Multiple Ads - What's the Verdict?

After 2 weeks, how is it working for you?

[alika]

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.

[FromRocky]

I installed the second set of ads on my highest earnings and traffic page last week. I also set up chanels to track the result.
Results?

1. CTR on the second set of ads is less 10% of the first set of ads. It seems there is a small decrease on the CTR of the first set.
2. EPC's are almost the same on both sets. This indicates the range of CPC on thess ads (8 ads) is very narrow or they are very competitive.
3. EPM drops 40%. Look bad.
4. Revenue increases but it is lower than the daily variation of 10%. I may get 5% as the most.

Decision?

I'm still undecided whether to remove the second set.

[jimbeetle]

I plopped a second ad unit in my footer about a month ago so it would appear at the bottom of all of my pages. Some can be quite long, thought it might generate some escape clicks.

CTR is lousy, effective CPM is lousy, but, because of the large number of impressions, the bottom line is okay, about 13% or so of total earnings. Guess I'll keep it for now.

[AZEvil]

I actually find that the second set that is placed about midway down the page in a banner format actually gets the best CTR...for my informational site. It's taking a few clicks away from the higher payout ads at the top of the page, but is making up for it via many more clicks. Ads placed at the bottom of the page get very poor CTR and pay out very little. I may remove them and see how it effects revenue. For now, I'll keep testing to see what comes up. So far, after two weeks of testing, I cannot complain.

[esllou]

I just finished a three week test on this issue and the results were alarming enough for me to pull the second ad unit yesterday. I concentrated on epc. The fact is my second ad units were getting so few clicks that the lower-paying ads down in the second ad unit shouldn't have affected so much the average epc being paid.

but it did...which showed me I was ALSO getting less for the top paying ad unit. I tried different colours and placement. I have a high-traffic site so was getting statistically significant figures after 5-7 days. Finally I switched back to one ad unit and it was like turning the tap/faucet back on. epc has gone up 220% today and am showing 60/65% of the ads I was showing before, meaning a 40% overall increase on earnings.

mind you, that is only one day of "back-to-one-ad" testing but it is good to think I may regain the exceptionally healthy epc's I was getting June-September before the multiple ad units came into existence.

as always, your mileage may vary....

[alika]

After a month, the 2nd (rectangle at bottom of article) and 3rd ad unit (wide sky at side) accounted for 10.5 percent of my clickthroughs but only 4.2 percent of my earnings for September.