Is it true that sites targetted at US, UK etc earn more than others ?

[careerskk]

Hi, this is one doubt I am having.

Does a site targeted at US (and other developed countries) earn more than those targeted at users from India, China etc. One reason I could guess is that the advertisers from US and UK could pay more than those from India, China etc.

Can someone help me with insights ?

[tangor]

Probably not the answer you're looking for but one should "follow the money". That seems the best answer for me. India and China etc. are growing economies but are not yet equal in consumer on-line dollars as the USA and UK.

[Green_Grass]

One reason I could guess is that the advertisers from US and UK could pay more than those from India, China etc.

Good guess and generally true.

[Sally Stitts]

Above, I see good, true opinions, but I do not see a direct answer to the OP's question. Let me ask it again.

In Google Webmaster Tools, if I set my "Geographic Target" to "United States", will I earn more money, or less money?

Previous advice has been to leave it blank, unless one was targeting a specific non-US country. I guess I need to try it for a few weeks, and see what happens. I can always switch back. At little cost, hopefully.

[Samanthatouch]

It's really quite simple. It does not matter what country that you target. What matters is if people that click on the ads in your pages subsequently do whatever is considered a conversion action for that ad. If your page sends more buyers to advertisers then advertisers will pay google more to advertise on your page and then Google pays you more to place their ads on your page.
The book Wealth of Nations explains it better than I can. I believe it is free on Gutenberg.

[Sally Stitts]

So, your advice for me is to read The Wealth of Nations? Do you know how thick that thing is? I prefer a little more brief, apt, direct, cogent advice.

It does not matter what country that you target.

I believe that it DOES matter - else, why the choice?

I was thinking in terms of -
- what pages get served
- what ads get served on those pages

It is THIS difference that I am concerned about.

[HuskyPup]

It is THIS difference that I am concerned about.

Personally I don't think it makes any difference. My sites are global and attract advertisers targetting their national/regional markets.

The lower cost countries attract lower value EPCs, the higher value EPCs seem to occur when an ad in its target country, mostly Europe and North America, is followed through by a visitor from its targetted market.

Is it true that sites targetted at US, UK etc earn more than others ?

I would say so but don't forget that if you do only this then you could miss out on all the lower value clicks that do add up by the end of the year.

And if you took today's miserable EPC average what would you think then?

[netmeg]

None of my high spending clients using high value CPC keywords target anything other than the US or Canada. Never have. Never will.

None of my other means of monetizing makes much of anything off any but US traffic.

[Sally Stitts]

My primary thought was to reduce impressions in India and Pakistan. I am very popular in these countries, for reasons that totally escape me. I am thinking that my stats dilution is more important than any revenue that I might receive from these countries.

I'm gonna specify US. I will wake this thread up in 1 week, and report back my findings.

And if you took today's miserable EPC average what would you think then?

I think my EPC and eCPM might rise appreciably, if I can stop serving my pages (ads) in India and Pakistan. It's too bad we can't specify the countries in which our pages are NOT served.

[farmboy]

My primary thought was to reduce impressions in India and Pakistan. I am very popular in these countries, for reasons that totally escape me.

One of my sites deals with assisting businesses to comply with a certain huge set of U.S. government regulations. It's basically useless information for someone outside the U.S.

However, I kept noticing people from India subscribing to the email newsletter that supports the site.

As a result of some investigation, I stopped sending the newsletter to those subscribers and the instances of my content being stolen and appearing on other sites dropped significantly.

So for what it's worth, that may or may not be at all related to this thread.

FarmBoy

[piatkow]

Geo targetting is to assist the placing in the SERPS. For example to tag a .com as being in the UK. As far as I know, if somebody from a different location finds your site then they get served the appropriate local ad inventory.

There is geo targetting in Adwords which says "only serve my ads in country #*$!" but that is the country of the visitor not that of the publisher.

(edit)
The profanity filter gets a bit silly at times. All I did was repeat the last letter of the alphabet, as in a well known brand of Australian lager!
(/edit)

[HuskyPup]

All I did was repeat the last letter of the alphabet

Hmmm...since when was x.x.x.x the last letter of the alphabet? :-)

[johnnie]

Generally, the wealthier nations perform better on adsense, for obvious reasons. More consumer welfare = more profit = bigger advertisement dollars.

[surfer67]

Definitely. The majority U.S companies will only target the U.S and maybe Canada. The reason is plain and simple. India and China visitors don't shop online. They're too poor. Most probably don't even have a credit card. Spending advertising dollars in India or China is only good for branding purposes. If the majority of your traffic is from these countries your epc will be very low. I would say at least 3 to 5 times lower.

[HuskyPup]

The reason is plain and simple. India and China visitors don't shop online. They're too poor. Most probably don't even have a credit card.

Wow!

What an incredible lack of knowledge you have about what's really happening in the world.

The Indian middle class alone is larger than the entire population of the USA and Canada combined with a huge, and rising, spending power. Just because they don't want to buy from US sites doesn't make them poor, does not mean they do not shop online and definitely does not mean they do not have credit cards.

BTW, it's 2010

[Leosghost]

As someone who spent an hour this very afternoon on Indian "hi-tech" fora sites looking for opinions from owners of blue ray players with MKV facility ..( I was looking on Indian sites because they are the most knowledgeable and have the largest number of actual owners of what I wished to research/buy by far ) ..I can only agree with HuskyPup..

Wow ..your lack of knowledge and evident ( polite word follows .."bias"ism ) ..is staggering ..but unfortunately not unique in either the wider world ..or amongst certain WebmasterWorld members ..:((

[edited by: Leosghost at 10:08 pm (utc) on Feb 16, 2010]

[farmboy]

Hmmm...since when was x.x.x.x the last letter of the alphabet?

Nothing is immune from budget cuts in this econom_. The last two letters are on leave until things improve.

FarmBo_

[Leosghost]

WebmasterWorld server just threw me a 500

[edited by: Leosghost at 10:09 pm (utc) on Feb 16, 2010]

[Leosghost]

WebmasterWorld server just threw me a 500 ?

[surfer67]

The Indian middle class alone is larger than the entire population of the USA and Canada

Give me a break. What do the Indian middle class earn? $1000/year? I doubt they'll be buying many Ipads. If you believe Indian shoppers account for a larger percentage of online shopping than the U.S you're living in a fantasy land. 80% of the population lives on less than $2/day.

What an incredible lack of knowledge you have about what's really happening in the world

I doubt that you've done much homework on this. India has approx. $2 billion in annual credit card volume whereas the U.S has $1 trillion. They're still almost soley using cash. China is a little higher but considering their size, the volume is puny.

[edited by: surfer67 at 3:11 am (utc) on Feb 17, 2010]

[callivert]

Above, I see good, true opinions, but I do not see a direct answer to the OP's question. Let me ask it again.
In Google Webmaster Tools, if I set my "Geographic Target" to "United States", will I earn more money, or less money?

That's not the same question at all. The OP asked about sites that "target" the US in general. There are many ways to target.

[thaidomain]

This is a very interesting subject. I have a similar predicament. My website has content regarding an Asian country. As such most visitors are from Asia. On the other hand all content is in English, and surely most visitors are English-speaking or expatriates. I left the 'targeted countries' choice blank. My feat is that if I choose for example U.S.A. as the targeted country, that the number of visitors to the site will drastically reduce. On the other hand, when monetizing content, it is maybe possible to get more visitors from the U.S.A. and therefore higher revenue. It is quite unclear for me what is the most useful approach. I would think that some users of WebmasterWorld have been thinking about this issue, but as of now, all the replies seem to just talk around it. Surely, someone out there must want to reveal his experience? Personally, I would feel a bit bad, if the number of visitors to the site took a dive, even if I made more money with it.
I am most interested if the initiator of this topic, reports back on the results, after he/she changed the targeted country.

[thaidomain]

This is a very interesting subject. I have a similar predicament. My website has content regarding an Asian country. As such most visitors are from Asia. On the other hand all content is in English, and surely most visitors are English-speaking or expatriates. I left the 'targeted countries' choice blank. My feat is that if I choose for example U.S.A. as the targeted country, that the number of visitors to the site will drastically reduce. On the other hand, when monetizing content, it is maybe possible to get more visitors from the U.S.A. and therefore higher revenue. It is quite unclear for me what is the most useful approach. I would think that some users of WebmasterWorld have been thinking about this issue, but as of now, all the replies seem to just talk around it. Surely, someone out there must want to reveal his experience? Personally, I would feel a bit bad, if the number of visitors to the site took a dive, even if I made more money with it.
I am most interested if the initiator of this topic, reports back on the results, after he/she changed the targeted country.

[graeme_p]

I live in Sri Lanka, but it is similar economy - GDP per capita about 50% higher, but a much small country (around 20m people vs over 1bn)

Give me a break. What do the Indian middle class earn? $1000/year?

I assume you left a zero off that. You did mean $10,000/year? My maid gets more than $1,000/year - hardly a middle class occupation, and a driver or gardener would get more.

Almost everyone I know socially would get at least $1,000/month, a high proportion a few $1,000 a month, and a few a lot more. The lower cost of living means that that is enough to have a reasonable disposable income.

People who can spend time online have probably spent a few hundred dollars on a computer, and can pay their ISP. They almost certainly do have a credit card. Do you think that they are on $2 a day? Only the online population are relevant to webmasters.

I doubt that you've done much homework on this. India has approx. $2 billion in annual credit card volume whereas the U.S has $1 trillion

What are the growth rates? Are there other reasons for not using cards such as shops that do not accept cards, tax evasion, better prices for cash, higher risk of fraud etc.

I use cash a lot more here than in the UK, because we buy a lot of stuff (especially food) from places that do not take cards and I do not use cards in restaurants because of the risk of fraud.

The US market is still a lot bigger than India or China, but it is unlikely to stay that way.

[HuskyPup]

I doubt that you've done much homework on this.

Considering I have a factory in India employing 7,500 and been travelling there for the last 40 years I know I have fair grasp of what is happening there.

I don't need to do homework, I see the reality every time I visit and I see an extremely vibrant economy, ok the road infrastructure drives (sic) me crazy, which along with China are going to go sailing past the western economies with barely a glance over their shoulders....and such nice people too:-)

[suresh]

As I noticed, in previous months by doing the same activity on different geo locations found huge difference in adsense earnings. Its true to target for US, UK you can earn more than others.

[Rosalind]

I am very popular in these countries, for reasons that totally escape me.

Do you have a directory? There's a very active submission industry in these countries, and that will affect your traffic balance.

[dailypress]

The reason is plain and simple. India and China visitors don't shop online. They're too poor. Most probably don't even have a credit card.

lol

I wont comment on how much money the upper class has in Asia and Middle East. Even as you say IF they dont have credit cards, the small percentage that do, beats the population here in the US.

Asia contains more than half of the world's population.
You're neglecting the 2 most populous countries in Asia, the largest continent in the world!

Also as we know countries like China and India are becoming bigger global powers so expect seeing a brighter future soon. I wouldnt block their traffic or anything if I were you.

[surfer67]

Even as you say IF they dont have credit cards, the small percentage that do, beats the population here in the US.

Not sure where you heard that. Indian economy may be growing, however it's still a cash society.

India annual credit card volume = $2 billion
U.S annual credit card volume = $1 trillion

500:1 Not even close. U.S.A wins! LOL

[edited by: surfer67 at 9:40 pm (utc) on Feb 17, 2010]

[surfer67]

What are the growth rates? Are there other reasons for not using cards such as shops that do not accept cards, tax evasion, better prices for cash, higher risk of fraud etc.

Growth rates are higher in Asia because they're still under developed. This thread pertains to the current internet situation and internet shopping. You cannot shop with cash online. 20 years from now it may be different but for now very little internet sales come from India.