So how many of you regularly do A/B testing of AdSense?

or would you rather just complain about falling CPM?

[dataguy]

Not to sound curt, but with the free time afforded me by the AdSense maintenance going on I thought I'd try to start a discussion.

I'm curious as to how many AdSense publishers do regular, systematic A/B testing of AdSense formats/layouts/competitors. And if you don't, why not?

We've all read the threads with 10 people saying CPM is falling and 1 person saying theirs is increasing. Have we decided that whatever the difference between the 1 and the 10 is, it's beyond our control?

My experience is that the first round of A/B testing for a previously untested site will usually result in a 50% increase in revenue, and the 2nd and third rounds will increase revenue by 25% and 10%, effective doubling the revenue overall. But I would also guess that more than half of all AdSense publishers have never done systematic A/B testing.

Opinions?

[Sally Stitts]

A/B testing is dead. Period. Wiped out by Google.
While you are changing one thing, Google is changing 10 things.

Example: Many are experiencing the most profound drops in CTR and eCPM, EVER. Whatever YOU do, is a ripple on the wave, and is indistinguishable from Google's changes.

I used to do A/B a lot, but now it is useless. Webmasters used to help Google by tuning their sites. I don't think it is possible to do this any longer. Now, I just use what I perceive are "best practices", and let it go at that. Otherwise, I would be spending hours and hours saying to myself, "#*$!? . . . #*$!? . . . #*$!? Nah. Done with that. Who needs the aggravation?

[Lame_Wolf]

I do A/B testing, but it's mainly because I can rotate advert sizes/colours this way. [html pages]

[johnmoose]

I stopped with testing too. Google is changing fonts and more in the ads I have on my sites, in spite of the fact that I selected a certain font. As long as they introduce variables not under my control, there's no way you can influence the ctr or whatever.
What I do nowadays is select the ad I want, pick some colors to match the site and see what happens.

[nomis5]

My experience is that experimenting with different ad formats is extremely worthwhile. Google may well be changing by the day, even by the hour, but over the medium and long term, some ad formats work better than others.

Testing is definitely worth it as long as the time frames are medium term plus. I do it.

[netmeg]

I'm always testing something.

[alika]

We're always testing -- especially when things are heading south. That's the only way to find out which can work better, given the various changes that may not be within your control but you've got to live with. You just have to adapt to the new rules of the game

[JasonDX]

Testing won't help much when your ctr drops 50% overnight and stays there. It's beyond your control and changing ad sizes and colors will have little effect in most cases.

[dibbern2]

No testing. I made up my mind years ago to ride this program as best I understand it, or leave it.

That's not to say I don't make changes... I do, when I think they will improve my return. But testing, in the sense of experimentaion for various A &B scenarios, no.

On the other hand, content development is always in a state of ever changing flux.

[jetteroheller]

Changing my site, I test first at some small subdomains, when the trend is good, the test is enlarget to a major subdomain.

When stats show good trend, change is taken over to all sites.

[wyweb]

I tested extensively in the beginning, found what seemed to be the right combination of earnings/minimal ad obtrusiveness and then basically stayed with it.

This roller coaster that adsense has stuck me on in recent years has required further testing... different ad placements, formats, etc...

I'm now of the opinion that it doesn't really matter what I do.. doesn't matter what ads I use or where I place them. Doesn't matter how much traffic I'm getting or where it's coming from or what this traffics intent is once it arrives on my sites. Call me jaded but none of this really seems to matter anymore. Huge discrepancies from month to month even when I haven't touched a thing and traffic is consistent.

I don't spend time trying to figure this out anymore. I can't do it and am perfectly willing to admit defeat.

[Edge]

I don't spend time trying to figure this out anymore. I can't do it and am perfectly willing to admit defeat.

This is why I spend my time looking for and implementing alternative revenue sources that I can effect with hard work.

[dataguy]

Wow, we webmasters can be a pessimistic bunch, can't we?

I admit my CPM is down more than 50% from 5 years ago, but I have to wonder how much more it would be down if I didn't test constantly. During this recession my revenue is down $1.50 per month from the previous year, which of course is not even noticeable.

Several times I've seen an overnight drop of hundreds of dollars in ad revenue, but I was able to reverse it quickly. Turning off the ads on one page has been all that was required.

There are more things to test than just formats and fonts. How about finding the pages than have less than $0.50 CPM and replacing AdSense with a competitor's ads? My experience is that this not only diversifies revenue, but it will increase AdSense revenue.

Last February I put little hearts in the corners of my ads for Valentines Day, and it increased revenue more than 20%, though the effects eventually wore off. That 20% was enough for a down-payment on a house.

After years of doing this, I'm still learning, and still improving. Can hardly imagine my life if I didn't believe that to be the case.

[Lame_Wolf]

Last February I put little hearts in the corners of my ads for Valentines Day, and it increased revenue more than 20%, though the effects eventually wore off. That 20% was enough for a down-payment on a house.

Wouldn't that be seen as bringing attention to the adverts ?

[netmeg]

My impression is that it's against TOS, but I suppose it is all in the implementation.

[HuskyPup]

How about finding the pages than have less than $0.50 CPM

Do I assume from this statement that you are inferring a low eCPM may equate to lower earnings overall and/or a lower EPC site wide or something else?

FWIW my lowest eCPM pages are in an image gallery with thousands of views every day HOWEVER that gallery easily has the highest EPC of all my sites.

I certainly wouldn't want to remove those ads even if I had the time to even consider how to implement it since it would be a nightmare, in fact thinking about it now I'm fairly sure it wouldn't be possible without a manual ad insertion on each display page...no thank you!

[coachm]

Absolutely no point, because we don't rely on adsense income as our sole revenue. Our time is better spent dealing with creating new products and services, two things we can control. Besides you spend all this time testing and tweeking around the edges, and it all ends up that you get what adsense gives you.

The black box is just too dark and too random appearing to figure out much of anything.

[ndaru]

Used to be. Not bothering with it anymore. Better to spend time creating new contents.