AdSense Site Focus: Who is your Customer?

Visitors, the AdSense Program, or Advertisers?

[mzanzig]

An interesting question that came to me a few minutes ago: Who do you see as your customer?

a) The visitor of your web site (the end consumer)?
b) The advertiser who places ads through Google on your site?
c) Google who pay you for ad space you provide to Google?

For me, I would tend to (a) - if I disappoint my visitors, the whole enterprise is doomed.

How about you?

[King_Fisher]

I see all three as customers.

They might have variable values, but the three
added together equals your customer(s)

Ignore one or more puts your monetization in jeopardy.

[ronin]

The advertisers who pay to use the available advertising estate on my site are my customers. Thus, in this case, Google is my customer.

However my site is, in the first instance, written with my readers in mind. My customers come second to my readers.

If I ever have to choose between them, I will tell the customer to go hang. As long as I keep writing the site for readers, there will be more customers around the next corner.

[netmeg]

A) and only A). My main site and most of my other ones existed long before there was an AdSense, and they will continue to exist if AdSense (and all other web advertising programs) go away.

[gendude]

a) The visitor of your web site (the end consumer)?
b) The advertiser who places ads through Google on your site?
c) Google who pay you for ad space you provide to Google?

Like everybody else "a" (for the most part), but really it's all three when you get down to it.

I've bought quite a few usability books, as well as studied quite a few sites (hundreds), and basically I try to create sites that accomplish the following for visitors:

1) Easy to navigate
2) Provide lots of relevant content
3) Make it easy for people to find the products they are after, for sale (ads)

I believe if you focuse on usability, you help out the visitor of your site, as well as the Google bots (whether they be Google.com proper or the Google Adbots) in their indexing.

I believe if you provide lots of relevant content, and make it easy for people to buy the product (AdSense, Chitika, Amazon, tc.), then you help the advertiser.

[Hobbs]

Allow me to rephrase the question to be able to answer properly, I want to swap the word 'customer' with 'priority'.

And the answer is whoever is suffering most jumps to become my top priority till thing level up again.

When I first started my site, in the design and planning stage, (a) the visitors where the top priority, when my site was launched and growing traffic was at hand (c) Google and other search engines was my priority, when AdSense came along, (b) the advertiser took precedence.

Right now it is a balance, the ideal answer is (a) the visitors, but when the money suffers, I'll give b & c more of my time, when it is time to pay school or rent .. (d) my family is my priority.

So it all depends on when you are asking.

[adessa]

1. Of course you have to please the Advertisers first and foremost. No advertisers no Adsense. They have to love your website. Remember, they can block ugly sites.
2. Then you have to play within the rules of the game. Google.
3. Visitors comes last. Why? What the advertisers want are great websites, so does the rules and TOS in google.

[RonPK]

adessa, have you considered that advertisers might not like sites with no visitors?

[trannack]

I would argue that all three are equally as important. If you have bothered to place adsense on your page it is with the intent of making money from your visitors exiting your site. No visit - no exit. If you didn't want or need that additional revenue - you wouldn't have placed the ads there in the first place. If you don't want your sdite to look rubbish - it is important to keep the adverts focussed and relative to your users expectations. Therefore - if you have monetized - all three are equally relevant. No one of the three can exist without the other.

[netmeg]

No one of the three can exist without the other.

Most of my sites existed before there was a Google, or the advertisers. The money is nice, but it's not the prime directive.

[kartiksh]

I see all three as my customers, considering I have the solution for all of them but their need is different. However I focus on “type A” as my first priority customers and then B and C because if I loose type A customer I will automatically loose both later however its not the case if I loose type B and C and type A will allow me to find Type D for my needs.

[trannack]

"The money is nice, but it's not the prime directive."

I whole-heartedly agree. But now you have it, if your site was for blue widgets, it would demain your site to display ads for pornogrphic material - as is happening to a current publisher - would it not? Therefore, now you have monetised, it is important to maintain a certain level of professionalism, and with that comes keeping your advertising medium "happy". Therefore, ~IMO, the three go hand in hand.

[Hobbs]

You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you

Think of the above the next time you think of your site visitors, traffic, coverson, ctr .. That will set your priorities right, and if you play your cards right, you might surprise yourself with how well things can go.

[Erku]

Certainly A

[swa66]

A: for sure: it's the only long term goal

B: is GOOG's customer, not mine, as a matter of fact if I look at my banned list there are quite a few I don't even want as customer. I wish I could be more far more selective in who's in there. If they were mine I'd need more control over who they are.

C: might be a short term goal to keep them happy, but the sites have been around since before them so there is no absolute need to have them, I can always go back if needed (it'll reduce profits, but not far enough to make me loose money on the sites.)

[europeforvisitors]

I focus on providing information of value to my readers. If I do that successfully--and earn their trust by doing so--some of those readers will become customers of my advertisers and affiliate partners.

[ronin]

I am genuinely startled by how many publishers appear to regard their readers as their "customers".

I agree with everyone who puts their readers first before all other parties - but unless you are running your publication on a subscription-based model, the readership cannot be described as "the customer" in any real sense, can it?

[europeforvisitors]

unless you are running your publication on a subscription-based model, the readership cannot be described as "the customer" in any real sense, can it?

Not according to the usual definition of a "customer."

[fearlessrick]

This thread is nonsense. Anybody who has a site of any value put it up to attract a readership first. Everything else follows. That's publshing 101. Anyone who doesn't have a rudimentary grasp of that most basic concept should really consider doing something else.

Why bother discussing the obvious?

Actually, there is an answer, by comparison and for competitive advantage. In the real business world, the leaders of a particular industry rarely want a monopoly. They'd rather have competitors around by which they can be measured, ones which make them look better.

So, if there are people out there who don't understand what they're doing, all the better for those who do.

Carry on.

[old_expat]

a) The visitor of your web site (the end consumer)?
b) The advertiser who places ads through Google on your site?
c) Google who pay you for ad space you provide to Google?

Many of my sites have 2 sources of monetization, but even if Adsense was my only source of income, I would say the visitor .. 99%

The visitor is the one who clicks the ads, they return to the site and click more ads.

Google does not actually pay for space. They pay for clicks .. and the visitor clicks.

While Google and the advertiser may be important to me, my focus must be on the user.

[inactivist]

I've asked myself the same question about traditional publishing ventures (newspapers, magazines)...

Who is the customer of, say, a popular car magazine. It all depends on who you talk to, but in the end, subscribers, newsstand purchasers, and advertisers are all customers because the publication is 'selling' something to each, and each must be satisfied in order for the venture to remain viable.

Depending on a site's purpose and intended audience, it can be the reader alone, or the advertiser and the reader! But never, just the advertiser, IMO.

[Hobbs]

Here's a real life analogy, vegetarians make your own!

Farmer ------------- Publisher
Sheep ------------- Traffic
Green Pastures ----- Content
Big bad wolf -------- MFA
End Consumer ------ Advertiser
Farmer's market ---- Google

So is the publisher raising sheep and feeding them content while the Advertisers are sipping cappuccino at the farmer's market? Or the Big bad wolf ready to pounce and bite your visitors? Hmmm this calls for more thought...

[moTi]

funny, that customer question came to my mind once again just yesterday.

surprisingly, google didn't play that much of a role in my considerations. to be sure, they are the ones that pay out the money - but as long as you have a solid website and play by the rules, they rather stay in the background as your ad broker - aside from serp ranking and optimization aspects, which is another issue. furthermore, adsense is extremely important, but one can also deal with other programs if needed or with the advertisers directly.

i've found out that i have changed my perspective in the last years, namely from a) visitor to b) advertiser.

the reason is, that i deliver fresh content in a continual manner, i'm pretty stable with traffic and market share with my established sites and i came to know my visitors better since those years. now the focus turns more and more to the advertiser.

the limiting factor is time. time management is a big task for me. so, what i want to address is that if you work hard for years, hardly any spare time, you question your unconditional user orientation. after all, you work your a$$ off while they consume your content for free - no matter if they click on an ad or buy anything from your advertising partners. they pay you attention, they don't pay you money - only indirectly.
for sure, readers keep your site going - but if you got free content, one time or another you have to put aside your user subjection at least a little bit to actually live.

[horisly]

A, of cause!

[lorylxw]

I choose A.

Because without these users, we can't get any clicks

[java_bin]

Certainly A

[ronin]

Almost everyone is agreeing that "A" is the most important demographic to consider.

No doubt.

But that still does not make "A" the customer.

The customer is the person who pays for a service.

Perhaps we have established that online publications are not operated in the first instance for their customers?

Therefore ours is one of the few industries where the customer is not the most important consideration.

[europeforvisitors]

Perhaps we have established that online publications are not operated in the first instance for their customers?

Therefore ours is one of the few industries where the customer is not the most important consideration.

Along with:

- Advertising-supported TV broadcasting.
- Advertising-supported radio broadcasting.
- Free newspapers.
- Free magazines.
- Any other free media that I might have overlooked.

[soleil84]

definatelly a)

[seunosewa]

a) The website visitors are more or less the product - their attention is what I'm selling.

b) The advertisers whose ads appear on my website are my customers. They are the ones who buy my traffic.

c) Google is the agent that pays me on behalf of my customers. So they collect a commission.

As a business, do you put your product first? Or do you put your customer first? Without a customer, the product is useless. Without a product, there will be no customers. In that respect, it seems like a rather silly question! Both are absolutely 100% important!