Forum Moderators: martinibuster
For my sites I noticed the following shifts with regards to placement targeted CPM ads:
from 09/2005 to 05/2006, eCPM from CPM ads was WAY BELOW the eCPM for PPC ads (site wide)
from 06/2006 to 09/2006, eCPM from CPM ads was SLIGHTLY BETTER than PPC ads
from 10/2006 to 12/2007, eCPM from CPM ads was WAY BETTER than PPC ads
from 01/2008 to 04/2008, eCPM from CPM ads was SLIGHTLY BETTER than PPC ads
And now, in May 2008, eCPM from CPM ads is WAY BELOW the eCPM for PPC ads! - In other words: the program worked as designed for about two years, and appears to be broken now.
As I write this, I see an eCPM discount for CPM ads of 50% - which is not funny. Having said that, I realize that CPM ads represent less than 0.3% of all ads displayed on my sites, but as I do not know in which spots these ads appear (is there a way to distinguish a CPM ad from other ads?), it could well be that they occupy otherwise well paying spots now.
Any recommendations on what to do?
I am inclined to opt-out of placement targeted ads, but would like to hear your opinion on this before requesting this.
Disclaimer: My sites, folks, my sites!
When my eCPM numbers for targeted ads drop they get almost no actual impressions.
I'd recommend using the new Ad Review system rather than dropping out of the targeted ads. Targeted ads seem to prop up the value (EPC) of PPC ads, even if the CPM ads get few if any impressions.
At least that's been my experience. Over the last 2-3 years I've done several tests of this using over 100,000 pageviews at a time. Bigger numbers, or testing on multiple sites might show a different results of course.
We do track values for CPM and PPC ads separately, in terms of impressions, clicks, and revenue. So I am confident that this data is from "actual impressions". Then we calculate the real eCPM for us. After a period of good performance (at times the eCPM from CPM ads was 4x the value of PPC ads), we now experience a period of under-performance (we get HALF of what we get for PPC).
I have used the ad review center, and the ads ARE fairly relevant, also coming from some bigger brands.
I could convince me to ignore those 0.3% of ads that bring in nothing, but then again, it does annoy me that the program silently has switched from "good performance" and "working as promised" to "underperforming" and "not working as promised".
I've noticed an interesting pattern on my site. I only get placement-targeted ads appearing on one particular channel, and on THAT channel, they are paying considerably better than the CPC ads--though compared to the site as a whole, they aren't paying as well.
YMMV, of course.
How do you know that the targeted ads aren't appearing on pages where the PPC ads are low-paying?
purplecape, you are right. I do not know that.
My point is that for two years the average eCPM from CPM ads was better than or on par with the average eCPM from PPC. Heck, at one point CPM ads made up to 8% of the overall Adsense revenue. For once, I was satisfied with this product.
But now - I just don't understand why they turned back the dial (if they did). Interestingly enough, the eCPM drop for CPM ads began with the introduction of Adreview center (or whatever its name is).
If I were you I'd leave targeting on, because even if you aren't making much money from it directly, you may be making money indirectly as targeted ads are in the mix, pushing up the level at which CPC ads must compete. Also, you never know when targeting might again become a significant source of earnings....
Of course, you could try turning it off for a couple of weeks to see what would happen.
