placement ads lower ecpm

recent increase in placement numbers

[leadegroot]

The last couple of days has seen the ecpm on a site drop around 15% - it had been quite constant.
Analysing the stats I can see that the placement-based ads are up 600%. I assume someone has 'discovered' the site.
When I run the report for a sample channel I can see that the ad ecpm for the placement ads is around 15cents, compared to $3 - 5 for contextual ads (it varies over time) in the same block (figures slightly obfusticated, but indicative). Obviously there is a massive difference here.

I am unsure how to counter this.

Unfortunately I have no idea who the advertiser is, or I would just block them :( and I suppose its possible its multiple advertisers.
Any suggestions are welcome

[Atomic]

I looked back at my stats from the beginning and every site I manage AdSense for shows a pathetic CTR for placement ads. So not only is the ecpm low, but no one clicks them anyway. So placement ads are nothing but dead weight taking up space on my pages.

[leadegroot]

Its scary isn't it? I have noticed that placement ads seem to have a woeful ctr, but hadn't worried about it because my placement % was tiny.

I guess it shows the power of The Algo - people can go 'look! Widget site! I'll put my ad there!' but in fact we are very poor pickers of what sort of site will pull people through an ad.
Affiliate ads are the same, at least on the site in question. Products I think will be bang on target just aren't whereas products I think I may as well try, figuring it can't hurt, do adequately
(Its a site that really only monetises well with Adsense).

I wonder how the placement algorithm actually works? Does it just ensure that the requested ads are 'in the pool' and they must still compete on price and ctr? Or does it give them a boost in publication probability?
I guess my OP above is pointing to option B :(

[leadegroot]

I've turned off targeting for the channel that seems the worst hit - we'll see if it makes any difference (I suspect not as I don't think it will stop advertisers already targeting me.)

[Atomic]

I've never turned mine on and I still get placement targeted ads. How are you able to turn them off for a single channel?

I went through each and every channel and not one is checked to "Show this channel to advertisers as an ad placement." Nor have they ever been. KInd of makes you wonder what's up with that.

[leadegroot]

I had it turned on for some channels, but now have turned it off.

And looking deeper, it is one channel that is the source of the problem, so I have changed that part of the site to a new channel (and haven't marked it for targeting! Ha!)

But, yes, you have to wonder - this is a brand new channel which I created not 2 hours ago, and already I have one placement page view on it - on a Saturday afternoon.
If they are targeting my site, then surely the channels shouldn't show placement, because they didn't target it.
And if I am correct that it seems unreasonable that people are finding new channels on my site in non business hours... why is Google showing ads against them?
:plays twilight zone theme: :(

[zett]

I have turned off CPM ads altogether, and am still seeing an almost unchanged number of placement targeted ads. Apparently there is an option for advertisers to target "topics" or "themes" with their CPM crap and these get through to a site despite CPM being turned off.

As this is another point to show how useless some of the processes are at Google (Opting Out? Does not work.), I refrain from contacting customer service again (for reasons, see related customer service quality thread). Who knows what they do wrong the next time I contact them?

[bumpski]

Perhaps the title should have been Placement Targeted Ads drastically lower eCPM; Have you seen the thread;
[webmasterworld.com...]

A percentage of the Placement Targeted Ads apparently have a ridiculously low eCPM 0 (zero)!

If you have URL channels for single pages with lower traffic, zero eCPM is very easy to see. I can't say I mind eCPM's of $1.00 or $2 or $3, BUT, 0 ?

[leadegroot]

Yes, that would have been a good title :)

and I have just checked my stats and dammit! They are back targeting a brand new channel! :(

I have always had a low ECPM on placement ads on this site (see: [webmasterworld.com...] ) but in the past it hasn't mattered, just left me confused, because the numbers were so low. Now it does matter - the numbers are rising to a significant percentage.

I wonder if the answer is to reject everything in the adsense review centre? Of course, they don't tell you which site the ad is targeting, so thats going to be cross site...