Don't Test Too Much

CTR Reduction - eCPM Reduction

[Sally Stitts]

I put up a new page yesterday.
I noticed that all my views of the page resulted in impressions. I am sure of this because the page is not even indexed yet, the # of impressions corresponded to the number of my visits, and I looked at my reports in between the "tests".

Google is smart enough to wipe out any CLICKS from my machine, but not IMPRESSIONS?
Are Adwords users charged for these impressions? Theoretically, they should NOT be.

So, my conclusion is that the more you test (open the page), the more you reduce your CTR and eCPM. This would suggest that it is not a good idea to test too much. Is that right? Or have I missed something?

[Rodney]

While those metrics may be down, what really matters is if your actual earnings are effected.

I have a feeling your earnings won't be effected by a few extra pageloads of your website while you are testing before it goes live.

[Sally Stitts]

Yeah, you're probably right.
But I do test like a mad dog.
And I do reduce my CTR.
And I do believe that CTR is a huge factor in payout percentage.

Shouldn't sweat the pennies, I guess.

Still, one issue remains - Are Adwords buyers being charged for the non-productive impressions?

[andrea99]

If you don't test you may make a few pennies more, OR you may miss some huge error you've made and make many pennies less.

I think all sane people test so it puts you even. Sometimes I think I test too much because I update often, update things that do not change the ads.

[sailorjwd]

If you are concerned about impressions and accidental clicks then put this line in your Hosts file:

127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com

Host file on windows xp pro is located at:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

This will prevent the ads from showing from you computer.

Note that the location of the file may be different on your operating system.

you can comment out the line when you want to go back to viewing the ads again.

[hunderdown]

Sally, the pay for impressions program isn't live yet, it's just being tested. When it does go live, Google has said that they will remove all impressions generated by the publisher.

[mgpapas]

"Sally, the pay for impressions program isn't live yet, it's just being tested. When it does go live, Google has said that they will remove all impressions generated by the publisher."

They should already be removing all clicks generated by the publisher, my addfreestats tracker has been doing it for years.

I have a newb html question.... trying to get my site through WC3 validation and the only errors are the google ads, should I put them in iframes or what? I'm just afraid that might screw something up.

[Sally Stitts]

Yeah, I have the same W3C validation problems.
Everything is fine, except for the AdSense ads.
My solution up to this point - Ignore it.

Since I don't know what is happening, I opt for
the ads, and ignore the validation. Is there
something else I should do?