Filtering and AdWords smart bidding

Perhaps filtering is wise?

[androidtech]

At first, I was buying into the logic that filtering is bad because the highest bidder should show up in the AdSense strip.

Then I remembered that AdWords advertisers can get higher placement and more frequent display of their ad if their CTR is higher than another bidder's CTR; even if their bid is lower.

This would make the "filtering is bad" logic suspect, since lower bidders might dominate the AdSense strips, if their CTR's are higher.

Now I know the other side of the logic. A higher CTR should be better anyways because it should result in more clicks, even if they are lower paying, for the AdSense publisher (us).

However, if the low-bid high-CTR ads convert badly, like I suspect ebay type or other similar ads do, smart pricing could completely derail that logic, making it prudent to filter out such ads.

What truly sucks is that if the above paragraph is true, our earnings could be getting unfairly smashed by smart pricing, due to AdWords own policy of promoting higher CTR ads; ads that may get a high CTR rate but may convert terribly.

Has anyone ever done any real filtering test to see?

Thanks.

[annej]

I filter out the scammy type ads. I don't care that they may pay more. They make my site look bad and are of no interest to my visitors. I'd rather have clicks on lower paying ads then no clicks at all or annoyed visitors wo find they've clicked on junk.

When we were discussing this before I tried deleting all my filtered ads. I didn't notice that I was making anymore $$ with no ads filtered.

[roycerus]

I usually filter out ANY affiliate ad or ANY ad where the landing page has adsense. My CTR has remained constant and earnings have grown.

[amznVibe]

Filter out any "sell it all shop" as their affiliates will eat your profits with their nonsense ads (ebay, amazon, price* in .com .ca .co.uk etc) They are a complete waste of publisher's time and space. They even can make your site look cheap with some of the phrases that they try to use generically. If only Google gave us more dynamic ways to filter such ads out!