Change by google resulting in less revenue

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Change by google resulting in less revenue

How long for their algo to recognize and fix

MediaSpree

9:07 pm on Nov 11, 2005 (gmt 0)

I have been running the horizontal adlinks for as long as they have been introduced. They historically have preformed exceptionally well with 4 links across the top of my page well targetted to the content. Well suddenly the links have reduced in number to 2. This leaves a ton of "white space" and the design now looks, well, very amatuerish and its resulting in far less clickthroughs. And in turn less money for both google and I. Any idea if their algorithm will recognize this and go back to 4 links on those pages instead of 2? As a side note, I tried using the 5 link unit in place of the 4 link unit but that only shows 1 link which looks REALLY bad!

hunderdown

9:29 pm on Nov 11, 2005 (gmt 0)

Is this happening on more than one page?

MediaSpree

11:31 pm on Nov 11, 2005 (gmt 0)

It is happening on more than 1 page but not all. Some pages have 4 links as I would like. The problem is its worked so well for months - now the change resulting in lower clicks :(.

erobs

11:40 pm on Nov 11, 2005 (gmt 0)

I see this occasionally and my understanding is that it happens because there are not enough ads to fill the entire ad unit.

perldiver

11:52 pm on Nov 11, 2005 (gmt 0)

That's not my understanding. It's my understanding that when less ads or links show than are supposed to, it's because G has "optimized" your ad or link unit to show the ad or ads it thinks will make you the most money.

I've tried several times to install a 4-wide horizontal link unit on my "Fictional John Smith" web site and all I ever get is one link (with lots of white space) that says "John Smith", which causes me to remove it right away again.

bumpski

12:05 pm on Nov 12, 2005 (gmt 0)

perldiver

Have you tried to block that particular advertiser? Then you might see other ads.

I've seen ad units that are really CPM ads, all four ads, or all two ads, are for the same company or URL. Try blocking these and see what happens.

My only other comment is, every time you play with the competitive ad filters you may go through a day or two or lower earnings. Some call this Smart Pricing, but frankly I'd call it a "change" penalty on top of Smart Pricing.