Allowing Targetting. Bad idea?

[internetheaven]

I allowed targeting on one of my Channels last week and my EPC jumped from $1.12 average to $12.87 average.

For about 10 seconds I felt "yay!" .... then I panicked. After being on some forums, I'm getting the impression that allowing targeting very risky. After 100 clicks, I removed the option of targeting. It just looked wrong?

The main gist of the argument seems to be that advertisers have to pay through the nose for targeting, so they have a higher tendancy to complain about ads and charge-backs/invalid click complaints are far more common.

Anyone had bad experiences with targeted ads?

[netmeg]

No, most of my custom channels are set for targeting. Have been for years.

[internetheaven]

And are you getting $10+ per click for years without advertisers charging back or claiming invalid clicks every chance they get?

[jpch]

No, I've had targeted channels for years as well without any issues.

[netmeg]

I regularly get $4-9/click insofar as I can tell (when it gets busy, it's hard to pick out individual clicks, but overall my average EPC is very high)

I don't get many invalid clicks, no. It's usually less than five bucks a month. Although now of course, since they're taking them out completely, I won't know how much going forward.

[littlecubpanda]

Nothing changed when I changed to targeting.

I don't even know how it works. Do advertisers actually comb through my ads? How the hell do they find them? There must be tens of thousands of ads to comb through. How the hell do you know if someone picked your ad?

I don't get it.

[netmeg]

I'm not sure what you changed, littlecubpanda. For targeting in AdSense, you set a channel for targeting, and describe it, and then advertisers come look for your site and specifically pick it to run ads on. For example, if I have a site that's mostly about Michigan stuff, some advertiser who wants to target Michigan people will look (in AdWords) for sites that target Michigan, and then make ads for those sites.

[internetheaven]

Although now of course, since they're taking them out completely, I won't know how much going forward.

taking what out completely?

[netmeg]

The invalid clicks - it used to be they took out the revenue but left the impressions and the clicks. Now they're taking out all three. So unless I'm monitoring my AdSense obsessively, I'll probably not notice when they take stuff away.