Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Many of my pages suffer from "goodness" syndrome: so interesting and engaging in content that no matter what I do, CTR won't improve (ad quality/eCPM not half bad either.) :)
Many of my pages suffer from "goodness" syndrome: so interesting and engaging in content
Are your pages about commercial products, goods or services?
If not, that can cause low CTR.
If product oriented, then perhaps you need to rewrite a little to whip people into a buying frenzy and perhaps put affiliates on as well.
Are your pages about commercial products, goods or services?
Thanks, that's what I figured as well. Those pages are informative in an educational/fun way, not really commercial in nature (no reviews or guides.)
Whatever clicks I do get have good CPC, etc and even the relevant ads are quite interesting and appropriate (not commercial but leading to other similar themed quality sites).
I just wanted to know what is considered an unacceptable CTR generally.
"it depends"
That part is right. Essentially it's a personal valued judgement. You can have low CTR but very high EPC, someone else can have very high CTR but only $0.01 per click.
At the end of the day, I believe the answer for me is:
"Has this now, on a net weekly basis, reached a point where I can use that AdSense real estate more profitably with some other convenient alternative?"
Only you can answer that. I know of people who have pulled the plug on AdSense because it fell below expectations yet they had no ready replacement.
Disappointment is one thing, throwing money away is another. I'm not referring to people closing sites down entirely because costs exceed revenue.
As an extreme example, if my sites cost me nothing to run and I had no ready comparable or better replacement, I'd keep it. Even if I was only going to see an annual payment of $100 from AdSense.
Over at Amazon there are people who won't participate in the foreign programmes. Sure it doesn't suit everyone but it does for me. I get cheques every other pancake day from France, Germany and UK.
Money I would never have previously had in return for about an hours work 10 years or whatever back when. It's my personal pin money and I do spend it on myself and on something I might not ordinarily buy.
[PS] The unprecedented AdSense EPC dive for me yesterday had AdSense potentially hanging by a thread. Today the exact opposite and overall, comparable with twelve months ago.
Has this now, on a net weekly basis, reached a point where I can use that AdSense real estate more profitably with some other convenient alternative?
That's very true. As I lack alternatives for the said pages, I guess the 'bottomline' shouldn't be a concern for me.
However, could my overall AdSense account performance suffer from these pages returning such low performance? Can consistent low CTR for some pages/channels be judged by AdSense as "low conversion?", thus impacting my overall account performance? Or is it site-wide or individual?
pancake day
What is pacake day?
Back on topic.
Some pages might have very low CTR but very high EPC/eCPM, so yes, it's a mtter of preference.
And then you have to add in some consideration for pageviews. On high volume pages even a low CTR and modest EPC can add up to decent money, and if you have enough of those pages it can add up to a decent income or more.
What is pacake day?(sic)
What is pacake day?
(sic)
Shrove Tuesday
One of my old mum's favourite expressions along with:
Q: What's for dinnier mum?
A: Bread and duck under the table.
When I was a real little kid 60+ years ago and that exchange went on with my mum and older brothers, I was silly enough to look under the table for the duck dinner.
back to topic... when my CTR drops for certain pages... I found if I just change my ad block to a small size my CTR seems to improve... for awhile at least...
quality does not equal profits
My nephew writes quality high brow poetry, he's in the publishing industry, well regarded.
However, he'd be broke in a New York minute if he did it for AdSense income.
AdSense doesn't address all content evenly, it's consumer oriented.
Some topics are just not as profitable as others. Why put ads on pages that bring in little money? To me, just cheapens the site. I take the low-paying pages, take ads off and instead create lots of cross-linking from the pages that bring in a lot of visitors to pages that pay well.
Generally I pull if I see low eCPM numbers. This group was $0.25 eCPM and about same CTR of 0.30%.
With informational sites you probably getting a lot of repeat visits which adds to ad blindness. Changes will catch people's attention.
With informational sites you probably getting a lot of repeat visits which adds to ad blindness
My experience as well. OTOH for such informational sites, having a good affiliate programme such as Amazon, can be a boon simply because when your "appreciative regulars" who want to buy from Amazon, will often do so via your site.
Can't think right now, but I sold some stuff yesterday not even remotely connected with my sites topics.
Can't think right now, but I sold some stuff yesterday not even remotely connected with my sites topics.
One of the nice things about using Amazon on an informational site is that you can actually solicit custom. If people like your site they respond well to being told that Amazon are paying for it and come back specifically to make purchases.
I use Adsense as well but that is very much the icing on the cake.
However, could my overall AdSense account performance suffer from these pages returning such low performance? Can consistent low CTR for some pages/channels be judged by AdSense as "low conversion?", thus impacting my overall account performance? Or is it site-wide or individual?
