Allowing only image ads

[realmaverick]

Hey guys, I was just looking at my CTR's for the various ad types on my site.

My site is very rich in images and other media.

But I was still surprised by the following from last month:

Text: 1.17% - RPM: £0.60
Animated image: 9.38% - RPM: £7.41
Image: 6.32% RPM: £2.46
Flash: 1.33% - RPM: £1.28
Video: 13.95% - RPM: £3.27
Rich Media: 2.73% - RPM: £8.82

Despite the text ads having the lowest CTR, CPC and overall RPM they're accounting for about 80% of impressions on my website.

Would it make sense, on this particular site, to allow only image ads?

I've checked some of my other, text based sites and they show completely different results. The RPM's and CTR's are much more even.

Obviously there will be less competition, which may effect CPC.

Any thoughts? am I crazy :op

[netmeg]

All you can do is test it.

[realmaverick]

I tested for a few hours and low and behold, all of the image based stuff, dropped like a lead balloon. Blah.

[pepsimoz]

That was to be expected. You might want to test for longer than two hours. If your income provisions allow, try testing for a week or so, or a few days at least so you can have a comparison.

[Leonard0]

It might be a good idea to try A/B testing (one half of impressions with image ads and half with image/text) on your lower earning channels.
Adsense Help for A/B Testing [google.com...]

BTW, how did you get separate Ad Type statistics on each of the sites you have? My Ad Type reports show all of my sites combined together. I can't see how to get separate stats for each site.

[pepsimoz]

A/B split testing is highly advised.

BTW, how did you get separate Ad Type statistics on each of the sites you have? My Ad Type reports show all of my sites combined together. I can't see how to get separate stats for each site.

Probably selected images only on the ad unit and setup a custom channel. I did that once, and in my field, I tend to make more with text and image ads enabled vs image ads only. I tested it for 2 months.

[mibrahim]

I did the same test above (only image ads) and ended up with very low earnings. Most of the ads appearing on my site are contextual as well, few are images and the images pay higher. I thought that by disabling the text ads I'm giving more opportunity for those higher paying image ads, but it didn't work.
When I thought about it, it seems that the majority of the ads are contextual, and fewer are images. That's why few show when both image and text ads are bidding on the same block. That's why they earn more, because the text ads push up their bid. Removing the contextual ads leaves the image ads bidding against nothing. Since they are fewer than text they end up earning less - because there's not enough bidding.

[cien]

I've allowed images ads only as late as last week. Very high EPC but horrible CTR. Not worth it.