Filtering sites can seriously affect your revenue

... just thought i'd share this ...

[dillonstars]

From day one, I had a website filtered from mine as they offered a similar service to mine.

Recently I changed my mind and unblocked them from my sites. This had no impact on my non-adsense revenue, but my Adsense CPC (and therefore revenue) went up by over a third.

Apparently, from day one I had been blocking a real big spender ...

[WebWalla]

I've often thought about this and haven't blocked competitors for the reasons you state. Also, I'm a firm believer that if somebody eventually buys from a competitor, having already been on my site, then the competitor is simply better than me (quality, price or whatever) and I have to improve. We shouldn't fear letting our visitors see what competitors we have, but make sure our sites/products are good enough to keep them there.

[Blue_Fin]

I reported the same thing earlier this month.

[webmasterworld.com...]

[aroach]

I only filter things that are completely irrelevant to my site. As in ads for keywords that have more than one meaning, one of which has nothing to do with my site.

[Kinitz]

I never filter anything although sometimes the AdSense seems to be publishing ads of the most fiercly competing companies, but why not give them a try? They probably pay more to get to the top of the sky scraper banner... or to get to this banner at all...

I just wish I could know what to tell my friends who have AdWords accounts so that they could be sure that their ads are running on my site... unfortunately AdWords advertisers don't have something like: url:.somedomain.com to guarantee it, but it would be very helpful...

[jranes]

When that happens Kinitz we will have what they call, "Rock and Roll".

[dillonstars]

I reported the same thing earlier this month.

Darn, if i had been paying attention i could have earned myself an extra few quid.

...and there was me hoping that i wasnt adding to the massive repeat post forum that is forum89... ;)

[killroy]

I do block my own sites, as it seems nonsensical to pay for internal crosslinks.

It almost seems to me there might be a massive grassroots change happening due to adsense in how we think about competition on the net.

If I can't make the sale for 2 bucks, why not make 1 buck and let my competitor have a go. It might be better revenue then a lost sale altogether.

SN

[DavidP]

"If I can't make the sale for 2 bucks, why not make 1 buck and let my competitor have a go. It might be better revenue then a lost sale altogether."

There are some markets where the opposite is true - if you keep the customer you make 1 buck, if they leave your site via an adwords click you make 2 ... or more.

[hyperkik]

I want to endorse the idea presented at the start of this thread, that unblocking ads can significantly improve AdSense performance. I run a free site, offering a service that several other companies charge for. I had blocked their ads, but I removed that block last weekend.

Sure, it's a mixed thing to send your users to the competition (even if you don't make money by keeping them onsite), but in terms of AdSense performance.... it may be very significant.

[rogerd]

I'll add one caution to this discussion. Having a competing service in an AdSense ad will confuse some visitors. I know we can all sniff out an AdSense ad a mile away, but a portion of web surfers has a lot of difficulty making that distinction - the don't realize that when they click on a link they may go to a different site, etc. I've got one Adsense site where I DO block a number of competitors, because of inquiries ranging from, "Why do you endorse this service?" to requests for customer service on something someone bought elsewhere.

It's been at least a month since I've said this, so I'll say it again: some surfers are oblivious to all visual cues (logos, URL bar, text, "about us", etc.) to whose site they are viewing. I'd be willing to bet that Brett gets e-mails that begin, "Dear Google: " :) Hence, it pays to monitor any advertisements being fed by a third party lest you run an ad that diminishes your site.

[neo_brown]

Interesting.....
I have noticed my revenue has dropped over the last few days though the impressions and clicks have remained pretty constant. I understand that the ratio of clicks to impressions would obviously have a bearing on this and would depend on when the clicks came and how high the impressions were at that point but still it seems something has changed. I originally thought perhaps google had changed their rates in the latest shake up but thinking about it, it does coincide with when I blocked a competitors ad. Having listened to what you guys have said I think ill remove that block and see how it goes.

[rogerd]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Neo_brown!

I definitely saw a drop in ad revenue when I blocked competitor ads. The keyword trigger for these ads was a fairly competitive (i.e., high priced) term. I'm sure when I blocked them Google had to feed ads with lower click prices. On this site, though, ad revenue is more of gravy item than the key revenue source, so I don't begrudge the lower numbers. Well, maybe a little... ;)

[Zygoot]

Mmz from the first day I was with Adsense I blocked a few advertisers.

I unblocked all of them a few houres ago, and I find it strange to see that suddenly after two houres my earnings were much higher than normal :/

I'm going to see how this evolves over the next few days and I will report it in this thread.

Regards

[Jenstar]

The difference seems to be if you are blocking ads for irrelevancy, your could increase your earnings. But if you are blocking sites because you view them as competitors, chances are you will see a decline in income as well.

[rogerd]

I agree with your analysis, Jenstar - In the case of the site I mentioned above, I know that I blocked some highly targeted ads. This almost certainly forced some lower-revenue ads into rotation.

[owenjones]

I also noticed a huge reduction in revenue after blocking a few competitors last week, although no. ov visitors per day remained the same.
After reading this forum, I have removed the block.
Let's see what happens.
Can you remove a block, but leave the URL there by using REM,! or something similar?

[Zygoot]

After a few days I can't notice any big difference.

[neo_brown]

Thanks for the welcome rogerd

No real difference for me either.
I think it was just coincidental or I was getting better ads put my way in the beginning.
Of course as rogerd said if they have to feed through lower paying ads due to the ads you have blocked then this would cause lower earnings, though unfortunatly this was not the case for me I must have just had a few good days in the beginning :-(

[dillonstars]

For the two weeks following my original post at the start of this discussion, my earnings per click rocketed when i cleared my filter list, but it has slowly gone back to much the same as it was before i unfiltered them.

I can't say whether this is due to a steady decline in earnings per click across the board or if it just some kind of natural normalization... in any case my initial rise in earnings has not lasted and my monthly averages remain pretty constant.

[rogerd]

If your site has significant repeat traffic, I would expect the clickthrough to decline a bit if people see the same ads over and over. Sure, some people will click through the twentieth time they see the ad, but it seems likely that the first few exposures might be the most productive.

[dillonstars]

I would expect the clickthrough to decline a bit if people see the same ads over and over.

Agreed, but we were discussing earnings per click, not clickthrough rate.