Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Some good comment on that from the AdWords point of view here:-
[webmasterworld.com...]
For me, I need to decide if I'm going to allow them on my sites or not (hence posting here in the AdSense forum and not in AdWords).
Does it have an effect of loweing CTR by a significant amount?
Thanks,
TJ
I didn't know you could block the numbers from appearing, but I suppose you are talking about blocking URLs that advertise numbers.
or are you talking about blocking URLs that advertise numbers
Yes. There's only about 4 or 5 domains.
What I don't know, is whether these guys are actually making me any money though.
I can see the logic behind phone numbers in ads from a CTR point of view (although ultimately it seems to have the effect of making the advertiser have to bid higher, so the eventual clicks are worth more anyway).
If it's not affecting me by a significant margin, then I'm not really worried about it.
TJ
All I know is that it annoys the hell out of me. People want real estate on my site but don't want to pay me for it. Irrepective of the arguments in the linked thread the intent of these advertisers is to get something for free - at my expense.
[edited by: blairsp at 12:20 pm (utc) on Nov. 5, 2004]
What other REAL purpose si there to placing a telephone number other than to say "look, just phone me-it's easier, quicker and you are going to do it anyway rather than clicking on this ad"
Credibility. Any advert with a freephone or even a national number (non-local) makes the company look bigger and more professional thus actually increasing the CTR.
Think about it: If you see a link while you are on the internet with a phone number, two line advert and you are interested in finding out more, what do you do?
I bet you wouldn't phone - you'd click the link.
The important point from an AdSense perspective is what effect does it have on revenue?
The AdWords thread I linked to in the original post indicated to me that a lower overall CTR has the effect of pushing up Ad prices?
So is it a case of, for example, 50% lower CTR but double the revenue?
TJ
The amount of time I have spent fruitlessly searching around poorly designed websites must substantial. If I had phoned it could have been done far, far quicker.
Haven't we all!
But I don't think many would phone a company that they know nothing about (except the remaining two lines of adwords space left) without at least a brief look at the site first.
Exceptions would be large companies: ToyRUs, Amazon, Walmart etc... I would expect lower CTR for established names, but higher for non-established.
Are you saying you would block them if you could easily?
I'm not in that sector, and the telephone number ads are coming from a discrete number of URL's, so it's quite easy for me to block them.
I really need to find some evidence that shows that they provide less *bottom line* revenue though.
TJ
When creating ads, they have their system set to disallow lots of funky things (multiple exclamations, too many successive caps, etc.). Should be easy to set their system to disallow phone number formats.
I'm hoping G only needs to hear from a bunch of publishers who opine that phone numbers in ads seem at odds with the entire economic purpose of the Adsense program.
