Interest Based Ads - Are They Live Now?

Rumor was that April 8th or 9th they would go live?

[maximillianos]

I was wondering why there was not a new topic on this, since today seems to be the "go-live" date of the interest based ads.

Anyone have results to report?

Our eCPM is up about 25% today so far. Could be coincidence...

[Lame_Wolf]

mine is about 75% down. I am looking at withdrawning from adsense and looking for alternatives.

[LifeinAsia]

Stats are in the toilet this morning. We opted out of interest based ads. May consider opting back in if today stays down and see what tomorrow looks like.

[netmeg]

That's not much of a test, either way.

I'm opted in as a publisher and a user, and I haven't seen anything different in recent performance or in ads.

[maximillianos]

Yeah, I was just curious what others were seeing. Our eCPM can fluctuate a great deal during any given day... So I'm not reading too much into yet either.

But we did leave the interest based ads enabled on our site(s) we we'll see. We have pretty steady earnings from day to day, so if there is any substantial change we should notice it within a few days, or by next week.

[marcus11]

I'm liking the results so far, CPM up 30% today. Usually CPM not as high as we're seeing today. Would love this to be the new norm!

[ranjitbhar]

I feel its too early to speculate, give it a week or so..... then we can have an better idea.

[frakilk]

CPM much lower than usual today. I'm going to give it a week before deciding whether to disable interest-based advertising or not.

[freejung]

There's not nearly enough data to draw any conclusions yet, but my stats are not currently looking significantly different for today.

[himalayaswater]

How do you know CMP is up? Is there any report in account?

[maximillianos]

How do you know CMP is up? Is there any report in account?

Google lists your "eCPM" in your reports.

[alephh]

CTR+eCPM up 10%-20% today.

But it's also Easter weekend, many people using the long weekend to travel somewhere - so they are away from computers.

So I'm not too eager to react just yet ;-)

[mysticalsock]

Have interest based ads been rolled out to all publishers today or just a select few? Not seeing any difference here in either earnings or ads shown.

[himalayaswater]

Thanks for pointing out eCMP report info. I will check it out later on. A few hours ago I was searching for backup hard disk for my Mac book and now all other sites, I see ads related to backup servers, backup account, free backup trial, backup white papers, top 10 backup devices (spam ads too with links to .info domains) and so on... it is really funny. Now, I want to click on all those ads. Some ads are really colorful and some flash ads comes with super models encouraging backup devices ;)

[netchicken1]

My ecpm was up on the 8th back to normal on the 9th.

The interest based adverts may lead to higher income if you get adverts that pay higher than your usual adverts.

Definitively not the time yet to make any decisions on it.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Just to clarify, today we're beginning a limited beta. I can't give you specifics on its scope, but I can tell you that right now interest-based advertising is only open to a very small number of advertisers.

Statistically speaking, few if any of the folks on this thread have been served ads targeted through interest-based advertising yet. Those who have probably wouldn't see a noticeable affect on today's earnings.

I think it's important to stress that interest-based advertising is a long-term investment. Over time, we plan to offer it as a solution to more advertisers, and the net effects should be positive for advertisers, publishers, and users. You're not going to see a sudden, dramatic effect on earnings, but over time, most publishers will feel the benefits.

There are a lot of levers you can pull that can help your earnings (optimizing your site's ad placements, using Google Webmaster Tools, analyzing the performance of your channels, etc). But doing something like opting out of interest-based advertising won't do anything in the short term, and in the longer term, you'll probably lose out on revenue opportunities.

ASA

[dataguy]

Thanks for the info, ASA.

[ken_b]

But doing something like opting out of interest-based advertising won't do anything in the short term, and in the longer term, you'll probably lose out on revenue opportunities.

I can live with the lower income. In fact this program has me actually thinking about pulling AdSense off my site entirely. The money is good, but still, I so dislike the idea of ads that stalk surfers that I'm seriously looking for alternatives and/or trying to decide if I'm willing to just give up the cash.

I especially dislike the idea that I can't stop G from showing these d... ads [google.com] on my site (unless I drop out of the AdSense program completely).

Even if you choose to opt out of displaying ads based on interest categories, your site(s) will continue to show ads based on user interactions with an advertiser, such as visits to advertiser sites.

At least I can supposedly stop them from using info gathered on my site to decide which ads to show my visitors on the ext site they go to.

[Scurramunga]

I have taken a pro-active approach and switched it off. Without any control over the ads being displayed, I'm not taking chances. It's hard enough to know which ads are displaying for different visitor ips when ads are content targeted and on topic

You're not going to see a sudden, dramatic effect on earnings, but over time, most publishers will feel the benefits.

Some time back Chitika turned to ( a behavioral ) form of ad display and from what I have heard, many publishers lost out when they changed over.

Kudos to Google for allowing us to make our own choices by opting out(they'd be shooting they didn't. I am sure some publishers may benefit from this depending on the their visitor makeup. However I do know that I am not one of those 'suited' publishers.

[edited by: Scurramunga at 10:48 pm (utc) on April 9, 2009]

[Scurramunga]

opting out of interest-based advertising won't do anything in the short term, and in the longer term, you'll probably lose out on revenue opportunities

If some of the other past programs (eg referrals, video ads) are anything to go by. I'd have to say (with all due respect): Sorry, but I dont think so

[thinker]

Historical programs may not necessarily be a good indicator of the success of this interest based advertising. I think the success thereof will depend on the type of publisher.

With so many factors involved, it is unlikely to be a generalized good or bad feature. Like all options in the AdSense program, it will require testing on individual sites to see if it is beneficial?

I'm not taking anyone's word for it, including G's.

[Chris_R]

Historical programs may not necessarily be a good indicator of the success of this interest based advertising.

I tend to agree - Google spent $3.7 billion on DoubleClick. I don't think they would have spent that type of cash without seeing an advantage. It isn't like YouTUbe or something else that had a potential revenue stream - its model IS a revenue stream.

If you have advertisers wanting branding - and willing to pay X amount of money for display ads - it is only natural they'd be willing to pay more for better targeted display ads. This is very scalable, unlike referrals.

[eeek]

Stats are in the toilet this morning.

I think they were stuck. Mine took a huge jump just a little while ago and I'm doing much better than usual now.

[jmccormac]

Well the Adsense revenue seemed to be following the classic Holiday pattern with revenue falling towards the end of the day. It is the Easter holiday here so it is the beginning of a very long weekend. Not sure if the interest based ads are showing yet.

Regards...jmcc