more ads = more revenue?

or more ads = less revenue?

[Perfection]

I feel silly asking this, because I've been using Adsense for years now and I really don't know as much about it as someone whose been using it for years should. My only excuse is that I've been satisfied.

Satisfaction = no reason to try to improve

Stupid, I know.

Anyway, because it fit in perfectly with the design of this site, I've always had just 1 skyscraper ad on every page. Doing this has brought in between $1,000 and $2,000 a month via adsense pretty consistently.

Now however, I've made a slight change to the design of the site and a thought came to me... If I could fit a second or even a third adsense unit somewhere on every page of this site... shouldn't it lead to a greater revenue?

This thought is pretty much my question.

My idea would be to place one ad unit above the fold, one skyscraper towards the middle, and another ad at the bottom.

In my head it makes perfect sense. More ads = more opportunities for clicks = more revenue. But then I think there's something I'm missing. Something that would make having more ad units on a page lead to less revenue.

The problem is I don't know what that something is (if anything), but I'm hoping someone here does.

[europeforvisitors]

Some publishers have done better with multiple ad units; others have done worse.

Why not simply test multiple ad units and see if they work for you?

[Frequent]

The main "downside" to multiple ad units is that you will start digging down to the lower performing or lower paying ads. Your user may choose to click ad #14 which only pays .04 instead of ads 1-4 which pay (for instance) .40.

On the other hand a user that wasn't interested in ads 1-4 now has a few more that may fit the bill and generate a click.

As was said earlier, give it a try. You can always go back to one ad unit. (Be sure to set up lots of channels!)

Freq---

[centix]

I agrre completely with Frequent (if after the added ad the num of clicks increase it's good, if stays costant it's bad) but I would go deeper with another question:
the ad 1-4 pays the same ammount with or without the ad 5-8? Could be that if I add a second set of ads the first set gets a lower EPC (earning per click)?

[pompousjohn]

Highest bidders get priority, and highest bidders pay the most.

So more ads = less on average per click.

[europeforvisitors]

True, but they could also mean more opportunities for clicks, if (for example):

- One ad unit was above the fold and another was below; or...

- The multiple ad units resulted in greater ad variety.

There's no way to know what will work best for a given site without testing--and even then, testing will show only what works best at any given point in time (since the mixture of ads and bids a month from now might be different from what it is today).

Another question that the original poster needs to consider is whether adding AdSense units is the most profitable way to use the new ad space. It might be more profitable to use banner ads from another source, affiliate links, etc. Also, diversifying the site's revenue sources might enhance the owner's financial security by avoiding the "too many eggs in one basket" risk factor.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Perfection - the best way to figure out whether multiple ad units work well for your site is to set up channels. This way, you can track each ad unit on a page individually, which will give you a better indication of how they are performing on a per ad unit basis as well as in total.

For more information, check out:

[google.com...]

-ASA

[bumpski]

ADWORDS has always stated that the highest quality ad, not the highest paying ad will typically get rotated into the first spot. At one point it was purely the highest CTR ad. The highest paying ads may not be first in the Adsense/ Adwords program.

Try more ads, look at the "hot spots" chart for locations.

When you see more ads you will probably be able to infer which ads are likely to pay more, and I'd say they're not all on top.

Make sure your Page Impression count still works after you ad more ads. Adsense just has big problems reliably counting Page Impressions with multiple ad units (especially now if using IFrames (not Frames)).

Now with "referrals" they have reintroduced this Page Impression flaw YET AGAIN! Maybe it's fixed by now? Please let us know, ASA?

SEE [webmasterworld.com...]