Single ad block to fight "disease" of MFA's

[david_uk]

Further to recent discussions on pest control, I was wondering if having a block with a single ad might help with this? I don't recall seeing an MFA take the top spot, so the chances are that Google wouldn't show one there. Therefore might having just the single ad be a possible weapon in the armoury?

[Powdork]

And if that works, perhaps try three single ad blocks.

[Alioc]

And if that works, perhaps try three single ad blocks.

No, thanks. One "Ads by Goooooogle" is enough already!

[david_uk]

That did cross my mind, but if G are going to place MFA's in positions 2, 3 and 4 of a multi-ad unit, I would imagine that in single blocks 2 and 3 of single ad blocks you would see the MFA's they planned to place in the multi-ad unit. Hence the idea of placing just one block of one ad on the page.

[Scurramunga]

I agree that placing more than one single unit would almost certainly guarantee MFA's (on a site that is normally plagued by them)

[loganz]

I am going to test this on one of my page templates, and see what the outcome is..

eCPM went down the gutter today

[jomaxx]

If you mean showing one single ad on the whole page, I experimented with this a while ago as a way of maximizing CPC. The CPC did rise a bit, but the CTR plummeted and I quickly dropped the idea. With only one ad, it's much less likely that users will see a message that piques their interest.

[TheDonster]

I tried this a while back before MFAs were so intrusive while site tweaking and my results were the same as Jomaxx, EPC shot up but earnings and CTR dropped drastically since the visitor had fewer places to click. I'm not sure the MFAs would not take the top spot at certain times. Remember the Google algo chooses the ads most likely to get a click, not necessarily the ad that pays the most.

David I like your pest control analogy. We had carpenter ants around our house a while back and the exterminator told us they are the hardest to get rid of, sometimes requiring repeated sprayings and may linger up to 3 years before getting the whole colony. Hope the MFAs don't take as long.

[loganz]

like i said i was gonna test this theory.. and i removed all buy one ad block on one of my most clicked on pages/template.. and so far ctr has stayed around the same, but ecpm has gone up.. making almost 3-4 cents more per click (using earnings / clicks method) than usual.

i know one day isnt a good comparison, but so far so good

thinking of pulling my adlink off my entire site.. its getting lots of clicks, but hardly any conversions.

[GoldenHammer]

I intended to believe AS would just keep showin MFA ads (or those lowest paid ads) at a certain fixed percentage for each ads slot. In this case, it doen't matter how many ads slot or unit you have, the MFA are rotated and explored at a fixed rate on your site unless you could block really lot of them.

[21_blue]

jomaxx wrote:

I experimented with this a while ago as a way of maximizing CPC. The CPC did rise a bit, but the CTR plummeted and I quickly dropped the idea. With only one ad, it's much less likely that users will see a message that piques their interest.

This is my experience as well. I think there is an optimum number of ads for a page, which is probably changing all the time, but one has to find the right balance. A skyscraper or leaderboard often has the right combination of choice vs limited volume, but I have pages with 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8 ad slots, depending on the performance of the page (performance in my terms is determined by average EPC).