Major brands are down

Less and less major brands advertise on AdSense

[Johan007]

I am seeing less and less major brands advertise on AdSense on my film site in the last 6 months. Are major brands ignoring Adsense or is it all to do with seasonal budgets? There used to be at least 2 film trailers a week.

Is the quality of Adsense ads related to PR value because we have been down a point?

[edited by: Johan007 at 4:14 pm (utc) on Feb. 21, 2008]

[potentialgeek]

Well, you're talking about only one site in only one industry. In my industry there are Fortune 500 companies that advertise using Adsense year round and others only during an ad campaign.

It's all about proof/perception of value.

p/g

[jomaxx]

It's a pretty slow period for films. As you must be aware, the biggest openings are usually in summer and in the pre-Christmas period.

I doubt very much that PageRank is used by AdSense for any purpose. Conceivably advertisers might look at your home page's PR when making decisions about site-targeted campaigns, but I'd be surprised if there was really any detectable effect from that.

[Johan007]

Yeah thats what I thought.

[europeforvisitors]

Well, you're talking about only one site in only one industry. In my industry there are Fortune 500 companies that advertise using Adsense year round and others only during an ad campaign.

In the market that I study most closely, big advertisers seem to be spending more money on display ads than on search ads. At least, that's where the growth seems to be. This shouldn't be too surprising: An advertiser that shifts ad dollars from glossy magazines and newspapers to the Web isn't likely to be changing its overall advertising strategy. If the Elbonian National Tourist Board, Widget Cola, or Vroom Motors is trying to build awareness and to sell the sizzle along with the steak, display ads are likely to be more productive than text ads. (Which isn't to say that text ads aren't appropriate for special promotions, dealer ads, etc.)

[dibbern2]

I know I'm beating a tired topic, but this could be another example of trust factor at work

[Leva]

Most film trailers are site targeted. I am seeing a few on my site, though not as many as there were during the Holidays. It's a slow period for films. It'll pick up a few months before the summer blockbuster season.

Also, I suspect the writer's strike may be a factor as far as ads go. There were a lot of projects put on hold due to uncertainty about their future. At least one major project was completely canceled and I know studios were worried about others. The strike's over, and business seems to be getting back to normal, for now.

I love seeing the trailers on my site -- my readers like to watch them and there's great click thru on them. I can always tell when we're being targeted with a campaign because CTR and $$$ goes up.

-- Leva

[Phrost]

I've been seeing plenty of site-targeted/CPM Film and TV ads on my sites lately.

Heck, I wish I could do CPM-only through AdSense and fill the PPC slots with house ads.

[Edge]

I think that "Major Brands" needs some clarification or a definition. In my webspace, I would call "Major Brands" Billion dollar companies, and they have been advertising less on AdSense. However, the "Major Brands" are advertising more on my site by purchasing ads directly from me though..

[MikeNoLastName]

We still see a lot of major events oriented on our regional travel site, but they are usually relegated to the lowest paying pages as their low PPI rates simply can't compete with our CPM rate on the better pages, and of course their CTR is near 0%. If you abg CPM has risen over that period, this could be one reason they have gone down.

"I doubt very much that PageRank is used by AdSense for any purpose."

Heh, don't bet on it! Maybe not PR in particular, but I would almost guarantee from experience some other very closely related stats accessable to G, and the public, are used extensively for smart pricing.

[Johan007]

"....very closely related stats accessable to G, and the public, are used extensively for smart pricing. "

Yes I agree and I see major brands such as BBC and movie companies advertise on my HOME page but this does not filter down to any other pages!

[edited by: Johan007 at 12:30 pm (utc) on Mar. 1, 2008]

[europeforvisitors]

Yes I agree and I see major brands such as BBC and movie companies advertise on my HOME page but this does not filter down to any other pages!

Anecdotal evidence is always iffy, and the moderators don't like it when we talk about specifics, but I browsed around my site just now, and I saw AdSense ads for a number of major brands on "inside pages"--including a major international airline and two cruise lines. Those were contextual ads that fit the topics of the pages where I saw the ads.

If you're seeing more name-brand ads on your home page than on inside pages, maybe it's simply because there aren't any name-brand contextual ads that are matched to the AdSense-targeted keywords on those inside pages.

Also, the presence of "major brand" ads may or may not be significant in terms of revenue. Publishers have often complained about low-paying eBay ads, and I suspect that the ads for high-volume, target-a-million-keywords advertisers like Orbitz and Expedia don't pay as well as ads by small specialist businesses that target more selectively. That stands to reason: A travel agent who's targeting the name of a luxury cruise line (and who's collecting a 10% commission on each four- or five-figure sale) probably has a higher ROI on each click than the agent who's collecting five-dollar service charges on airline tickets.

[Johan007]

It's just MY site is so narrow in scope. It is all about movies. I am just guessing movie PR companies are not going to put in the effort to target there ads to every movie releases!

I think I need to let AdSense know to target general "movies" rather than each film title. Anyone know how I could do this?

[edited by: Johan007 at 12:34 pm (utc) on Mar. 3, 2008]

[incrediBILL]

I find this an interesting thread because in my niche the major brands would typically get fewer clicks than Brand X that nobody knows unless they were announcing something really hot which is very rare.

On the rare occasion that I see a big brand in the ads I typically block it because that's not what people are looking for on my site, but the same ads may work well on other sites, just not mine.

[Johan007]

Bill, the difference with my sector is that large companies have the option to embed there video and video ads do much better.

[edited by: Johan007 at 9:43 am (utc) on Mar. 5, 2008]

[fearlessrick]

I have to agree with EFV. I am seeing more majors on my CPM networks (all graphical) and less in AS. My CPM earnings are now nearly on par with AS. Used to be 3-1 advantage for AS, last year 2-1, now they're almost even.

I sense a trend.