Certified Third Party Networks

To allow or block Google certified ad networks from displaying ads?

[Scurramunga]

A little while ago i thought I would take Google's advice and allow image ads back in (as Incredibill did) In addition to following advice regarding Googles image ads I added ad units, unblocked my competitive ad filter and allowed Certified Third Party Networks.

After a very brief October spike which may or may not be attributable to the (aforementioned actions) everything came crashing down with a vengeance. In my recent experience, CTR, average CPC and overall eCPM have all been affected.

So I am now reviewing and concentrating on the Certified Third Party ads and asking for your feedback regarding positive or negative outcomes you may have experienced.

Do you block or partially block these networks?

[Rockyou]

Huskypup i have tested it three months ago, so i am saying it, By blocking three party network my earnings were down around 20%.I did test for about 2 weeks.

Drall i do believe that Google adsense has a minimum payout & maximum payout based on traffic source. ecpm increases significantly if your going from say 7 position in serp to top 3 serp for a competative keyword. Getting more traffic is one solution for you to get more payout. I got one good solution for your problem, if i was in your place i would start making other new websites in different niches.This will certain increase your earning and reduce your risk for any change in algo. Google started penalising those who build links aggressively. Link penalty stays upto 3 years. So its better to leave old website as it is and build new ones and you will be at almost no risk of any google penalty. This method worked for me i am an seo too for last 4 years. I almost have google algo in my mind.

[DaStarBuG]

Interesting thread. Any more results?

I am in with the test. I just deactivated all third party networks

[cien]

Ahh.. I was going to test for one more day but the trick ain't working. Earnings flatlined. Turned the networks back on last night.

[jmccormac]

I've blocked most of the networks and have only started allowing some of them slowly. The hard part was finding information about the Third Party Network advertisers but Googling helped. The initial effects were increases in earnings and CTR on a local directory with a very slight improvement on the main global website. Some networks seem to work better with some websites but 48 hours or so is too small a window to be sure of anything.

Regards...jmcc

[Scurramunga]

I have not fared well from turning networks off. Problem is that turning them on doesn't bring me anywhere near where I should be (in terms of revenue) either.

In my case, the revenue bar has been lowered substantially.

[DaStarBuG]

I did the test and deactivated all third party networks for 3 days.

There was no difference whatsoever which are not within the usual fluctuations.
My earnings neither declined nor increased, nor did CTR.

I did the test to see if it had a major impact, which it did not, so I allowed all third party networks again.
More competition should increase my earnings in the long run.

[Scurramunga]

I concur, your results.

[Swanny007]

I usually don't mess with the AdSense buttons and dials, but today I saw some very low quality ads showing up. Think bottom-of-the-barrel Smilies type ads. They seem to be coming from an ad network, but I don't know which one exactly, I think the reference was to mediaplex...

So I've decided to block all 200+ ad networks for now. We'll see how revenue is affected, I may re-enable some of the more well-known ad networks.

[Swanny007]

So here are my results based on my 15-day test...

Comparing 15 days before/after disabling all 3rd party ad networks I saw the following:
- CTR decreased 4%
- CPC did not change
- Page RPM decreased about 5%

In order to do a fair test, I also compared my Feb 11-25 results to the "other" previous 15 day period of Jan 12-26. That data comparison showed that disabling 3rd party networks:
- CTR decreased 6%
- CPC increased 6%
- Page RPM decreased less than 1%

So overall it's had a very small impact. AdSense earnings normally fluctuate a bit so I'm not going to do anything else with regards to 3rd party ads. They're disabled, and they make up a fairly small part of my AdSense revenue.

I'm probably in the minority by saying this. But I'm willing to take a 1-5% decrease in CPM to ensure I won't have scummy ads showing on my sites. I'm sure there are some good third party networks but I don't have the time to do research on each one to enable only the good ones.

If I feel the need to replace that 1-5% drop in earnings, I'll just add another ad block or ad unit somewhere and problem solved.

There's my $.02 for what it's worth ;-)

[ken_b]

I'm probably in the minority by saying this. But I'm willing to take a 1-5% decrease in CPM to ensure I won't have scummy ads showing on my sites.

I agree completely!

I don't have the time to do research on each one to enable only the good ones.

Exactly!
.

[Scurramunga]

Thanks Swanny, for taking the time to report your findings. I switched my third party ads on then off and didn't detect any noticeable changes. However when they were switched on I did see some unusual crappy ads. This was also attributable to the image ads which I had switched on I think.

[Swanny007]

Next up: Interest-based Ads. Google gathers too much personal information on people IMHO, so I'm going to see if I should turn that off for less spying...

[ken_b]

Interest-based Ads

I turned them off at the first opportunity, just because I don't like the idea.

But I did turn IBAs on for a week as a test after I found out that stats for them were available in the new interface.

I couldn't see any increase in income, or the number of IBAs shown on my site with them "turned on", none.

So I turned them back off as much as possible.

As far as I can tell, on my site, the only "benefit" of turning IBAs on is the benefit Google gets by collecting data on my visitors, no benefit to me at all.