Google Certified Ad Networks

Blocking underperforming ads

[shallow]

I recently discovered that when I check my Adsense stats, it shows how Google Certified Ad networks are doing. Of the over 400 listed, only about 25 bring in revenue. So today I blocked the non-performing ad networks.

I think this was that smart thing to do. Or am I wrong?

Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

[Swanny007]

I blocked all of those ad networks and didn't see a noticeable change in revenue. What I did see was low quality ads (think:smilies) showing up on my sites which prompted me to drop them all. If I wanted crap quality ads, I'd take off AdSense and sign up with a crappy ad network.

[johnmoose]

Same here. I blocked all of the certified ad networks as they did not generate any, or very, very little revenue. Wasn't worth bothering with.

[JCKline]

I blocked many of the low performing certified adnetworks for one month as I watched my CPC and eCPM drop and stay there. So I allowed them again, and things picked up. I soon realized that the impressions for these adnetworks weren't enough to worry about, and blocking many seemed to lower the bidding pool numbers. I also noticed because of low impressions to even lower CTR, I really didn't have enough data to determine which adnetworks were "good" or "bad.

[shallow]

I'm going to watch it for a while. So far my CTR has increased but the amount per click is lower. I don't know if this is an after-Christmas thing, or because I made the changes. I'll leave things as is for a month or so and watch. I can always allow the networks again.

When I visit my own site, a number of the ads have little, if any, relevance for site visitors. There are so many ads for educational institutions and schools. I tried blocking by individual urls, but that's time consuming. You block one, another school or university ad comes along. Very frustrating!

[netmeg]

Numbers don't lie. All the certified network earnings combined (since Sept 27 which is the farthest they will let you go back and check) equaled just about 1% of the AdSense earnings. So off with their heads.

[johnmoose]

My thoughts exactly. Under 5 cents in a month is even less money than I normally find in the streets. So I booted them.

[ken_b]

I blocked the whole bunch pretty much as soon as I could.

Too much time required to add or block networks.

Might be some good outfits in that mess, but not worth the effort to find them in my opinion, and I don't have high enough virtual boots to wade through the others safely :)

[ThatsBoBo]

They do not perform as well as Adsense ads do, but I have never blocked any of them with the hope that the bids coming from the other ad networks drives up the bids for my Adsense ads. The more ads the better. Google will place the best performing/paying ad anyway, so why drive down the competition for my ad slot?

[shallow]

They do not perform as well as Adsense ads do, but I have never blocked any of them with the hope that the bids coming from the other ad networks drives up the bids for my Adsense ads. The more ads the better. Google will place the best performing/paying ad anyway, so why drive down the competition for my ad slot?

This is a good point. Since I've blocked the ad networks to days ag, the amount per click is the lowest I've ever gotten across the board. Again, I don't know if this is a combo of post-Christmas and a bad economy, or because I've made the changes.

I'm going to watch a few more days and if things don't improve, I'm going to turn all the ads back on.

[netmeg]

I myself would not make a determination like that in less than two weeks; preferably a month. A few days is not enough time.

[shallow]

I myself would not make a determination like that in less than two weeks; preferably a month. A few days is not enough time.

Good advice. I'll follow it. Thank you!

[ThatsBoBo]

Google actually sent out an email today about third party ad networks. It touched on something I said above about not wanting to kick ads out of the auction; the more ads the better.

Google says in this email:

"With Google-certified ad networks, RPMs are dependent on the available ad inventory. Blocking an ad network will remove eligible ads from the auction, and so we strongly recommend against blocking ad networks solely based on RPM."...

"In general, blocking reduces the number of ads participating in the ad auction, which can then have a negative impact on your potential revenue. Please keep in mind that blocking “low paying ads” is a myth, as any ad that appears on your page has won the auction for that space and will earn you the most possible."...

[Swanny007]

ThatsBoBo, I blocked them all because of the perceived quality of the ads. My earnings didn't change any more than normal fluctuations when I blocked them all.

I don't want crappy ads on my site no matter what they pay. I'd rather have AdSense fill the spot with some text ads that people don't click on than put up with smiley and crap ads.

So Google isn't necessarily wrong, you may make more money (very little IMHO) by allowing the ad networks in. In my case there was no measurable increase in revenue with the networks.

[ThatsBoBo]

Hi Swanny007, I agree and too have blocked offensive ads, such as the old belly-fat ads and political ads.

What I'm trying to say is that I do not block ad networks based on their RPM, as that decreases the competition to bid up ad slots in the auction.

The OP mentioned blocking ad networks that had low performance. In such a case, I would NOT block such an ad network, as Google places the best paying ad in the ad slot (whichever won the auction based on bid, landing page quality, etc.). Poor performing ads would have to bid more for the slot, which drives up other bids and thus makes both the website owner and Google more money.

I believe micromanaging specific AdSense ads/3rd party ad networks, based on RPM and which are not offensive will only hurt a website, as Google has much more information than we do on which ads to place and which will make the most money.

"Crappy ads" are another thing all together. I don't want some person’s fat belly on my sites, even if they did pay the most and won the auction...

:)

[coachm]

it's clear to me that when google explains this, it applies across the system, but doesn't work well for any individual site. Interest based ads are a great example. They say they're great, but it doesn't work on my sites. I suspect it's the same for ad networks.
Google isn't interested in optimizing revenue for each site, but optimizing revenue for google and that's a subtle but different thing, even computationally.

[shallow]

I tried both and saw no significant difference. I may experiment with turning them all off in the future rather than just selected advertisers.

[netmeg]

I see hundreds of thousands of impressions with little or no earnings. That's all I need to know.