When to block ads?

good or bad idea

[brokenbricks]

I have one site that is sports related. Almost every single ad that shows up on it is for various ticket vendors that sell tickets online for games of this sport.

So if I have a 300x250 rectangle and a skyscraper on the page. I'd say 90% of the ads showing up are for tickets to games. Tickets from site 1, site 2, site 3 etc etc...

Would it be a wise idea to block some of these ticket sites, hopefully getting some non ticket ads to show. I don't think a visitor is gonna click on evey different ticket company and if they check em out once they'll likely never click them again. I wouldn't at least.

Anyone had this experience before?

Now I'm trying to figure out who to block if I do choose to. Which is the highest paying ad which is the lowest? What is the difference between them if any? I guess I'll just have to try and see.

[david_uk]

I don't think you can tell who pays most, or least and block them. I'd advise against trying!

I block advertisers, BUT ONLY MFA's. I don't block competitors ads, or ads that are moderately off target. I might consider blocking *really* badly targetted ads, but fortunately don't see too many of them, and they rarely appear during peak hours anyway.

If it's a genuine advertiser, then my advice is not to block them. If you want to see a better variety of ads, then try the targetting tool or change the text on the page and different ads may appear.

If it's a MFA (made for adsense) site of any description it WILL get blocked if it is seen on my site. I look at the actual ads that appear on the page - not what the adsense preview tool says.

[astro_miner]

I disagree. I improved my CTR by blocking amateurish ads and most ads that were all advertising the same thing that wasn't really on topic. You just have to know your audience.

CPC didn't go noticeably down.

[jomaxx]

It's worth trying. I think your reasoning is sound - probably only a small proportion of visitors are likely to be actively looking to buy tickets.

Maybe try playing with the preview tool, or put up a page with 3 multi-ad blocks, so that you can see what other advertisers might get targeted to the site if you block the ticket agents.

[david_uk]

I disagree. I improved my CTR by blocking amateurish ads and most ads that were all advertising the same thing that wasn't really on topic. You just have to know your audience.

Interesting. My comment was based on my experience with blocking were removing MFA's acheived optimum income. I found that blocking other ads pushed it a bit too far over the edge and income started to drop. I do know my audience, but I guess as per usual, one technique doesnt work for all sites exactly the same.