Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I am finding that in the case of Ad Links, that if a surfer clicks on the Ad Link in the ad unit, nearly *all* click through to at least one of the sponsored listings on the second page.
Secondly, EPC seems comparible to the EPC on the ad units on the same pages.
CTR is skewed however, due to double impressions for those who view the sponsored listings.
Interesting results though.
Out of the sites where I have tried Ad Links, my personal site, that covers a multitude of topics works best.
On the Niche sites however, fewer visitors seem to do that initial click. Probably because the content ads are more focused, and maybe also beacause they actually found what they came looking for.
Thus, Ad Links seems to works great as a complement to the AdSense ads. When targeting is a bit off, users go for the Ad Links, when targeting is spot on then don't need to.
This is with just one day of results so who knows if it will maintain... I added it 2 days ago with its own channel and so today is the first day I can see any data for my AdLinks channel.
If your page is about "yellow widgets in new york" - and your Adlinks are focused on "Widgets"
maybe "Widgets" will show ads with a higher EPC?
I bet the CTR for adlinks falls off once the novelty wears off...
On the other hand, AdLinks gives you a "second chance" to get the highest EPC ads... running it as a second block is working out for me, the EPC from my 2nd block was always way lower than my first block (so revenue was like, 1/5th for the 2nd block in the past). Since AdLinks shows a "fresh" set of ads, users get the high EPC ads not the 6th position+ ads I had there before.
If that's the case, my AdLinks is even worse than I thought, because my CTR dropped like a stone when I added AdLinks. If there is anything to these rumors that CTR affects smart pricing, I might as well just get rid of AdLinks.
Of course I suspect it's the novelty effect.. the real test will be how does it do after users have gotten used to seeing AdLinks.
Bottom line: AdLinks could (and I'm not saying this is true -- it's just a possbility) end up costing you money in indirect ways that you can't figure out, and it could take weeks or months to see the effect. And here's the kicker: By that time you won't realize the cause, so you won't know to change your site back. You'll just think it's a bad week/month, or that your ad targeting is off, or who knows what.
When you see the little box of links, you think, "OK, let me check that out." Click. Then you get another page with as many as 10 ads. TOO MANY CHOICES.
Also, people don't like to click more than necessary. If they see a link for "widgets" they expect to go right to the widgets place, not to more ads.
The extra click will kill this idea. It's going to cause CPM to plummet even further for many people, and upset users. JMO.
As well, isn't this better on the advertiser point of view since the user wouldn't be as easily tricked into clicking on an ad?
I do agree that these should in no means take place of a full banner or square block or any other huge adblock. However, when used a certain way they are of great use for the publisher, advertiser AND viewer.
Sigh. I wonder what's the mystery.
This is very bad news for me. It could be because it's a framed page.
Adlinks is not much difference from "AdSense for search". It's designed for the lazy users who don't want to make a search [webmasterworld.com]. (or to type in a search query)
I've taken them down for the moment, maybe I didn't give google enough time to re-spider the ads and get them on target again. On the plus side it seems that my regular ad blocks have excellent targeting now.
If I try again, I think I'll just replace my current ad block completely with adlinks and make sure that its the only ad on the page to see what happens.
So far on place where an Ad Link is the only Google ad the result is pretty decent. I can't wait to see what the results are when I have tried them in a variety of locations.
There are quite a few spam, 1% content, 99% advertising+affiliate sites in my topic. With adlinks my site was destined to look similar when you went to the ad detail pages.
I imagine that for some context it might look like a mini directory, but for me it won't work.
Bit off topic, but I do wonder if the directory style in general will gradually disappear, because most of them make you think you've found something, but you haven't.
I'm sure users are getting wise to the look of a directory search engine result and will ignore them bit by bit. Got a feeling Adlinks is in the same area really, so hesitant to use it.
Targeting spot on which is good for publisher and advertiser alike and earnings up more than 32%!
We'll see how it pans out for the rest of the month to judge whether it's the novelty factor or an accepted more highly focussed results page for the visitor.
I'm sure users are getting wise to the look of a directory search engine result and will ignore them bit by bit. Got a feeling Adlinks is in the same area really, so hesitant to use it.
If you don't try it you will never know.
Exactly.
I can't believe that Google would have implemented this major new ad type without advance studies (focus groups, test labs, field studies) indicating its effectiveness, at least in many situations.
The naysayers and skeptics may be missing out on a good thing. Or maybe not. But they will never know unless and until they give it a try. A fair try.
In my book, a "try" does not amount to slapping it up on a few pages for a day or two. The AdLinks blocks are so small, there are many places (on my pages) where they would fit in. Then there are variables like border vs. no border, colors, etc, not to mention some pages versus others. With so many factors involved, how can you sort them out after just a day or two?
Problem is, when I do into my Ad Settings to try out the new Ad Links, the option isn't there so I can't add an Ad Link to my page.
They also mentioned randomly trying out the Ad Links with your normal ads - but it all seems a bit ambiguous because the example makes it look like you can explicitly choose Ad Links for certain pages.
It also says that there will be a limit of 1 Ad Link per page. Does this mean that you can't have 2 banner ads on the same page as page which has an Ad Link? Or does it just mean that you can use other AdSense ads on the page so long as only 1 Ad Link appears on the page.
I welcome this initiative and look forward to implementing it.
Anybody else experience problems here?
It looks nice, but I'm not sure if it's any good.
When a user clicks on one of the Ad Links they will go to a Google page with AdSense links on it.
The user needs to click again on a AdSense ad to go to the desired page.
What confuses me is, do we get "paid" on the 1st click, or only after the user clicked on an ad from the 2nd page?
Problem is, when I go into my Ad Settings to try out the new Ad Links, the option isn't there so I can't add an Ad Link to my page.
I apologize to Google. I was looking in the wrong place. The Ad Links are certainly there. I had a blonde moment.
