Forum Moderators: martinibuster
What do you prefer?
Multiple ads at one page (higher CTR)
or
1 Ad unit with high EPC?
If that's right, then I don't care about CTR, just the bottom line. If multiple ad units reduces CTR (and overall EPC) but increases the bottom line, then that's an improvement.
I do, however, like europeforvisitors, care about what my visitors think of my site; excessive advertising is bad, (and, by driving visitors away, may reduce earnings in the long run).
On longer pages, multiple ad units is fine. Certainly on a page 1000+ pixels long, an extra ad unit at the bottom won't hurt. On shorter pages, I stick to one ad unit. As a rule of thumb, I try to make sure that only one ad unit is visible at a time (but I wouldn't set that as a universal standard).
I added an extra banner at the bottom of key pages. Unfortunately the banners rarely got a click. This lowered my CTR, and as a result smartpricing seemed to lower the cost per click over time. Also, for some completely strange reason the number of clicks declined too. Website visitors stayed steady.
When I removed the unproductive banners all returned to normal. So my message is, put each banner on a channel, and make sure they are productive - otherwise ditch 'em.
I am dubious about the idea that a second ad actually hurts you by lowering your payment per click. I haven't seen any evidence of that.
I am dubious about the idea that a second ad actually hurts you by lowering your payment per click. I haven't seen any evidence of that.
I too put the extra banners on long articles to attract those who scrolled right to the bottom. Before I did this, I posted here and the assembled wisdom said it wouldn't affect price per click, so I gave it a go. I then noticed a slow decline in ppc.
At the time, there were several threads moaning about the poor prices being paid generally, so I assumed that my lower income was due to circumstances outside my control. So I let it ride for a couple of weeks, watching the decline.
I did email Google to see if they could shed any light on the decline. They gave the usual canned "fortune cookie" response, but they *did* seem to be implying (without saying it) that one of the reasons might possibly be too many unproductive banners.
I then looked carefully at the channels data, and deleted banners that weren't getting a reasonable ctr. Within 24 hours the ctr was back up to the previous levels, the income came back, and I'm now heading for a very good February. And the "low ppc" threads are still trundling on.
I am aware of the fact that all sorts of things vary Google income - I've been at it long enough to know that what you get out of Adsense to a great extent is by the sheer luck of factors that could affect earnings conspiring for you, as opposed to against you. However, the results of this experience (in my case) I feel are pretty convincing evidence that lots of banners + no click = decline in ppc.
On longer pages, multiple ad units is fine. Certainly on a page 1000+ pixels long, an extra ad unit at the bottom won't hurt.
Well, it could. I experimented with a second ad unit very briefly, and it seemed to have a negative effect, probably because more low-bid ads were being shown to readers. Too bad Google doesn't provide a way to deliver the same set of ads in identical banners or leaderboards at the top and the bottom of the page.
EPC movement does not seem to suggest correlation with multiple ad blocks. If people's theory here are correct that EPC declines with multiple ad blocks, then all we would have seen would be a downward spiral for continually using multiple ad blocks. But this is not happening in our case - sometimes the EPC goes up, and sometimes it goes down (like anyone else, even those not using multiple ad blocks).
Plus, the bottom rectangle now accounts for 6.5% of our revenues, with the skyscraper 5.7%. So multiple ad units did not do us any harm. Try it for yourself and see how it goes.
Our CTR also did not decrease. But of course, CTR of the first large rectangle is about 170% higher than CTR of the bottom rectangle.
If people's theory here are correct that EPC declines with multiple ad blocks, then all we would have seen would be a downward spiral for continually using multiple ad blocks.
Wouldn't the impact of multiple ads at different CPC vary according to the spread of prices on a given page or site?
Let's say that Site X's pages mostly attract ads for popular, highly competitive keywords with a lot of advertisers. Going from 4 to 8 ads might not change the spread between the highest and lowest CPC by much.
Now let's say that Site Y's pages mostly attract ads for niche keywords that have a much smaller number of advertisers. Going from 4 to 8 ads could have a big impact on the spread between the highest and lowest CPC, couldn't it? And if that were true, wouldn't the publisher notice an overall drop in EPC?
I wouldn't do that anywhere else but the blog pages go on forever. They never did and still don't pay much but the multiple banners don't seem to hurt.
