Removing ads, now down to one page

experimenting to see what happens

[Play_Bach]

With AdSense earnings down to 1/3rd of where they once were, I've decided it's time to make some changes. On my most popular site, I've decided to remove AdSense off of several hundred pages and just leave it on the single most popular page. My hunch is that there's a serious shortage of advertisers in this niche right now and so dividing up what few good advertisers remain over hundreds of pages no longer works, there simply aren't enough to go around. My hope is that this strategy works to boost earnings (though at this point, it's hard to imagine it being any worse even if it doesn't).

[edited by: Play_Bach at 3:46 pm (utc) on June 23, 2008]

[ecmedia]

I am not sure if this is the right strategy but each webmaster must test continuously. I think in your case the low ecpm is probably due to poorly targeted ads that your visitors simply do not find relevant -- it could very well be that there are still advertisers; they are just not getting on your pages.

[Play_Bach]

Thanks ecmedia. Removing the ads definitely boosted the CTR and CPM on the remaining page. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to offset the earnings lost from the hundreds of pages no longer running AdSense. I've now added about 50 pages back to see what that does.

[vordmeister]

Careful with making judgements on a small timescale of data. Would give it a good couple of weeks to find if the cost per click goes up on the remaining pages. After a day the CPC won't have adjusted.

I'm doing a similar test at the moment. One week in so far, nothing solid yet. My theory is everyone is smart priced to a degree, that smartpricing is account based, is driven by poor performing pages and messes up earnings on the best performing pages.

[martinibuster]

Did you do a section by section analysis to determine which are the highest earning sections?

Hope the one page you left ads on isn't the home page.

I'm through with performing tests at this time. I've removed ads from poor performing sections for months at a time, not for a few days or a week, in order to get the best data and it's made no difference.

Changing the ad unit sizes and adding more ad units have made a difference.

Beyond that, the way I see it, it's a mix of keywords used to access your site (a variable somewhat under your control but subject to query-demand variable that is out of your control) and advertiser competition for those keywords used to access your site.

One of my popular and important sites is currently down 30% of where I like to see it, and down about 60% from the high levels it hits at certain points in the year. That's all normal for that site.

[Play_Bach]

> Did you do a section by section analysis to determine which are the highest earning sections?

No, the site isn't really set up that way. I'm 100% sure what page gets the most AdSense action and so that's all I needed to know. So far, it's looking like this is the way to go for my site - fewer pages with AdSense, but better paying. Earnings still way off from the highs of yesteryear (oh but to be able to turn back the AdSense clock to 2005!)

[martinibuster]

>>>fewer pages with AdSense, but better paying.

That probably makes your site visitors happy.

[Play_Bach]

> and advertiser competition for those keywords used to access your site.

I think that's the big problem for my niche, not enough advertisers. I've been with AdSense since 2004 and have seen advertisers come and go. A few years back, it seemed there were a lot more advertisers jockeying for position on my sites. Nowadays, the advertiser pool seems much smaller and the clicks pay a lot less. That's why I removed AdSense from most of my pages yesterday, to try to maximize the CPC for the few advertisers I still have.

[edited by: Play_Bach at 9:25 pm (utc) on June 24, 2008]

[Play_Bach]

Oddly enough, today AdSense impressions are about where they were with several hundred pages running them, but those pages are AdSense free! More importantly, clicks have stalled and unless there's a correction coming, today will be another low earner. :-(

[edited by: Play_Bach at 3:29 am (utc) on June 25, 2008]