Forum Moderators: martinibuster
A decent tourist site should give you (at least) triple figures daily.
As far as I can see, apart from the small matter to getting punters to visit your own site to start with, the skill then lies in :-1. Upping the CTR (I have been able to get a steady improvement by better ad placing on the page), toyng with banner v skyscraper relative to page layout, ...
2. Getting a higher value of ad clicked on. Again better targeting by Google (and I would like to think myself) have given a marked improvement.
If you have just started, then aim at doubling your present CTR and doubling your average CPC. Both targets are perfectly achievable and turn what would have been $25 into $100
I thought it was an excellent post and wanted to spin it off to ask people to share their tricks for upping the CTR.
I've been able to up CTR from 0.7% to 1.1% by changing ad placement from totally hidden to totally obvious, but to get a huge jump? No idea. Other than some text saying,
Hey Dear Visitor, Look at this cool new feature we've implemented, it's called AdSense from Google.But on how many pages can you put that?
Hey Dear Visitor, Look at this cool new feature we've implemented, it's called AdSense from Google
I thought that putting something like that on your pages was against Google his TOS for AdSense?
P.S. Reading the first link is definitely worthwhile for techies who haven't "reverse-engineered" the adsense code. It is interesting how he did that. I'm surprised they didn't kick him out of adsense altogether.
No need to tell people to click on it. Your design should speak a thousand words.
I didn't see that in the FAQ or the TOS (I didn't read every word)
Cheers,
Nigel
My exit pages are, by and large, lists of users' content -- and this itself can cause some pretty amusing ads to be served, too.
Would this be against the TandCs?
I recently removed my graphical banner ads to see if that would affect the click rate on the google ads but didn't notice any difference. Anyone else experimented with this?
How about putting a message above the ads saying 'links related to this page' or 'google search links for this page'.
Don't. They aren't "links related to this page" or "Google search links." They're ads, and they're clearly labeled as such. Doing anything that could be construed as encouraging clickthroughs might easily get you tossed from the program. Why risk it? Just concentrate on building a quality information site and let the ads speak for themselves.
What is working better in general? The skyscraper or the 468 banner?
There is quite a long discussion on banner versus skyscraper here:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Skyscraper wins :)
How about putting a message above the ads saying 'links related to this page' or 'google search links for this page'.
Don't. They aren't "links related to this page" or "Google search links." They're ads, and they're clearly labeled as such. Doing anything that could be construed as encouraging clickthroughs might easily get you tossed from the program. Why risk it? Just concentrate on building a quality information site and let the ads speak for themselves.
They will drop you like a rock,, they have their head in the clouds, and they will not tell you why, or reply to email.
Food for Thought.....
If you improve your click through rate, Google will nuke you for fraud.
From the couple people who have posted (I am pretty sure it is in the Fraudulent Clicks thread [webmasterworld.com]) it seems that Google is flagging those with very high CTR rates, particularly 30% and higher.
I don't think anyone has posted about being targeted for fraudulent clicks that had a low CTR, at least that I can recall.
If you think about it logically, they have to.
In the UK the Inland Revenue (income tax people) have for each industry a figure for the "norm". If your tax return is outside that, they look at your in more detail.
Google know by now what the CTR is for each industry, and flag that if it is way out.
As has been said in the other thread, the unfair thing would be if you were flagged then eliminated because of fraud by competitor, bored student on the other side of the world, or whatever.
At least with our Inland Revenu, there is a way to fight "flagging"
Yes 30% and more would be a VERY high CTR for me. My CTR is way lower. But unfortunately I can't tell any details because of Googles TOS :(
30% and more would be a VERY high CTR for me. My CTR is way lower
I have some difficulty in believing that a GENUINE CTR of 30% is possible over sufficient pages to generate a reasonable return from Adsense. I've seen a few (rare) ads achieve double figures in the last 4 years but never anything like 30%.
Trust me, 10 x your max figure is achieveable on some sites with no cheating whatsoever, no "support our sponsors" or similar encitements and no change of text or links or ANYTHING on the page apart from adding the Adsense code. It's being achieved genuinely on more than one site I know.
Perhaps Google doesn't want high CTR sites, even if that high CTR is genuine. Also, they definitely don't like CTR variations or small jumps. Be warned.
"Normallity" is a function of which field you are in to start with. Within that "type" of web site there is a range of normal values. All Google have to do is set an upper limit, and flag sites above that (presumably for human perusal before firing off the email suspending your account)
Let's speculate about how it could be achieved.
Are we talking about individual web pages or websites?
If individual web pages:
a) Eliminate all other exit points such as links, navigation, and other ads so that the user only has two alternatives to leave the page - through Adsense or the back button on the browser.
b) Get perfect targeting so that ads are 100% relevant.
Fine, for a few pages. But to get a decent return in total dollar terms you are likely to need many pages like this.
In practice, can you have a viable (in the long-term) website without navigation on content pages? Surely this would have a negative impact on PR and would lose you any possibility of return visitors. And putting all one's eggs in the Adsense basket sounds risky to me.
In my experience, the targeting is still a bit 'hit and miss' - great on some pages, so-so on many and positively loopy on a few. Plus for my sites, over a 24-hour period, it is clear that there are periods when visitors don't click. American PSA's being served? Number of ads down to, perhaps, one?
Like Clark, I remain sceptical.
I'm sure the Adsense's confidentiality clause extends to Stickys as well.
But I think we all missed an important point. This was explained by Cornwall.
>> "Normallity" is a function of which field you are in to start with. Within that "type" of web site there is a range of normal values.
I can assure you that I didn't expect more than 1-2% myself and would not have believed even 10% CTRs possible (even as late as a couple of months ago). But here's an example of how it could be possible:
You have a site selling new Porsche Boxster Cars (fictitious example). As a big Porsche fan you have a lot of info on Porsche, you have pages of gifs, pages with links to fan clubs, pages with engine info, repair info, body design discussions... you get the picture. You therefore get traffic for all manner of Porsche searches. But you only sell NEW Porsche cars. No second hand ones, no parts, no user manuals, no accessories, nothing else, and no other makes of cars, and no other model of Porsche car. You post Adsense on all your pure "info" pages. I suspect you'll see an above 10% CTR as visitors enter your site on a variety of pages, see the content as useful, but see the Google Ads as a route to fulfilling their current requirement of buying the stuff you don't sell.
I'm not doubting you, just maintaining a healthy skepticism. Are you saying that you personally are getting a much higher rate? (I'm sure generalities are ok for the TOS)
Anyways, I don't think stickies are a violation of TOS, I thought the TOS meant you can't post something publicly. If you tell your wife, buddy (even Internet Buddy), I don't think even the google toolbar will catch it. Just kidding with you. But in seriousness, I wasn't expecting you to share your own site by sticky, but just wondering if you knew of any url that used the same concept.
I still don't see your example making sense. 10 visits to a page, 1 click. That's a HUGE number that would require immensely unique situations. If you are saying you achieve that personally, good for you. Consider yourself supremely lucky. But on a "normal" site, I just don't see it unless it's the only link out and placed VERY carefully and on-topic, as suggested above. Then maybe.
I would agree that the "odd" page can get that CTR, however...
...the number of pages will be small, and the impressions served on those pages small as well (niche, niche, niche)
...so the total number of clicks will be small in absolute terms
...and the CTR will be subsumed into the average CTR for the site which will be an aweful lot lower, hence average CTR will be smaller and more in whatever Google terms to be "normal" range
QED ;)
While Adsense is new to most visitors 10 visits to the page and 2-3 clicks is entirely possible AND hapenning.I have modest figures compared with some experienced webmasters on here.
Let's say you're a mathematician. Search Google for poweroid + Bernoulli numbers. You'll get results of pages that are pretty much all text. Put a skyscraper on any of those pages and you may even get a 50% CTR.
(none of those pages are mine or have anything to do with me)
