Stopping adverts on forums for registered users

[jema]

This is often suggested. So I have decided to try and lay the question to rest by killing about 95% of the adverts shown to people who are logged in.

I expect a disasterous drop in clicks.

Is there any milage in keeping the experiment going for more than 24 hours if this is the case? If clicks drop by half can any amount of smartpricing changes make up for it in the long run?

[wonderboy]

If you aren't happy with your current income from the forum, then testing is required, 95% is awfully high though. Perhaps look at the number of clicks from the first 24 hours, and if, like you say, it is below a certain point, scrap the idea and go back to the drawing board.

[Cakkie]

I think it's best to find out who's actually clicking, the registered users of the guests.

You can do this by creating a seperate adsense channel, and show it only to guests. This way, you can see just how many clicks are being made by guests, and how many are being made by your regular users. Depending on these figures, you'll have to see if it's worth to drop the registered users to get better smartpricing.

[jema]

Good idea on the channels, though I guess the figures may be pretty telling without that.

[jema]

Ok, have added guest/registered channels. Anyone care to place bets on proportions?

[roycerus]

You'll see increased income after a few days. Once smart pricing re-values your clickthrough and conversion stuff.
Showing ads to registered\returning members is not a very good idea - at least not on all impressions.

[jema]

So far today it looks like earning may be down by 50% with no increase in CTR! if that trend continues then I cannot see how this exercise can prove positive :(

[kidd]

Hello:

I too have a forum and at first I showed ads to everyone, both my users and guests. But then after reading about similar experiences on forums, I noticed that showing ads to my registered users only gave me more impressions but less clicks, then SmartPrice got in action.

So, I dediced to show ads only to guests. After a couple of days all my clicks were gaining more since I had less impressions and the same clicks.

The thing is that the highest percentage of my guests visit me trough SE, so they might find what they are looking on the Ads, as opposed to my registered users who are seeking answers on the forum, and the more active users don't click on ads, they tend to ignore them.

I hope my experience is useful to you.

Cheers!

[joaquin112]

Great experiment! Please let us know the results. BUMP to the top!

[jema]

I think the search engine point may be key here, unless you are doing well with search engines then you are relying on the registered users.
My results so far are looking so down, that I am not sure I can stand more than another two hours or so.

[jema]

Well I bottled out I'm afraid, I was getting much more from the registered users than from the guests, but the reduced number of adverts clearly sliced about 50% from the overall revenue. I can't believe smartpricng would make up for that?

I have gone for a much more mild version of reducing adverts for registered users.

[creativepart]

I went through this last month. Everyone says, "your regulars don't click on ads" but when I made it so all the adsense ads disappeared for members two things happened:

1. The members didn't even mention it
2. Earnings and clicks dropped by 50% or more.

After a week I was dying so I put them back for all users and bingo everything is back to normal.

I was earning $650 a month for the past few months and I wanted to know if experimenting would push it to $1,000. I got my answer: reducing the number of ads, blocking MFAs and removing ads for members (for a week) and I made $503 for the month. My lowest total in 6 months.

Paul