Forum Moderators: martinibuster
- Decreased CTR
- Increased eCPM
- Increased Value (by 0.03$ per click)
- Impressions remain the same
Regards,
GP.
I can't copy exactly what they wrote, only they apologised and I've had to start again.
I guess you can do what you want from now on without any red flags being raised ;-)
And now I'm making my ads clear to my visitors that they are 'Sponsored Links' as google terms say you may do.. it's helping alot because it helps your visitors establish what is and what isn't ads in your content and therefor respecting their browsing experience, if they should follow they should convert.
Thanks for the support guys.
- CTR is slowly returning to pre 'sponsored links'
- eCPM rising
- Value per click rising
- Impressions Steady
General Study:
As it appears their is no real downfall to making your Advertising clear.
My visitors are more aware of the advertising, and therefor less likely to click irrelivently, but follow them if they need be.
Regards,
GP.
Google has said time and time again the numbers aren't final until after midnight their time, and sometimes even the next day following. So why bother comparing the CTR, eCPM, etc. As well, it could have just been the timeframe you were looking at if there was a difference at all. There are way too many possibilities for this to happen as to have made this sort of judgment after 12 hours.
After placing 'Sponsored links' above my ads:
- CTR increased (Woah now you gotta love that)
- eCPM continues to increase
- Earning per click continues to increase
Conclusions today:
As time goes by I think smartpricing bot will see this as a great improvement and I should hopefuly have smartpricing disabled near enough in the next weeks, we'll see.
My advertisers like my traffic better now they know it's says directly above in bold black letters 'sponsored links' and my trafic appreciates the professionalism it presents to the site and respect to themselves by not being misleading and knowing too well that it is a link advertisement.
Regards,
GP.
PS. anyone else use sponsored links to decorate their advertisements, having an increase in CTR has actualy made me wonder how well it would perform for anyone else?
I believe to protect your visitors in your own terms and conditions you can say your not liable to the advertiseemts labeled sponsored links therfor google allows it.
I don't believe google gives you anything extra for having labeled your ads sponsored links (I wish they did) however, you are giving your users more respect and they may appreciate it and follow your sponsored links out of curiousity not by accident (conversions are important, accidents are not conversions).
Regards
GP.
PS. Hundreds clicks less for the same earnings hours earlier... (Sponsored links i love you, CTR is nicely up by ALOT!)
(myspace labels its ads with advertisement)
Unless your visitors are very dim... What else could "ads by google" mean?
And if that isn't the reason maybe it's my new haircut.
- CTR Remains increased
- eCPM remains at all time high for smartpricing that is
- Click value increased 2 fold
- Impressions look steady as usual
Ponderage :
I'm pondering that google does not count multiple clicks on the same ads twice as 10 clicks for example but calls it 1 click.
My number of clicks per day seems to be as good as any other day and at all time high lately despite having "sponsored links" which I initialy would assume would hurt my CTR has actualy gave me the impression that now the clicks are less invalidly clicked, and followed relevently, my advertisers must be happy people!
I have to stress Click value is 2 fold now... im above what I was before I started this idea, it's positive results so far.
Now I'm going to hope tomorrow click value increases a few more cents.
PS. my earnings today are the best so far while under smartpricing, all I can say is I'm happy for the changes.
It's not that visitors are dim, but that visitors generally scan, not read. Because they may not be paying attention they end up clicking links like chickens on corn.
So the theory that GP may be onto is that labeling ads makes it clearer they are advertisements, thus qualifying his ad clickers. Theoretically, he is reducing accidental clicks and uninterested traffic.
So if you can minimize clickers who are not in the shopping cycle, visitors who would tend to back out of an advertiser's site in half a second, you should be sending visitors more likely to be interested in the advertiser's site. Qualified visitors, those who know what they're getting into, constitute higher quality traffic, right?
- CTR at a higher rate than the usual lower rate in the morning
- Value per click is up further more
- Today's Earnings are up for the hour
- eCPM up
(somthing I noticed but wasn't sure if it was a coincidence)
- User sign-ups are increasing more than anything maybe because they are clicking sign-up instead of clicking my ads in confusion.
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Martinibuster, thats the idea around this... although my eCPM rising, my CTR rising and my Click value could be a coincidence, it doesn't hurt to say that with all this happening at the same time as "sponsored links" I can't really say it's hurt me in any way.
I'm very much greatful to be able to try and improve advertising quality for my advertisers.
Regards,
GP.
visitors who would tend to back out of an advertiser's site in half a second, you should be sending visitors more likely to be interested in the advertiser's site
Update:
- value per click is ever increasing, its about 1/6 of what I was pre-smartpricing but I'm getting excited because it was 1/12th before this idea came to mind (big improvement)
- eCPM increased further more.
It's not that visitors are dim, but that visitors generally scan, not read. Because they may not be paying attention they end up clicking links like chickens on corn.
Well, they can read well enough to navigate the site and click the ads...
Unless you are talking about Sponsered Links bolding the sponsored link thing, it's not gonna make much more difference the "ads by google".
You know, the web these days is totally INUNDATED with ads. Ads are a part of just about every website on the web. It does not take long at all for the average person to get "tricked" a time or two before the become very aware of what is or is not an ad. I know 8 year olds that can instantly tell you what is an ad an whats not.
Anyway, it seems google knows this too and made the accidental click "easier" to happen by introducing "link units". Those things really look like a menu bar...
I remember the first time I used them, got a huge jump in revenue for a day or two, till all my readers realized it was ads. I pulled most of em because of that.
But the point being, if readers can quickly determine a "link unit" is an ad, how much more so for a google block that already says "Ads by Google?".
I really think you are getting the feeling that your readers are "dim" like I said earlier, when in fact they really aren't. Just ask anyone in your family while sitting at a computer, "what on this page is an ad and what is not". Most people today know the difference almost instantly IMHO.
I really think you are getting the feeling that your readers are "dim" like I said earlier...
I posted that web visitors are not dim, and somehow my words convinced you I am thinking the opposite? Hmm... how did that happen? ;) Sorry, no disrespect, but that's kind of funny. :)
I believe you may be missing my point. People on the web tend to scan not read a page. If you sit them down and ask them to hunt for ads, that's not scanning, and it's completely different from how those same people read a web page when on their own.
YES, you can sit someone down and tell them to spot the ads, but that is not how they ordinarily approach a web page. It's like the difference between the way you normally drive a car on the freeway, and the way you drive when there's a highway patrol car behind you.
This is why web publishing has different page layout conventions than print publishing. Good web pages are generally delivered in small chunks with lots of BOLD TITLES to indicate what a paragraph is about-in order to facilitate the scanning process. There are hot spots on pages where a web visitor will quickly scan the page and leave if they don't quickly find their info. If you are unfamiliar with this phenomenom and not designing for it, then you are missing out on one of the most basic aspects of web life.
GP's highlighting of the advertising component of his ads facilitates the scanning process. When scanning you overlook little things like "Ads by Google," especially when the ad contains the exact information you're looking for.
So if you're searching for Wire Train MP3s, click on the SERP listing to the web page, and are immediately confronted with the same words:
Wire Train MP3 Downloads
It's going to result in a click.
Click!
But it may not be what you were looking for, and you back out of the advertiser's web page fast. By highlighting the ads from above with the words, Sponsored Listings, you are making it less likely that someone who is scanning a web page will unknowingly click through on an ad.
For example: ive not got a chat room on my site and they may read quickly without looking closely at the 'ads by google' on the right or left corner of my ads, they click 'chat now for free' and find themselves on a totaly different Domain name, knowing too well they should be at my domain name.. and click the back button.
What happens to me as a publisher? I'm peanlised and smartpricing lowers my earnings based on click backs for example turning over bad conversions.
Now if people read that it's "sponsored links" in the box then it's likely that they'll never visit the ads accidently while trying to surf my pages, but when they want to try them out they may freely and more knowingly click my ads and convert nicely for the advertiser, this raising the competition and increasing click value.
So let's see my earnings are up as expected today (funny huh), I'm near my daily value at half my clicks .. so i'm looking to see a double income per day soon, and then hopefuly twice that.. and then eventualy i should be on 500-1000$day again.
Not got it yet? A new concept for Publishers, adsense isn't about clicks it's about conversions think Cost per Action as an advertiser do you really want to pay for people to click your ads or to convert into a registered member/ sale / search?
Investigation: look into large sites for the advertising / sponsored links test on their ads.. surely if it was a 'bad thing' they'd refrain from using it, they obviously don't feel the need for invalid accidental clicks, as I don't want either!.
Regards,
GP.
