Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Probably a silly question to ask as you all have been through this 1000 times etc, but to me im a little worried about how im going with Adsense.
Now first off, im not into Adsense to make huge money... its there mainly to generate some extra funding to help pay for the site and hopefully be able to offer prizes to the winners of competitions.
However, at the same time I like everyone else am interested in the stats provided by Google and am wondering why I get a poor convertion ratio:
In 3 days, ive had 1148 Page Impressions and 13 Clicks - my CTR is 1.13%
I wasnt expecting huge success, but that seems poor to me and in a sense makes having them there not really worthwhile.
Some of the ads are not very specific (though I have setup channels). But whats the best way to get a users eye?
Do you blend ads into blogs? Have the images flashing on screen.... so far I have a 160x600 down the left just under my main menu, then a small 438 x 30 or something, across the bottom (Which is a waste of time now I think of it)
Just wondered if there is any encouragement etc out there to be offered. Im still reading alot on here, so may find some answers, but there is so much to get through :)
Cheers,
First, you should give Adsense time to understand your site and niche. It can take up to six weeks for targeted ads to show up. Patience, young Yedi, patience! ;-)
Second, in this climate of economic depression, many here are experiencing a significant reduction in eCPM and EPC.
Third, opinions on blending vary. If you are serious about your site, you'd probably make your ads stand out and not blend too much with the rest of the content. If you want to trick visitors into clicking, you may look into blending. But if you do so, do not be surprised if your EPC and eCPM stalls after a few weeks.
In 3 days, ive had 1148 Page Impressions and 13 Clicks - my CTR is 1.13%I wasnt expecting huge success, but that seems poor to me and in a sense makes having them there not really worthwhile.
I don't think it's possible for someone to read those stats and suggest whether it's good or bad for you. If you went out and paid for traffic and 1148 people came and saw ads which were of no interest to them, a 1% response would be pretty good.
If your site was for cancer patients and the ad on your site was for a new and proven cure for cancer, 1% response would be dismal.
Are your ads targeted to your content? Is your content targeted to your visitors? Where is your traffic coming from?
Some of the ads are not very specific (though I have setup channels).
Setting up channels has nothing to do with the topic of the ads.
But whats the best way to get a users eye?
I've found the best way to get a visitor to pay attention to ads is to have the ads match the interests of the visitors - much more effective than dressing up an irrelevant ad.
FarmBoy
However as for ad content, sometimes its related other times I think it just grabs a 'word' from the site and matches it up
i.e. Its a Baseball Gaming related website, so I talk about the rosters.... in the ads, I have links for Nurse Roster making, Shift patterns... so its as if the ad is noticing a word, but then confusing it with what it actually is related to.
People come to my site as its niche... 'niche' in the sense that we are geared towards a set community (outside of North America) so my traffic is not going to be huge or too varied...
Will be interesting to see how it develops :)
You need to test things - different placements, ad sizes, colors, blending options, until you find what works best for you. That's not an overnight process. I am STILL always testing things, and I've been in AdSense for around 5 years.
