Forum Moderators: martinibuster
On some of my pages, the highest paying ads show up in the second panel, as verified by the Overture pixelfast tool (which I assume gives a pretty good approximation). The range I am talking about here is about 3 cents to $3.
What is the basis for this belief? Does Google say this? Do others here have personal evidence of this? My guess is that there is a more random presentation at work here.
I think that while it is possible that some of the highest paid ads are shown on the second panel, Google has set it up so that the best are shown on the first following the theory that “above the fold” is the premium spot.
My stats so far show that EPC for the second ad unit is greatly reduced from that of the first. The difference might not be as marked as the one shown in my site depending on the number of advertisers in a topic.
I don’t think Overture bid tools are that good a tool since we don’t really know what words those ads were targeting and what bids are in effect in Google. IMHO, the best way to go about this is to assign channels if you haven’t spent them all already.
With the introduction of multiple ad formats, there is always the possibility that the 2nd and 3rd ad formats are not shown. Hence, it is safe to assume that the first ad format (defined by G as the first ad in the coding) gets to serve the highest paying ads. Otherwise, if they put the highest paying ads in the 3rd ad format, and the 3rd ad format is not shown, then it defeats the whole purpose. The publisher loses, and Google's income is not maximized. It is in the best interest of both Google and the publisher to ensure that the highest paying ads are shown to the visitors.
