Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I also notice them as well. The funny thing is, I have noticed them off and on since I started the program in July. And whenever I get them, I see CTR and revenue drop. This usually lasts from a few days to a couple of weeks
And then out of the blue, I start getting better targeted ads, and sure enough CTR and revenue increase. So I believe sometime around mid-April Adsense will start sending better targeted ads my way.
By doing this, I improved my CTR to a level only a few percent below my March average (as opposed to a 20% overall drop). However, as I did this my EPC kept getting lower and lower, to where it was just HALF of my March average. Total earnings dropped by more than half.
So, as an experiment I decided to remove all URL blocking. The mistargeted ads came back in force, and my CTR once again dipped by about 20% - proving that mistargeted ads are just as bad as you think they are.
However, along with the dip in CTR came a significant rise in EPC (although still far lower than March). It turns out that my bottom line is better when allowing mistargeted ads.
Why? Well, perhaps it was just a coincidence. Adsense CTR & EPC statistics have never been steady on a day-by-day basis, even when you think identical ads are being shown. Or, perhaps the increased competition from an influx of ads, whether on-topic or not, raised the paying rate of the ads that people WERE interested in clicking on.
The use of excessively broad keyword matching by advertisers (and Google) may be a contributing factor, but a change in the algorithm is obviously the main culprit. I don't know what the solution is, but possibilities might include:
1) Allowing publishers to supply positive and/or negative "helper keywords" to prevent mismatches; or...
2) Allowing advertisers and publishers to specify categories such as "business services," "travel," "computers and software," etc.
1) Allowing publishers to supply positive and/or negative "helper keywords" to prevent mismatches; or...2) Allowing advertisers and publishers to specify categories such as "business services," "travel," "computers and software," etc.
Amen. The sooner they offer it the better for EVERYONE. Poorly targeted (or unreadable see my other post [webmasterworld.com ] ads hurt credibility in the eyes of the visitor.
I'm "testing" Adsense (just 3 days sofar), but on the first day I emailed Google about this, thinking that it was so obvious feature, that G would have provided it in some "advanced adsense control panel".
Whereas a enjoy the simple, short (and often elegant, uncluttered) UI of Google and I guess I'm fan (I also run their toolbar, even installed the G compute add-in to donate cpu time to folding proj) I think the Adsense has its problems.
I think Google decided to make it incredibly easy to setup (I was up and running 30min after reading the approval email, with custom color scheme, 2 banner layouts and 6 channels defined), at the expense of customization.
But I'm optimistic, based on their past record.
The sooner they offer it the better for EVERYONE. Poorly targeted (or unreadable see my other post [webmasterworld.com...] ads hurt credibility in the eyes of the visitor.
CTR<1% :(
1) Allowing publishers to supply positive and/or negative "helper keywords" to prevent mismatches; or...2) Allowing advertisers and publishers to specify categories such as "business services," "travel," "computers and software," etc.
I think this has got to happen if it's going to work. I'm about ready to take AdSense completly off of one site because the ads are so far off. They looked a little better after the new algo but now they are worse than ever. I wish I knew if there is any hope Google is still working on it and will improve the ad to page matching.
Not only is the world Hawaii totally absent from the page, it is also totally absent from the whole #@#^$^ site!
Come on Google.... lift your game. As a previous poster said, you are causing us embarrasment.
Can't argue with that I guess, setting up the second quarter results for a 3rd quarter IPO, however could google just be a little more gentle on these shifts. Take their time in reducing the payouts....at my age these sudden shocks are not a desired thing.
Pow if google has put higher ctr ads on the search results....profits would actually be higher for them?
That would be true if users clicked on enough search ads to exhaust the advertisers' budgets. And if that happened routinely, why would Google have bothered to launch AdSense?
I tend to believe that the simplest explanation is usually correct, and the simplest explanation here is that Google's "improved" algorithm hasn't worked as well as expected. (After all, Google has a history of beta-testing in a production environment, as anyone who frequents the Google News forum will attest.)
At google there has been a dramatic shift in philosophies from a content driven ad network to a run of the mill "banner" type network. Reread some of the previous statements early in the program and then now. They have shifted the focus and it means lower revenue streams to many of us. Up until this point the program was attractive due to it's CPM, now it is even at best.
Time to reconsider having them as the primary advertiser here. Know each situation is different but certainly will become a viable option if revenues stay where they are.
Targeting is dismal and I've taken a sizeable hit on earnings. I still get way more than I have on any other network, but the disappointing and frustrating part is getting all those way out ads that my visitors aren't interested in. They come looking for information, I give
them a detailed review on technology widgets and then trust Google to serve them the right ads at the bottom of the page. But instead of serving them technology widgets ads they must be serving them EFV's travel in Europe ads. And hardly anybody is clicking on them.
I don't believe ASA is MIA. He's probably very aware that this beta testing in a live enviro has gone drastically wrong. Volunteer, or not, it would be difficult for him to come here and argue that overall targeting has improved.
Off to block that silliness.
Seldom do I see adwords on search full of results, leading me to believe adsense has hit the wall on available "high paying" ads. Think this change is all about revenue for google, nothing else. They are appeasing the adwords suppliers and giving themselves more true revenue (unshared) at the same time. Put the lower paying general ads (themed) out there for the publishers to still get market exposure for themselves (ad by google banner) and pocket the difference.
Maybe, but I'm still seeing highly targeted ads where I'd expect to see them and, in most cases, where I've seen them in the past. The problem on my site isn't with an excess of "themed" ads, but with too many highly targeted ads that ignore my site's theme and are off the mark as a result. (Examples: "Fleet management" and "auto broker" ads on my home page, which happens to mention car rentals and short-term tourist leases. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that those are high-paying ads; they just aren't ads that belong on my European travel site.)
If my CTR were steady and only my EPC had declined, I might think that Google was hogging the high-paying ads for my topic, but my CTR has also dropped by 20-25% since April 1, which leads me to believe that many readers are seeing off-topic ads.
Does anyone else here feel as though Adsense is using our blocked url lists to target ads.
No. But it does seem to take a while for new additions to take effect.
Lots of new blocked sites by lots of publishers = slow?
I've got a few pages that I've blocked so many ads from I seldom get a full adblock anymore.
Yet similar pages never got the off target ads and are running great.
I just don't get it.
I also think {right or wrong} that the ad shown is the one that Google has determined that has the best CTR/CPC combo available.
It appears G somehow targets a very small or insignificant part of a page, sometimes a link, and determines the whole page or site pertains 100% to that minor area or odd link. Whereas at other times the ads are extremely well targeted and could not be any better done even if I selected the ads.
However, I have sites where the ads are somewhat targeted as they are real estate ads on realty sites but amazingly wrongly targeted as far as location goes, i.e. ads for a AZ and TX local Realtor on my PA realty site, even though AZ and TX are not mentioned anywhere on the page, which relates only to PA real estate.
It's incredible G can not get this right, or disclose their targeting algorithm, or at least let us tell G what type ads to display on a page.
"Fleet management" and "auto broker" ads on my home page, which happens to mention car rentals and short-term tourist leases.
Shame we can't trade adverts. We run a car parts/sales trading hub and because its motorsport we get quite a lot of ads. for travel to motorsport events. OK on the right pages, but often they're not.
...ads for a AZ and TX local Realtor on my PA realty site...
You wouldn't happen to live in the Southwest, do you?
I actually have 3 pages on essentially this identical subject, and they were all flip-flopping between good and bad targeting on different schedules. I know the ads are there, because pages A and C are showing them, while page B shows rubbish.
