Forum Moderators: martinibuster

Message Too Old, No Replies

Multiple Ads - What's the Verdict?

After 2 weeks, how is it working for you?

         

alika

5:55 pm on Sep 15, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



It's been two weeks now since the multiple ad format was introduced. For our sites, some of the metrics are up, while some are down:

UP: revenues & CTR
DOWN: EPC (-16.3%) & EPM (-12.7%)

A bit concerned with the decrease of EPM and EPC, but as long as the revenues continue to increase compared to the previous month, we are sticking with the multiple ad format as of now. We're going to evaluate the metrics by end of the month to really see its benefits on our sites.

How is it doing on your sites? There is an active thread of people who haven't implemented the multiple ad format saying that their metrics are down. So it would be interesting to find out how this new feature is affecting other publishers.

Swien

3:37 am on Sep 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Interesting point.

Actually there's so many cases out there where the low-paying ad in a lower position working more effective. Ads in a higher position are not necessarily perform well in content pages.

Although it's a responsibility of publisher to consider the ad priority and put the units in appropriate position, those situation is inevitable when the multiple ad units available, since not all the publishers are professional.

I think Google should set ad priority, not by the order in html code, but by the value of the ad units based on a number of clicks or contracts. Ad unit with high CTR / conversion rate gets high paying ads, low effect and low paying ads.

freedata

12:45 pm on Sep 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Can't agree more with drall. Very well put conclusion!
On my high EPC sites the bottonline dropped when I just added an extra ad block. I realized it immediately in 24 hours and took the second ad off. Now I am back to single ad panel but my overall EPC and earnings are down by 25% due to tripling of the overall supply in the AS network. Yestedray and today it seems like the EPC is gradually moving back upwords. Hopefully it will catchup with the original levels soon.

Jon_King

2:00 pm on Sep 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It is such a guessing game...

Page impressions are way up on my sites with multiple blocks, EPC is way down, overall revene is way down, I have no idea whether it is the reason but I have removed all multiple ad blocks. (The drop coincides with the addition of the multiple blocks.)

drall

2:19 pm on Sep 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



That is exactly what we saw freedata and we lost quite a bit of cash so I could give it a full 5 day business cycle.

If you have high epc multi ads will increase clicks but epc and total earnings for the site will tank.

If you have low end epc you will just get more low end clicks thus increasing overall earnings for the site.

If G put some way to control which unit is the priority for highest paying ad then I might benefit but I highly doubt this will happen as it will open the door to several forms of abuse down the road.

Overall rev network wide since the induction of multi ads to Gs network is down roughly 25%. Most likely because adverts are being drilled out so heavilly.

alika

3:07 pm on Sep 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Drall ... how do you define a "high EPC site?" Is it greater than $1/click or must it be greater than $5/click?

Our EPC is greater than $1, and the multiple ads caused a decrease in EPC but UNLIKE your theory, our revenues is increasing nicely. I am not seeing in our sites your theory that those with high EPC will see a tanking in revenues, while those with low EPC will see an increase in revenues. Unless of course, in your definition a greater than $1 EPC is low.

Powdork

3:32 pm on Sep 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



i haven't added any multiple ads but I did see ctr drop to below 50% of previous values. The revenue became more of an insult than an income so I removed adsense altogether. Revenue dropped even more.:(

icedowl

4:23 pm on Sep 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Yesterday I finally decided to give it a small test and see for myself how well it worked. I added it to 2% of my pages, assigning a new channel as well.

How long will I let the test run? Unknown.

drall

6:15 pm on Sep 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



hiya alika,

i define high epc as $3-4.00 plus

europeforvisitors

7:02 pm on Sep 17, 2004 (gmt 0)



i haven't added any multiple ads but I did see ctr drop to below 50% of previous values. The revenue became more of an insult than an income so I removed adsense altogether. Revenue dropped even more.:(

I haven't added multiple units, either.

My CTR and CPM have held steady--at least for now. However, I expect that I'll see a drop in the next month or so, more for seasonal reasons (I have a leisure-travel site) than because of changes in AdSense.

elguapo

1:10 pm on Sep 18, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Reading the posts here and at the other topic "Drop in CPM in September" [webmasterworld.com...] -- my learnings are as follows:

1. Even without multiple ads, many people who haven't implemented the feature see a drop in EPC & CPM. Ergo, I may not attribute any drops in my EPC or CPM automatically to multiple ads because other factors seem to be working against me.

2. The Rebates - someone in another post raised that G may have sliced our share and given it as incentives to advertisers. I don't mind as long as the "slice" (if any) is (a) temporary; and (b) the rebates will bring in more advertisers who will compete for my keywords and bring me more revenues

3. September sucks. Ok, US had a holiday weekend. Storms in the eastern part of the US. Chaos in Beslan. Did advertisers spent time watching the news instead of putting their money in Adwords?

My first post!

Jon_King

1:44 pm on Sep 18, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Welcome to WebmasterWorld elguapo!

xb00t

11:42 pm on Sep 21, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



3. September sucks. Ok, US had a holiday weekend. Storms in the eastern part of the US. Chaos in Beslan. Did advertisers spent time watching the news instead of putting their money in Adwords

Does this mean that every September is like so? Will this "low revenue" period go away?

elguapo

2:22 am on Sep 22, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



It depends on your overall traffic patterns. Many sites experience a slowdown during the summer months, (while some lucky ones see a surge). I saw a fall in Sept last year, so am not really surprised to see a slowdown again this month. But it really depends on your site.

universetoday

3:32 am on Sep 22, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Things seem to be bouncing back much faster than I'd expected they would. I've only got two ad blocks on the page, but the CTR and EPM are getting quite respectable again. I'm really tempted to go to three, but that would mean reducing an existing client.

Powdork

6:14 am on Sep 22, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Keep the client, its another basket for your eggs.

markus007

4:00 pm on Sep 22, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



The second set of ads seems to be discounted by 50%. I'm using some of the premium publisher options to force adsense to display ads on the same/similiar topic in the second ad block as the first.

ownerrim

9:49 pm on Sep 22, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



discounted by 50%? sounds like a dirty trick. I dumped the multiple panels very quickly after giving them a short trial. thus far, i've not heard much to make me believe this was not some kind of boogle. basically google getting to display its lower tier inventory at publisher's expense. seems reminiscent of websearch in that publishers trade higher paying clicks for lower paying ones. don't be evil? how about don't be a snake oil salesman.

lorenzinho2

10:35 pm on Sep 22, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



< don't be evil? how about don't be a snake oil salesman.

Hmmmm... multiple ads is working nicely for us. If this is Google being evil, I can't wait until they start being nice. Our stats are holding fast.

My sense is that if your model relies on skimming top adsense bids in narrow verticals or just a handful of key words, you may screw things up by expanding your site's adsense inventory to include lower bid ads.

But for big sites with lots of content, low ctr, and thousands of pages, multiple ads seem to be a winner.

Need3lives

1:10 am on Sep 23, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Overall rev network wide since the induction of multi ads to Gs network is down roughly 25%. Most likely because adverts are being drilled out so heavilly.

We are seeing this exactly as well. A much more noticeable drop in ECPCs and ECPMs throughout the day as the top-paying advertisers are capping out much sooner. We have not added additional ad units because we suspected exactly what you saw happen would happen, but yet overall ECPCs are still down about 23% since multiple ads were started.

It is quite obvious that current growth in supply is vastly outpacing current demand growth, and as a result prices are falling. Our sites cover a variety of topics, and for all of them, prices are down here in Sept., and like many of you, have been down almost every month since we started using AdSense.

We expect that this trend will not change any time soon as the amount of content using AdSense continues to increase. You can almost guarantee that come this time next year (heck, even perhaps by the holidays), we will all be thinking back about how great the rates used to be here in September, despite the most recent drop. I would guess Google will also be longing to see the 'good old days' back.

europeforvisitors

1:46 am on Sep 23, 2004 (gmt 0)



It is quite obvious that current growth in supply is vastly outpacing current demand growth, and as a result prices are falling.

Excess supply and falling price are by no means universal: My daily CPM and revenues have been up in September, especially in the last two weeks.

It's important to remember that the ratio of supply to demand can vary enormously from topic to topic. Everybody and his cousin may be competing for Viagra ads, but there may be a shortage of inventory for Vistula River cruises.

howiejs

3:25 am on Sep 23, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



"using some of the premium publisher options"

markus007 - please explain

Jon_King

3:28 am on Sep 23, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



>>It is quite obvious that current growth in supply is vastly outpacing current demand growth, and as a result prices are falling.

On a keyword basis this applies to some.

europeforvisitors

1:18 pm on Sep 23, 2004 (gmt 0)



On a keyword basis this applies to some.

But not to others, which means that--as usual--assumptions about general trends based on individual experience are meaningless.

bwelford

1:38 pm on Sep 23, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



A great topic.

I implemented a second ad unit on all my newsletters on my website two days ago. I have a skyscraper 4-ad unit at the top right at the start of the newsletter. The second is a 4-ad unit landscape at the bottom of the unit. I'll leave it for a little while to check results, but relate strongly to the points made here.

I note already that occasionally ads are not available for the 2nd unit or perhaps there are only two. Clearly these are the 5th and lower paying advertizers for the keyword combination. So my EPC's are bound to be lower if readers work their way all through the newsletter and then move away via an Adsense click.

I may decide to switch to a 120 x 240 2-ad first unit to improve the quality (EPC's) of the ads displayed in the second landscape unit. Then it will be the 3rd and lower paying advertizers displaying there.

icedowl

4:45 pm on Sep 23, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



One week ago I added a 4-ad leaderboard to the top of 10 pages of one of my sites. Those 10 pages now have a 4-ad skyscraper and a 4-ad leaderboard and they are tracked in separate channels. Also, the AdSense preview tool consistently shows 12 ads available for these pages.

In just 7 days the average clicks/day have risen by 15% and average earnings/day have risen by 31% since the addition of the leaderboard to <2% of my total pages.

So, based on the rise in my earnings, I tend to think the second ad is a keeper. I've yet to determine if I'll add it to more pages, but that's mostly just a matter of having spare time on my hands.

ownerrim

10:10 pm on Sep 23, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



"My sense is that if your model relies on skimming top adsense bids in narrow verticals or just a handful of key words, you may screw things up by expanding your site's adsense inventory to include lower bid ads.
But for big sites with lots of content, low ctr, and thousands of pages, multiple ads seem to be a winner."

Hmm. Good advice there. I have hundreds of pages, not thousands. Very good, fleshed out content, but fairly narrow as it relates to a very specific niche. I think that is the danger, being too reliant on the bids of a few niche advertisers. I plan to expand and insulate myself against this phenomenon, but good content production is a time consuming task.

Powdork

5:57 am on Sep 24, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I may decide to switch to a 120 x 240 2-ad first unit to improve the quality (EPC's) of the ads displayed in the second landscape unit. Then it will be the 3rd and lower paying advertizers displaying there.
You can also oput the adsense in layers and place them wherever you want in your code but also wherever you want on your page. Meaning the one that comes up at the top of the page doesn't necessarily have to be the one that gets the high paying ads.

Jon_King

3:28 pm on Sep 26, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



>>You can also oput the adsense in layers and place them wherever you want in your code...

... and some keyword text in the layer won't hurt either.

markus007

8:45 pm on Sep 26, 2004 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



using some of the premium publisher options

My site is around 300 in alexa today, once you have insane amounts of impressions google will give you a couple of more options to help target your keywords and make more money.

cyberprosper

7:00 pm on Sep 28, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



when all is said and done, I am making almost exactly 33% less than I was PER CLICK as I was last year at the same time... I have sites that run across a large variety of topics. The traffic can be considered the same "quality" and "type" as last year at this time.

I can't say I have noticed much of a difference with the extra add units spread over several sites. While I have not added them on too many sites, I think it must be a fair percentage of total page views. EPC, EPM, and revenue are all quite similar to before.

This 65 message thread spans 3 pages: 65