Why are Adlinks paying such bad CPC?

[realmaverick]

My brother was showing me results with adlinks, on a new site he has, in the same niche as mine.

My main ads, have a much higher eCPM than his. So figured Adlinks might do OK. I'd not tried them for years, due to poorly performing.

Anyway I tried them for 4 days, the result was shocking at a penny a click and worse still, my eCPM on my main ad, dropped around 25% over these four days.

Strange thing is, the main ad isn't even on the same page.

[Lame_Wolf]

The problem I see with adlinks (And I hope you are reading this, ASA) is not so much the categories, as most of the time they are fairly accurate. But the sites that are listed inside them. A lot of the time the adverts are totally off topic for the category they are supposed to be in.

[netmeg]

I dunno, I do pretty well with them. Had a click on one early the other day that was $2.66. (Because it was early and on its own channel, I could ascertain the EPC) At the moment, they're averaging around $0.27/click over thousands of clicks; there have been times when that was pushing $0.40.

I haven't looked at the actual sites advertising in years, so I dunno what all is in there.

[realmaverick]

Thanks for the input guys. I don't know why the CPC is so low for adlinks on my site. It's obviously not the niche, as my brothers do just fine. I guess ad links are just not for me.

[wyweb]

I do pretty well with them

Myself. They're my best performers.

[incrediBILL]

I'm averaging about $0.25 CPC on adlinks which is about 50% less than the rest of the site.

[Lame_Wolf]

I have 3 categories on my site. Lets say they are about cars. New, Used and Pre-reg. Each have adlinks below them. The used cars pay well, the new pay little, and rarely get a click on the pre-reg.

I just wish that the websites that are listed were actually related. It would be win-win for everyone.

[netmeg]

Yea, now that you mention it, I don't tend to look at the link units via individual page or section, but as a whole, and across multiple sites. I sort of think of them as filler. There are doubtless some areas that perform way better than others.

[Lame_Wolf]

And who gets the money for the 728x90 banner at the bottom ?
I'd rather it wasn't there at all.

And I'd rather see just 3 related adverts and nothing else, than 3 related adverts and 7 non-related adverts "just to fill the space".

If I were a visitor and clicked on a catergory, and constantly saw non-related adverts, I would soon stop looking at them.

If they only showed related adverts then I would see them as a useful resource.
That would equal more clicks and more money for all.

Wake up Google.

[wyweb]

Wake up Google.

Yeah, you know what? Really wake up.

I just got an email from adsense. The subject line (paraphrased) was "Make more money on mywebsite.com"

The content of the email, again paraphrased, was "put bigger ads on your pages." They cited exact specifics of where I'm using the 468x60 ad slot, told me what my eCPM was and bragged about how much more money I'd make with the 728 leaderboard. They cite a case study, which I'm not going to look at, apparently in an effort to prove this is all true.

I'm not a piimp ASA. I was making money on the web LONG before you came along and I'll continue to after you're gone.

I'm not happy with the exposure I'm giving you right now anyway, and now you're asking me for more.

Not gonna happen baby. You're lucky I still kiss you in the morning. Keep this crap up and you're gone.

[nick28]

much more money I'd make with the 728 leaderboard

That says a multi billion dollar company, as if they know every website better than site owner:-)
I gave a leaderboard (728x90) best place of my page and a fullbanner (468x60) somewhere in the middle, both as text and image ads.
CPC of my fullbanner is much much heigher than leaderboard ad.
I think Adsense must better calculating big size ads, because they take more space than smaller one.

[Freedom]

Ever since ad links began, the pay out has been horrible. I replaced them with contextual links from a different company, and I'm very glad I did. Much better pay. Better CTR, better CPC.

[wyweb]

Did anybody else get this email? It came in 4 hours ago.

[wyweb]

I'm about ready to kick adsense to the curb anyway. I am. I'm fully capable of it. I've watched me do it before.

I've gone from mid level 4 figure incomes to making a grand a month with this ad network. I'm giving them more impressions than they have any right to have, given earnings. My traffic has improved. My content has been enhanced. My SEO skills have improved. I'm making all the right moves. But I'm making less money.

So what am I doing wrong? I have no idea and given the tools I have available, the tools that google makes accessible to me, I have no way to diagnose it either. Not in any accurate sense anyway.

My appeal with adsense was their ease of use. I could put them sitewide on 30 websites and do so in a couple days. Ease of use still counts. You have to draw a line though.. at what point do earnings cancel out ease?

[Freedom]

Check out netseer. They pay well.

[wyweb]

I'm going with direct advertisers these days.

That's good information to have though Freedom. Thanks. I'll look into that.

This direct advertising thing.. for the space I'm giving up I'm making more but most of these companies seem to want yearly contracts. I guess that's okay. I hate getting locked into anything like that though. If I take their money, which I've been doing, I'm obligated and responsible for maintaining their presence on my website for the full term. If they're reputable players I don't get that nervous about it. Some of them I don't know about though.

And it's labor intensive. I signed with several companies just last week who want monthly agreements, which I actually prefer. It means sending monthly invoices though. I'm having to actually work again and that kind of sucks. I spent years creating a business model that I could ignore if I wanted to... one that would work on auto-pilot if required, yet still make me money.

Google still loves me.. at least trafficwise. I'm not an adsense fan anymore though, although I was at one time.

Traffic is king baby. Get enough of it and you will make money.

[HuskyPup]

one that would work on auto-pilot if required, yet still make me money.

My host provides an automated billing system using PayPal...I'm actually looking into this right now since I'm getting fed-up of these violent swings.

and bragged about how much more money I'd make with the 728 leaderboard

Yep, this does well on some of my sites, in fact on my photo gallery it is by far the biggest earner yet on fact-filled, widget information pages I can sometimes average 20% of plain old images with no information!

Barmy, totally barmy.

[wyweb]

My host provides an automated billing system using PayPal...I'm actually looking into this right now since I'm getting fed-up of these violent swings.

Mine doesn't. When I read your post I looked pup. If it's there, it's buried pretty deep. I don't mind billing people. I've been doing it for a while now but there's more to keep track of than ever before and my system of plugging things into a yahoo calander is starting to feel a little inefficient.

I'm basically just getting started with this. Direct advertising I mean. It's kind of scary but it's kind of exciting too because there's more money involved.

"Barmy"

Must be a Brit term.

[leadegroot]

I built my own auto-renewal system, via paypal. Works well, pleased with it. I have to redo it for a different segment with a little more complexity and it hasn't percolated to the top of the todo list yet :( Looking forward to having it there, but I'm going to have to do some marketing to get a decent takeup. Blah! :(

[HuskyPup]

"Barmy"

Must be a Brit term.

Hmmm, don't think so:

barmy balmy (Slang)

adjective

1. stupid, bizarre, foolish, silly, daft (informal), irresponsible, irrational, senseless, preposterous, impractical, idiotic, inane, fatuous, dumb-ass (slang) This policy is absolutely barmy.

2. insane, odd, crazy, stupid, silly, nuts (slang), loony (slang), nutty (slang), goofy (informal), idiotic, loopy (informal), crackpot (informal), out to lunch (informal), dippy, out of your mind, gonzo (slang), doolally (slang), off your trolley (slang), round the twist (Brit. slang), up the pole (informal), off your rocker (slang), wacko or whacko (informal), a sausage short of a fry-up (slang) He used to say I was barmy, and that really got to me.

[CMidd]

wyweb consider outsourcing billing. tons of companies that can do it for dirt cheap.

virtual Assistant for 5 hours a month is $125 dollars. Might be able to find one good enough to also reach out and sell more ad space for you.

[CMidd]

wyweb consider outsourcing billing. tons of companies that can do it for dirt cheap.

virtual Assistant for 5 hours a month is $125 dollars. Might be able to find one good enough to also reach out and sell more ad space for you.


adlinks suck big time. but i only use them below the fold, so some clicks is better then no clicks.

[wyweb]

@CMidd

wyweb consider outsourcing billing. tons of companies that can do it for dirt cheap.

Thanks for that. That's probably what I'm going to have to do.

What I'm seeing a lot of in the direct advertising thing is media buyers who are representing a company. You sign with the company, but it's the buyer you're communicating with. And they don't use the same email addresses.

That makes it confusing to even know where to put their email when it comes in.

My bookkeeping skills aren't the best either. Unless you reply with quote, sometimes I have NO idea what you're talking about. I can look you up but now I'm just adding steps to the equation.

The idea is to minimize those steps.

I'll look into that CMidd. Nice catch.