Should I really trust Adsense tips to raise income?

[Kickedout]

I sometimes get some messages in adsense message center, tips to optimize income. One saying I must put more ads per page.
The other saying I must allow all kind of media because that makes advertisers to fight for your spots raising your income, they mention doing that you will earn more.

Should I reall take that advises seriously?

I personally don't like pages with excessive ads, and following the tip would result in too many ads per page. (but will that cause earnings rise or otherwise?)

The another one: text and images is my actual option. I didn't notice a big boost by allowing other rich media content... do you?

[ken_b]

The AdSense people at Google are not always in tune with the Spam fighters at Google.

AdSense wants more ad space, the spam fighters want less.

Proceed with great caution.

[netmeg]

The recommendations in your account are generic and sent to everyone. They aren't necessarily the best advice for everyone.

Now, if an AdSense rep actually contacts you via email and offers personalized optimization tips, it's worth listening to. You don't *have* to take their advice, but sometimes they can give you worthwhile tips - I had such an occurrence once, and I put in effect about 3/4ths of what they suggested, and my revenue did improve.

If you want to maximize your earnings, you should always be testing; blended vs non blended, text vs image, different colors, placements, in order to figure out what works best for you. I never NOT have some kind of test running.

[Kickedout]

I find testing very confusing really. Because it's hard to say if something did work or not. My income basically comes down along time, if I change ads or colors, can I say that didn't work because my income keeps lowering? It would do anyway I guess. Unless something I change reverts the situation and that sadly didn't happen this far.

[nomis5]

You can at least try to test. For example if you take a couple of reasonably steady pages which in your case may have a 5% decline in income each month, you can then test a change on one page and guage its effect against the non-changed page.

But I undertand your difficulty because G is shaking everything around so frequently it's very difficult to judge cause and effect.

Recently I slowly migrated some pages from 336x280 to 300x250 because the 10% of the 300x250 i already had were starting to show improved income over the other format. I have learnt that the results from a change over the first few days should be ignored - it's almost as if G is trying to disguise the effect. But after a week or so the results were clear, 300x250 performed better on my site.

Volume is also key, if you only have a small amount of page inpressions it is almost impossible to judge cause and effect.

[Kickedout]

So what is a fair strategy to gain traffic?
Should I optimize long tail?

[netmeg]

That's a whole different discussion, and not really one for the AdSense forum.

[HowYesNo]

try with image ads, now i only have them on my sites, lower ctr but higher click value

[matrix_jan]

I received an email from a named rep. about changing the location of ads(a specific ad on a specific page was brought as an example) to where people look and click more (an example of that was also attached to the email). I haven't done anything since then though. After I make the advised improvements I'll share Page RPM changes.

[Kickedout]

changing to image ads might make a difference, but it's hard to tell what is NOT working when you're down due to constant changes on algos and traffic. If I remain the same can't really confirm that it's the same thing, I guess only an improvement would point a way.

And honestly why on earth would Google be interested in paying you more of their money? Is there an answer to that?

[netmeg]

Your share doesn't change, so presumably if you make more money they make more money.

[Kickedout]

Makes sense and it doesn't at the same time.

Why would Google drop my income on sites rewarded for decades to half. If they want to make more money and asumming your statement is true? That makes non sense to me. If they will get more when I get more, there's no reason at all to pay me less.

If they want the big share of my 100%, why are they lowering me to half?

I didn't hear of many webmasters claiming they now doubled their profits on adsense due to loss of all "panda - penguin" and so on shaked webmasters. Do you?

And frankly I don't see reasons for my traffic to drop as it is.

[netmeg]

Your AdSense earnings dropping is not necessarily the same issue as your traffic dropping (although it could be related)

If they will get more when I get more, there's no reason at all to pay me less.

Maybe some of your advertisers dropped out of AdWords, or blocked your site. Maybe they lowered their budgets, or found sites that converted better for them. If they're smart advertisers, they're probably looking at that - I do.

But then again, if your traffic is significantly down, that could be it right there. Has your CTR changed?

There are lots of reasons for revenue to fluctuate; many people jump to "Google's taking more out" without looking into all the others. The biggest step you can take to understanding is to get yourself familiar with how AdWords works, because that's what is driving your AdSense. (But surprisingly few publishers take the time)

But the bottom line is, you have very little control over what happens with Google, and ultimately should be looking at other ways to make money, and consider AdSense to be ... icing on the cake.

[dataguy]

I've been invited to the googleplex every year since 2006 and I've been to their facilities in Mountain View At least once every year since 2008. I've even gone on a media tour with googlers as a representative of a "success story".

I can tell you that the advice that I've received during these interactions is completely disconnected with reality. I've received advice from my Adsense rep that is completely contradictory to the messages I've received in webmaster tools. I've been told my site is the best while being penalized for "breaking the guidelines."

My advice is to forget Google. Use them only when they benefit you. They are NOT your friend. They aren't even the friend of the typical web surfer.

I hope you have fun with your website, because fun may be all you have to fall back on while you figure out how to replace Google. Eventually the rest of the world will replace Google. That day cannot come too soon.

[IanCP]

So, so, sadly true.

They are NOT your friend

The apparent disconnect from reality between the left hand and the right hand is what now frightens me.

The monster spectre of, out of control bean counters, who only think six months ahead is haunting.

I have this ongoing fantasy of writing a movie script about it all and then discard the idea on the basis the average person would say:

"How implausible?"

Truth, often stranger than fiction. Google is seriously afflicted with some previously unknow human virus which must blow up within the next twelve months. The monsters are in control. Ideals went out the back door long ago.

[greatstart]

I've tried all of the tips. None of them have seem to improve my earnings. It's all a numbers game. The more traffic you have, the more you'll earn. Since last year, my traffic has plummeted. As a result, my earnings are less that half. There is really nothing you can do to improve earnings if you lost all that traffic.

[Leosghost]

Should I really trust Adsense tips to raise income?

No..

That is all..

[Kickedout]

Feedback: I've tested Google's suggestion and didn't improve income unfortunately. In fact changing ads type as opposite method they recommend improved a little little bit my earnings (but still big drop)

[JCKline]

For me, I want clicks, but I want visitors to hang around as well. So I never have added the "recommended" amount of as. I use 2 per page. One above the fold, and one at the bottom. I enable text/image and that's it. Seems to do well...for me (my sites). You need to figure out what does well for you (your sites). Make changes to one of your high traffic pages, and wait 2-3 weeks. No improvement, make more changes, then wait again. Once satisfied, change others.

[netmeg]

Today I had a new message in my console - AdSense predicted if I swapped out my 468x60 for a 728x90, I'd experience a 90%-105% earnings increase.

I have my doubts, and I don't like em, but after my peak season, I might test it.

[JCKline]

@netmeg, it is worth the "test". Just let it ride for a few weeks to see any real difference.

[Kickedout]

I test only one week (2 or 3 weeks seems a lot of time) and compare RPM to past week. I really don't see much difference, already tested the 3 options. Images only works for some sites but I'm seeing lots of "Adwords" banners on my sites, so guess that means there's not enough publishers. Personally I find a lot easier when I use adwords to creat Text ads instead graphical campaigns.

I like the images better than text ads (the appearance I mean).

[Scurramunga]

I've been invited to the googleplex every year since 2006 and I've been to their facilities in Mountain View At least once every year since 2008. I've even gone on a media tour with googlers as a representative of a "success story"...

...My advice is to forget Google. Use them only when they benefit you. They are NOT your friend.

Wow Dataguy! If they are not YOUR friend, there is not a hope in hell that they will ever be one of mine ;-)

I've been told my site is the best while being penalized for "breaking the guidelines."

It just like an episode of The Sopranios where they are hugging you one minute and ordering a hit on you the next

[azn romeo 4u]

Sometimes it true, sometimes it not. I did one thing they suggested, and it turned out to be true. 20% increase in earnings.