Connection Between Interest Based Ads and Low CTR?

Are More Interest Based Ads Dropping CTR?

[Roseb44170]

I know that there are a lot of posts having to do with a low CTR and I was looking at one of my blogs today and noticed that some of the ads were related to sites that I was looking at previously as opposed to the ads being about the content that is on the actual blog itself.

Could that possibly have something to do with getting low CTR - meaning having the ads being based on where the visitor was previously as opposed to the actually content on the site?

[drall]

That doesnt turn off interest based ads on your site bumpski, it just turns of data collecting so the next site your visitors go to Google doesnt use the data. They confirmed this in the adsense help forum.

[AndyA]

bumpski wrote:
You can turn off interest based ads. If this is repetitious, sorry!

This does not turn off interest-based ads on your site. It only prevents Google from using your site's visitors information while they're on your site.

They still see interest based ads, but if your site is about gardening, their time spent on your site won't be used to show gardening ads to them in the future.

The reason Google has this option is for those who have privacy policies that specifically state visitors actions aren't tracked on a site.

The comment about searching for a book, buying it, and then seeing ads for that book for days later is a good one. Most people aren't going to buy multiple copies, and if they were they'd have done it with the original purchase, or they'd go back to that same site to buy another one.

What interested me yesterday is of no interest today. I've moved on. How could Google possibly know differently?

[bwnbwn]

I think there is a little misunderstanding here. If your seeing intrest based ads on your site well this is because you have the cookie loaded in your browser. This doen't mean the ads are showing to me if I visit your site, so seeing them is really not that big a deal.

I do like the point bumpski brought up because this could be a bigger issue because the ads these people would have seen have been replaced.

[richard_p]

"I maintained a CTR of 8% or better for YEARS."

If I had those kind of ctr, i could retire :). My ctr right now averages less than 1% but since I started seeing Interest based ads eCPM has doubled and ctr stayed the same. I'm happy to see some ads worth a dollar or more per click, haven't seen ads that high since 2 or 3 years ago.

[wiseapple]

Has anyone turned off the switch and seen better performance?

[radix]

I started to think if Google is really disguising AdSense publishers with the conflicting info they have on opting in/out of Interest Based Ads.

In the AdSense panel (My Account tab, Interest-based Ads Preference) they have:
Set your preference for interest-based ads. These ads are served to users...
[Option 1] Show ads based on user interest categories. ...
[Option 2] Do not show ads based on user interest categories. Visitation information from my sites will not be used to help create interest categories.

Setting this AdSense publisher feels like confirmed that his/her sites won't show IBA-s. And this is false and simple misleading! - to say at least.

To see the the truth the publisher has to find they AdSense FAQ, because this is where the reality about IBA-s setting is revealed:
[google.com...]
However, you cannot opt out of showing ads to users based on their previous interactions with the advertiser, such as visits to an advertiser's website.

It's hard to believe that the conflict of information on those two pages is simply accidental or due to Google's sloppiness in a matter that affects so many its publisher partners.

[docbird]

The Google answer does say:
You can opt out of showing ads that are based on user interest categories (e.g. 'sports enthusiasts').
- which seems ok. I'd think only a v small proportion of my visitors would have interacted with advertisers.

I tried turning IBAs off during last month, after visiting thread about adsense revenue tumbling. My sites small potatoes, so result needs taking with pinch of salt: but CTR etc much the same, and earnings still low compared to previous years.

[cfx211]

Someone earlier said that they are seeing their social network site's CTR popup. Figuring out how to monetize the zillions of impressions on social networking sites has been a goal of Google and other ad networks for years. Remarketing is one answer.

How can you turn a $0.10 click into a $3 click? Tell the advertiser that they once saw their site, and just need a few more gentle reminders to come back and purchase.

Proof will be in the math over time. I'm an advertiser and am testing it out right now. If it comes in cost effective, we'll buy it, if not we'll pull out. The question for the publishers is are you seeing an increase in EPC to offset the drop in CPC?

[ken_b]

The question for the publishers is are you seeing an increase in EPC to offset the drop in CPC?

Did you mean an increase in EPC to offset the drop in CTR?

If so, yes, more than enough.

But there is no way of knowing if the drop in CTR is at all related to Interest Based Ads, at least not that I know of.

[Oimachi2]

Adsense is a total joke.

Actually everything Google pretty much including Adwords with their "quality landing page"...

I now sell my leads directly to REAL companies. I CALL people and get business.

I now make about 50 times more than with "clownsense"...

I have pulled ALL Adsense off every single pages and website I have.

Just my grain of salt! ;)

[true_INFP]

CTR alone is not important. What matters is eCPM. Even if your CTR decreases, you can actually earn more money (because the CPC of the new ads may be higher).

So compare your eCPMs, not CTRs. (That's also what the Google auction system is officially supposed to do.)

[martinibuster]

Earnings is the metric that matters. The year over year earnings metric tells more than day/month eCPM/CTR metrics do.

The CTR metric is important because it tells you something about

• the keyword phrases people are using to find your site
• seasonal fluctuations that affect how much bidding competition there is
• how relevant the ads are (although this MAY have something to do with competition because low competition means ads have to be backfilled with other less relevant ads)
• a rare glitch in Google's algo that affects a SUBSTANTIAL amount of publishers across the board. Glitches that affect a SUBSTANTIAL amount of publishers are rare.

eCPM as a metric can be misleading because a low traffic high CPC page/section can drive the sitewide eCPM up. If you have twenty pages with a high eCPM that for whatever reason suffer a drop in searches, then the overall eCPM will drop. Sitewide eCPM is not a useful metric. You have to go more granular to gain an insight from the eCPM metric, unless you have low traffic. Sites with low traffic generally cannot gain meaningful insight from any of these metrics.

[true_INFP]

Comparing CTR to determine whether interest-based ads perform better than regular ads (which should be the real topic of this thread) is totally and utterly flawed, incorrect and misleading.

See my previous post to understand why. Google wants to earn more. That's why they serve ads with higher eCPM (not CTR).

Comparing earnings (as opposed to comparing eCPM) is again misleading because earnings increase or decrease as your traffic increases or decreases (whereas eCPM acceptably compensates for this).

[alephh]

ken_b: there is no way of knowing if the drop in CTR is at all related to Interest Based Ads.

So, first reports of CTR collapse emerge in Feb 2010, AND AT THE SAME TIME, Google states in their Inside Adsense blog that they are expanding the time interest-based-ads stay active, and at the same time visitors start to complain about seeing unrelated ads, and I start to see the same ads following me, and webmasters start to see the same ads following them and unrelated ads.

Several webmasters state that: Traffic is normal, from the same sources, with the same keywords, advertisers in their niches report no changes in their campaigns, no changes in sites, etc...

Yeah, right, we have no way of knowing what just happened, because in real life there is no such thing as causality. Clearly some unexplainable miraculous religious force must be at work here LOL

Until I see a better, more logical, theory about the CTR collapse - which in my case is not balanced out by the increase in EPC - I'm going with the IBA theory, which nicely explains most of the things.

[levo]

Maybe Google is using interest data from niche/topic/vertical sites for larger sites/portals, or even for ads on Google.com? Hence they are forcing interest based ads upon us...

[graeme_p]

Someone earlier said that they are seeing their social network site's CTR popup

How is the CPC of those types of sites doing.

Interest based advertising means that the fact that someone visited a site aimed at a high value niche can be used to show them the high cost ads on other sites.

So interest based advertising may mean that CPCs and eCPMs converge, as they fall on sites targeting expensive niches (as the ads they would previously get start appearing on other sites) and sites that used to have low eCPMs will see a rise.

So we should now just go for volume?

Of course interest based ads may not work out for the reasons people have already brought up.

[aleksl]

IBAs is a total joke. It isn't desirable to see them, since they perform several things that annoy users:
1) they follow user across sites
2) they may present something to a user that user does not want, and that I as site owner do NOT allow. Example: I can guarantee you your site will be flooded with election propaganda next time there's an election. I also saw christian hate ads (i.e. sites pretend to be christian that are crypto- you know who).
3) Some of us actually built sites on topics and want on-topic ads show up.
4) Makes blocking particular site ads irrelevant, as similar ads may reappear in droves for particular users
5) I don't want "shopper brainwashing" ads on my sites. THE WEB IS NOT ONE PERPETUAL SHOPPING MALL (you KNOW who you are who runs these).

So, that, comparing with the fact that google owns CIA asset company Keyhole - and I have 0 trust in them using user data RELIABLY. That, and also I've been tricked by google's employee into changing ad formats on our site (apparently for more income) - there's no more income, but site is now flooded with IBAs. It seems that they don't have these for all ad formats.

As a publisher, I WANT a total control over these, so it means ability to turn them on/off, possibly on each channel. That should be an option provided to publishers IMMEDIATELY.

[shri]

The major problem (and I'm not sure if Google has sorted this out) is that interest's do not equal intentions.

Many people do a lot of intention surfing (I'd hesitate to say it is as much as interest based surfing) and if the ads do not match the intentions of the moment, they're not going to click on them.

[londrum]

i reckon interest-based should replace public service ads. if they haven't got an ad to show that's on target and relevant, then by all means show an interest-based one instead. but having them outrank the on-target ones is stupid.

i don't care if they potentially pay more money. if no one is clicking them, then what's the point.

[walrus]

Interest based advertising means that the fact that someone visited a site aimed at a high value niche can be used to show them the high cost ads on other sites.

Thats a good point, havn't read the whole volume of threads on this but I think it may be the first time it was brought up. It seems odd though, few have yet to see that in effect, just plummeting epc and ctr. There seems to be alouder uproar of 'earnings are down' than usual.

interest-based should replace public service ads

That seems like a great idea.

[ken_b]

Someone show me where we find the stats for Interest Based Ads in our AdSense Control Panel.

Without being able to break out the Impressions, Clicks, CTR, eCPM for Interest Based Ads this is all speculation.

Here is a quote from the Inside AdSense Blog [adsense.blogspot.com] that seems to indicate that Interest Based Ads have to compete with the regular contextual and placement targeted ads for space on publisher sites.

Does this mean that my sites won't show ads relevant to my content anymore?
No, that's not the case -- interest-based ads won't replace the previous ad targeting options you're used to. Interest-based ads will compete in the same ad auction as contextually- and placement-targeted ads, and we'll continue to show only the ad(s) that will generate highest earnings for you. ...

I dislike the whole idea of IABs, but it is what is, it's here and it's unlikely that it's going away anytime soon. I just don't like the idea of being stalked by an ad..... so I surf with Google cookies disallowed and Javascript turned off, etc.

That's not going to stop my visitors from seeing IABs, and I wish I could stop them from being shown on my site. But I can't, ....

...so I work on the stuff I can control.

.

[Erku]

The entire problem with the interest based advertising is that it does not take into account the FAST CHANGING INTEREST of the online visitor.

The viewer is reading a story about a car and is thinking and focusing about it.

Then it clicks a story about weight loss because that's of interest to him. He wants to learn how he can lose some weights. But the ads are still about cars, while there are ads about weight loss.

Research shows when disrupted people need at least 20 minutes to get to the same level of interest and focus. Let's say you are a report and write a story. Someone disrupts you with a quick question. You will need 20 minutes to get to the same level of concentration on the topic.

Same way with the online ads. A visitor turning the page from cars to weight loss, can't have the same interest about cars if he or she is writing a weight loss story.

Honestly I have not seen any serious data that Interest Baseds Ads really work. At least its not working for publishers. I am wondering how much the Advertisers are missing.

[true_INFP]

I wish I could stop them from being shown on my site. But I can't

You can.

My Account > Account Settings > Interest-based Ads Preference

[Captaffy]

I ordered some tea over a month ago and I'm still seeing ads for that company on my site. Why would Google think an ad for a site I already order from would be something I would click?

I used a popular online tax filing service this year. For the next month pretty much every adsense ad I saw was for this service, which I had already purchased.

No wonder people aren't clicking as much.

[Captaffy]

My Account > Account Settings > Interest-based Ads Preference

You can stop your site from being used to gather interest based information on visitors, but you can not stop the ads from being displayed.

[true_INFP]

You can stop your site from being used to gather interest based information on visitors, but you can not stop the ads from being displayed.

You can (at least in our account). It says: "Do not show ads based on user interest"

[levo]

Can I opt out of interest-based advertising for my site?
.. However, you cannot opt out of showing ads to users based on their previous interactions with the advertiser, such as visits to an advertiser's website...

[google.com...]

[true_INFP]

We have a European AdSense account (Google Ireland is a party to the agreement). Maybe non-European publishers don't have the option "Do not show ads based on user interest" available in their accounts?

[levo]

Nope, that help page says that selecting "Do not show ads based on user interest categories" does not mean "opt[ing] out of showing ads to users based on their previous interactions with the advertiser."

[true_INFP]

"ads based on previous interactions with the advertiser, such as visits to an advertiser's website" seems very limited -- especially if third-party ad networks are disabled. IMO, 99% of visitors won't see such ads.