Google-certified ad networks

yes? no?

[ian_D]

I can't find any recent discussions about allowing or blocking these 3rd party networks. I've tried them on and off a few times last winter but I'm still not sure.

My CTR and CPC are actually pretty good right now with all of them blocked, and I'm getting pretty high ad relevance finally. But I wonder if I could be earning a bit more if they were allowed. It didn't seem to be the case last time, in fact I think I saw a decline in income with it on. Looked more like 3rd party ads just displaced and diluted my high CPC clicks.

From past experience I know those network CPM ads are generally really poorly targeted and I always have to review my site and keep re-blocking bad networks but does anyone think it really increases adsense bidding enough to use it?

What kind of percentages is it worth for those who do allow them?

[netmeg]

All you can do is test them for yourself, because our experiences with them won't necessarily be yours.

Me, I stick with straight AdWords and none of the others, they just don't earn for me. Last time I tested them, I was like five figures from the AdWords vs ten bucks worth from all the other networks. Combined.

This is one of the few AdSense knobs I actually keep twiddled.

[Planet13]

I'm confused...

Are we talking adsense or adwords here?

[breeks]

I have them on turned on since my last visit to Google.

They compete with bottom feeder ads so in theory raise the bid price.

Some of them pay pretty good. $3.00 clicks. Some don't pay sh**t

These are the best performing networks for my sites.

Radium one and Rocket Fuel RPM is very close to AdWords.

RadiumOne
Criteo (US)
Accuen w/ Invite Media
Rocket Fuel
Amazon.com
Sojern
Aegis Media Network w/ Turn
Google: DCLK Bid Manager
Turn

[netmeg]

Are we talking adsense or adwords here?

We're talking about the ad networks that feed AdSense. There's AdWords (the main one) and then there's a whole bunch of third party ad networks that Google contracts with as kind of "filler" ads. In your AdSense Account, go to Allow & Block Ads and look for the Ad Networks tab.

[ian_D]

ignore

[edited by: ian_D at 12:06 am (utc) on Jul 4, 2014]

[ian_D]

I was like five figures from the AdWords vs ten bucks worth from all the other networks. Combined

That's what I experienced too.
By showing those 3rd party ads, it looked as if impressions for adwords ads that might have actually paid me something were being hijacked for pennies.

But I'm wondering if there's any real evidence that those networks do have an impact on overall CPC, and is it enough to make up for the wasted impressions?

Sorry, connection borked on last message

[Planet13]

@ netmeg:

Thank you.

[netmeg]

But I'm wondering if there's any real evidence that those networks do have an impact on overall CPC, and is it enough to make up for the wasted impressions?

With the metrics I was seeing, any impact would have probably been minimal. At any rate, I didn't want to have to wonder about it.

[breeks]

Last 30 days made around $400.00 off ad networks.

[simplo]

I just pruned the top of the list last night. If the network is a low earner I cut it off. Some of them pay very well, some of them are just a bad fit.

[Swanny007]

I turned them all off a long time ago because I was seeing scammy low quality ads. I probably should turn them all back on and see which ones actually perform well. I was just a bit miffed though too because I signed up to partner with Google, not 50 flavors of the day tiny ad companies, yet Google decided to opt me into them without asking.

[breeks]

Maybe we can come up with a list of best networks.

For me RadiumOne and Rocket Fuel are the best month after month.

[mromero]

@breeks out of curiosity did research on these two. The first brought up sordid news about two of their top officers including one being sought by the S.S. The second one F o r b e s reported in May its shares have collapsed.

[Swanny007]

Maybe we can come up with a list of best networks.

That may be helpful, but at the same time it's usefulness is limited because we don't know what niche everyone's sites are.

[Swanny007]

WHOA, I just checked on the ad networks. My account shows 1,444 different ones. I was going to turn them on and see which ones perform but now it seems like too much work to pick through them all.

Plus, Google basically says not to block individual networks: [support.google.com...]

Anyway, in the end I enabled them all. I figure it's easy enough to just block them all if it's not working out in a week or two.

[eek2121]

My experience doesn't jive with the contents of that page. Turning every network off boosted my CTR and CPC.

[Swanny007]

Well after having ad networks enabled for about about 24 hours, preliminary results are a bit surprising. Stats for today show ad network revenue making up 5.7% of revenue. There are over 250 networks with ad requests, however I can see that if I continue to use ad networks I will probably wind up just enabling the top 10 or so that make any noticeable amount of money, and blocking the rest. Almost all networks earned a nickel or less, for today. I would say half of them made either nothing or one cent.

The results are very preliminary, I will give it more time and do further analysis. I'm surprised that 5% of my revenue is from ad networks though, I thought it would be more like 1% or less.

[ian_D]

My experience doesn't jive with the contents of that page.

Not true for me either. They discuss CPC in those network earnings examples but I doubt I ever had more than 1 or 2 clicks per month from 3rd party ads. All I really got from 3rd party networks were CPM ads which earned next to nothing.
I sometimes saw projections of $28 RPMs with CPM, but end of day CPC results have always blown that away.

My current best earning site averages 1400 daily page views for $25 to $70 a day, all CPC impressions. There's no way 3rd party average CPM bids are high enough to compete with adwords CPC in my case. It made no sense that CPM ads were being shown at all.

The adsense claim that they always show the highest paying ad first also didn't hold true for me with networks enabled. Maybe they show the highest in each category and cycle through all categories. Maybe that works well on a site with broad content.
But it doesn't work in a tight niche with a small amount of very focused traffic.

[Swanny007]

Well I thought I'd post a quick update. After having all ad networks enabled for July 10-28, networks made up approx 7% of my revenue. But, account-wide RPM dropped slightly (5%). So I'm not sure yet if I'll keep them all, I can't say if the 5% is solely due to networks. I figure I'll maybe give it a full month or so and decide. Worst case is I disable all ad networks again and revenue goes back up 5%. My revenue each month this year has dropped about 5% per month so that's why I'm not all up in arms about this drop.

[ember]

I've been running all 1,457 of them for some time, but they earn 1% of total revenue and are taking up space. So I've disabled them and will see what happens.