How to get rid off placement targeting ads?

[gabriel_k]

One week ago I blocked out all advertisers that targeted my site in Ad Review Center. The reason was the low performance of the placement targeted ads.

I also blocked all Google certified ad networks (just for sure).

Yesterday when I checked my account I found out that the number of the placement targeted ads remained almost the same (about 10% of all ads).

At first I suspected PSA ads but then I realized that they do not show up in statistics at all.

Placement targeted ads are crippling my revenue. Any help how to get them off my site would be appreciated.

[DaStarBuG]

AdWords advertisers will always be able to target your website directly.
But placement targeted ads also compete with normal contextual ads.

[incrediBILL]

Placement targeted ads are crippling my revenue.

Not sure how that's possible unless they are off target or not of interest to your visitors.

Google claims that targeted ads only display if they meet or beat the rates of other bids in the ad auction.

I'm running targeted ads but they rarely display, so the assumption I've made, whether right or wrong, is that those ads targeted at my site were lower paying than what actually displays.

Based on my assumption, your problem probably isn't targeted ads, it's smart pricing, and your ad inventory simply is priced very low.

[gabriel_k]

AdWords advertisers will always be able to target your website directly

Hope that this is not true. The Ad Review Center would be a bit usless if I can't block out Adwords advertisers that directly target my site. Don't you think?

But placement targeted ads also compete with normal contextual ads.

The overall perfomance of the placment targeted ads on my site is 3x lower compared with contextual ads.

[netmeg]

You can only entirely block out placement ads by writing to Google and asking them, and I don't think you can even do that anymore. They'll only accept email on a very few narrow issues.

[itworked]

The overall perfomance of the placment targeted ads on my site is 3x lower compared with contextual ads

This is my experience too. Page RPM for placement ads is about a third of the RPM for contextual.

My question is if I make all placement ads subject to review and block them everyday (something I'm loath to do because of the extra work) will that effectively remove all placement ads or will Adwords ads still be able to get in as placements?

Second question is whether placement ads correspond to article content like contextual ads or whether they simply get placed at random?

thanks

[ecmedia]

My understanding is that you will get the highest price ads for YOUR website whether or not someone targets your website or not. The problem is not that someone is putting cheap ads on your website; it's just that G algorithm thinks that the fair price for your website is this.

[Lame_Wolf]

You can only entirely block out placement ads by writing to Google and asking them, and I don't think you can even do that anymore.

I tried many times to get them to turn it off. They keep telling me to go to the Google Forums. Ruddy automated crap.

There should be a radio button, or similar in the new interface. Then we can turn it on and off ourselves, then we won't have to get frustrated with an automated "customer service".

[itworked]

My understanding is that you will get the highest price ads for YOUR website whether or not someone targets your website or not. The problem is not that someone is putting cheap ads on your website; it's just that G algorithm thinks that the fair price for your website is this.

That is what people are saying, but the data shows otherwise. Average contextual ad RPM is much higher than the placement ads on my site. If placement ads went I away I would expect the overall revenue to go up. It is possible that wouldn't happen if the placement ads are truly competing against weaker ads and winning, but I'm not convinced this is the case

[nick28]

It is possible that wouldn't happen if the placement ads are truly competing against weaker ads and winning, but I'm not convinced this is the case

This is exactly my question.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

A few of you are concerned about the performance of placement targeting ads as compared to contextual ads. As IncrediBill and others have mentioned here, placement targeted ads are run in the same auction as contextual targeted ads and Google will only display the highest performing ad for each ad request. Most often, placement targeted ads perform higher than contextually targeted ads because advertisers are willing to spend more for this inventory. Also, placement targeted ads are typically paid on a CPM basis rather than CPC so the auction takes into account that this is guaranteed revenue. So, even when you are seeing lower RPM's for placement targeting - which generally is not the case- it is still more beneficial for you to have them compete as they will only display when they outperform all other ads in the auction.

If you want to have more control over the placement targeted ads, you can do that a few different ways. Again, the more controls you put in place, the less opportunity you have to maximize revenue earnings.

1) Block by URL or category. You can do this in the Ad Review Center. There's also a feature in the new interface that lets you see what your historical revenue earnings per category (general and sensitive) have been so can make a more informed decision about who to block.
2) Place ads on hold for 24 hours. Ads won't show for 24 hours until you've clicked 'block' or 'allow'. In theory, you could potentially block many placement targeted ads this way, but I don't think this would be an effective use of time as it would be really time consuming and again, you are blocking many advertisers who might be willing to pay more than your contextual ads.


Here's a blog post from the AdSense blog with more info on the two controls above: [adsense.blogspot.com ]

Do placement ads correspond to article content like contextual ads or whether they simply get placed at random?

Placement targeted ads might correspond to article content or it might seem more random, though it's not. The idea is that advertisers who target your site believe there is a positive correlation between your site's theme and content and their target audience's interest. In some cases, it'll be a clear link (i.e. you are a travel site and they are selling suitcases). A less clear link might be that you have a classic rock lyrics website, and an ad for golf clubs appears. The advertiser might think that their target audience (golfers) typically listen to classic rock.

It is possible that wouldn't happen if the placement ads are truly competing against weaker ads and winning, but I'm not convinced this is the case

As said above, placement ads will only win if the ad outbids all other ads, including contextual ads.


ASA

[itworked]

ASA,

Thank you for your thorough and considered response. Your comments are consistent with what I see.

Placement targeted ads might correspond to article content or it might seem more random, though it's not. The idea is that advertisers who target your site believe there is a positive correlation between your site's theme and content and their target audience's interest. In some cases, it'll be a clear link (i.e. you are a travel site and they are selling suitcases). A less clear link might be that you have a classic rock lyrics website, and an ad for golf clubs appears. The advertiser might think that their target audience (golfers) typically listen to classic rock.

Here is the problem I think. The placement ads do seem to have a decent CPC relative to contextual ads. HOWEVER, the reason the placement ad RPM is always about a third of that of contextual ads is not because of CPC but because of CTR. The CTR has a much lower average.

So I think that ads get "placed" on articles where they compete and win on price, however because their content doesn't correlate very closely with the article content their CTR is low. So the overall affect is a lower RPM and thus less revenue to the site as a whole.

If I am right, sites that have very homo-genius articles would probably do okay or even better with placement ads because not only do the compete on CPC but the ad content has a high probability of being applicable to the individual pages within the site.

But sites that have more variety in their articles (like mine and some of the others on this thread), can be hurt when non-applicable ads compete and beat out ads that would have been more contextual and thus would have collected more clicks albeit at possible less CPC.

[seointern]

In the advanced settings there is an option to block Interest Based Ads. I wish there was that option for 'Placement Ads' as well. Then I could easily run the test to see how my revenues does without them?

Anyone know of a method to just turn off placement ads for a period to get a good test?

[netmeg]

Nope, can't be done.

[Leosghost]

And

In the advanced settings there is an option to block Interest Based Ads

doesn't do what you think it does, either [webmasterworld.com...]

[CMidd]

One week ago I blocked out all advertisers that targeted my site in Ad Review Center. The reason was the low performance of the placement targeted ads.

first you need to go to setting and enable "Hold ads for 24 hours so they can be reviewed" Review and block them.

Next you need to block the domain name of the advertisers in your block filter.


Take a hour or so, view your site and all ads "in private mode", copy and paste all unrelated urls, and add them all to your block filter.

block google certified networks.

Go to Advance settings and disable interest based ads

Then block their categories.

This should suppress them and allow other advertisers to access your site.

I had this problem before. Off topic advertiser dominated my site and CTR and earnings suffered. They were using one of my site as a Free Bill board while paying pennies for impressions.

Remember: Adwords advertisers "I'm one" want to get the cheapest possible clicks, impressions, branding.

Adsense High earning, Adword cheap clicks is an oxymoron. Both sides are striving for different outcomes.

We have a forum here where Adsense publisher are trying to earn more from their traffic and clicks, and on this same site we have a forum where Adwords advertisers are trying to spend less money and get the same impressions and clicks LMAO.



Also if you find those advertiser can't be suppressed. It's time to go the affiliate route. I had a ton of success creating Text ads "same format i applied to adsense" that point to affiliate offers. You won't get paid per click, but if that spot earned money with adsense there is a good chance it will earn through on topic affiliate offers "if not you would have been smarted priced by now"

Look into an adserver that can serve contextual affiliate offers that you choose.

Hope that helps you.

[gabriel_k]

Thanks CMidd for your post.

I still wonder whether there is any relation between placement targeted ads and interest based ads. In my case interest based ads make only about 1% of all ads (according to what adsense control panel shows me). Would really switching off IBA help to get rid off lowpaying placement targeted ads?