that CTR is a factor in Smart Pricing, or at any rate an important one. I can imagine scenarios where high CTR is indicative of relevant ads or highly motivated users, but unrelated things like blending, placement, total number of ads, the amount of text on the page, etc., can also affect CTR dramatically.
3. I see no reason why Smart pricing would take into account whether the ads targeted to a given page/site are high-value (finance) or low-value ("which paper clips are better, the smooth ones or the ridged ones?").
4. Frankly, IMO the best was to guess at your Smart Pricing score is to take a clear-eyed look at your site, at your user base, and at the ads being shown, and then make an educated guess whether clicks from your site are likely to lead directly to someone getting out their credit card and making a purchase. If yes, then your site is highly desirable and should have a high score.
5. Some people have reported seeing an increase in revenue after removing ads from certain sites. I don't have too much confidence that an appropriate methodology was used to support this claim, so IMO it's possible but not guaranteed that this can work for you.
Smart Pricing is supposedly calculated at the account level, but that's not the issue. The real question is whether Smart Pricing calculations can work disproportionately to hurt -- or even help -- your bottom line. I'm an agnostic on this point.
In the OP's situation, the CTRs cited are VERY low, in my opinion, what I'd expect to see on a forum site, not a site with informational articles. Fuzzy, DO you run forums? Because if not, the first thing you should do is work on ad placement, color, etc., to increase your CTR. Aim to get it above 2%, at least. And then see if you can do even better.
At the end of that process, you may find that you still have a site or a section of a site that not only has a much lower CTR but is earning you very little when someone DOES click. Those are the p[ages I'd start with in taking the AdSense code off and replacing it with something else.
Present scenario:
I was down to 7.5 cents on my two index pages with some very revelant ads (cpm $5.00 CTR 10% 7.5c)
So I flipped the pages to Yahoo and took my chances that only 4 out of the 5 ads in the 160x600 tower were targeted properly, at 50 cents a click.
I had one back page that was getting great results so I checked it out. I was my same group of Google advertisers that used to be on the front pages and now I am getting 22 cents per click. So now I orientated half of my back pages to attract these ads(meta tags) and I am monitoring the results. (cpm $3.00 ctr 1% 22c so far)
So explain that!
Same advertisers
less CPM (basically half)
less CTR (10% of the main page)
3x the CPC
We'll see what happens when the results of the 5 additional pages come in.Dang this stuff is so slow.
Smart pricing is not based on content, but on conversions, and possibly some related factors.
When smart pricing was introduced, Google made it very clear that the type of content was a factor. Google used two examples: a page of photo tips (which would be expected to convert poorly) and a camera review (which would be expected to convert well).
The download pages have 4 links, a link unit and a 160x600
I am not hiding anything from anyone.
Just got off the phone with YPN, they are cleaning up the stray ads on my index page issue (filter wont block after 3 days of trying)
If the backpages keep me out of smart pricing because of lower volume and I can get all relevent ads on the front from YPN I am in good shape.
Sure that is possible.
But my front page is rendering 7.5 cents a click while my other pages are producing 20+ cents at the same time for the same ads.
I tested this morning by switching back the index pages for 3 hours and lost a few bucks in the process, the price of R & D.
CPM is your bottom line. It's how much goes in your pocket. Having a high CPC and an even lower CTR is of zero value to you.
I totally undestand that but the CPM and CTR are always low on those pages. I didn't start the day off with the present set-up so numbers are not globally reflective. Tomorrow I will have a better idea when I have a fresh slate but all three numbers are going up now. Now my high traffic pages are getting 50 cent YPN clicks instead of diluded Google clicks. Of course the Google clicks got more volume on the front door. I'll let you know.
It just sucks to be on the verge of cracking $100(1,000 a day @ .10) a day after 3 months of steady progression and then all of a sudden find yourself back down to $65 and I didn't change a thing. If that didn't happen I wouldn't have even messed with Yahoo. I think we are talking discount on volume here, nothing to do with conversion.
I think we are talking discount on volume here, nothing to do with conversion.
If that were the case, wouldn't those of us who earn more than that figure have noticed a similar effect?
There are many reasons why EPC could drop, such as:
- Seasonal factors
- Impact of bidding (or lack of bidding) by one or more large advertisers
- Too many impressions for available ad inventory from high-bidding advertisers (since Google may allocate only so many clicks per day from any one advertiser to a given AdSense account)
- etc.
Because of my years solid SE unpaid positions (as good as theirs), I think my index page was targeted by 3 or 4 of them. I was happy to see them at first but not as time went on. If they low CPMed my site wouldn't higher priced CPC beat them in the auction? Unless their high-end advertising contracts with Google let them low-ball my high-traffic front page.
If that was the case I could block the few that are causing the drop in hope to accessing the next group in line. mmmmm....
Because of my years solid SE unpaid positions (as good as theirs), I think my index page was targeted by 3 or 4 of them.
How would they target your index page? Site-targeted CPM ads are targeted by site (not by index page or sections within a site), unless I'm badly mistaken.
superwidgets.com/index.html etc.
I have done it.
Yahoo has fixed the targeting on my home page now so all 5 ads are relevant @ 50 cents CPC. (before only 3 were)
My back pages are now averaging 20 cents CPC, one tower 1 link unit.
I think I'll make that run at $100 mark tomorrow because that is how you get to $200.
If that group of high-end advertisers drops my earnings again I'll just block them next time and take the second line fish.
Average overall click 20 cents all my the back pages instead of 7.5 on the index with G . I still belive I was unjustly targeted on a volume basis. With all the skuttlebut going on the Adwords side it might have been G$$gle reaping the benefits.
I just realized, instead of a 10% click through rate on my home page with Google I have a 2% with Yahoo but at .50+. This actually lets more people get to the back pages where the Google ads are.
I woke up to a combined $25 where that was my noon mark last week. I can smell that Franklin today.
CTR up 2%
CPM up $2.00
So there is the bottom line.
