AdSense Suggestions

Am I the only person who thinks this is dumb?

[IanCP]

When I looked at my reports this morning I saw two almost identical messages:

Up to 55% ($X) predicted increase in weekly earnings.

You're currently blocking the following sensitive category of ads: "Dating"/"Religion". Maximise your revenue by allowing these ads to appear on all of your sites.

Yes one message was for "dating", and the other for "religion".

Perhaps it's just me, but I would have thought the reason those class of ads were blocked should have been blindingly obvious to anyone - even to a computer properly programmed.

[RedBar]

I'm sick of seeing Google's own Digital ads on every page!

[netmeg]

(If you are testing enabling some groups, I'm pretty sure you need to wait at least a week and probably closer to a month before you decide whether or not they are affecting your earnings. A day or two isn't going to be statistically significant)

The groups I've disabled I've done so because I don't want to see them on my sites, regardless of what they pay. Oddly, I haven't gotten a single notice from Google about them . They send me stuff on changing to a responsive unit or changing the font, but not the groups.

[MikeNoLastName]

Yeah, I was going to give it a full week to settle out, but with the drastic earnings increases they were predicting, and the fact I track our stats pretty close and was using averages over multiple periods (like same day of week accounting for traffic volume, etc), the small amount is barely above the noise at this point as it is. The categories they recommended for me are known high-spam areas though, so there are now some quite low CPCs with low CTRs ads being shown in prime territory spaces (based on custom channel earnings tracking).

[Swanny007]

I noticed the message today that I might make an extra 5% if I enable Gambling & Betting ads. It turns out that's the only category I block. My sites are geared toward high school and older folks so it seems a bit risky to turn that on... hmmm... I'm not sure what to do.

[londrum]

If you've turned all of the other categories on, then i'd say gambling is the least of your worries! I'd be more worried about all the sexual stuff you get with the others

[eek2121]

Nothing dumb about it. They claimed a 55% earnings increase if i enabled 1 category. I enabled the category and got nearly 100% increase over the past few days. Biggest improvements were CTR and CPC.

[IanCP]

I would like to see your performance over three months, and even a 100% increase wouldn't motivate me.

My personal values and standards aren't for sale.

[eek2121]

that's why i was hesitant to post anything yet, but too many people have been talking about this. So far the trend is holding.

[nomis5]

I turned on "religion" a week or so ago and the results are almost impossible to gauge.

Earnings are about what I would expect with or without religion. But possibly they could have fallen without it, or risen without it. Who knows?

I have no problem with "religion" ads as far as my values are concerned, I just wish i could find some of the ads, to see what they are about. I can't find a trace of them.

[tangor]

Somewhere, a corporate g ad geek is pleased to have a conversion to another ad stream addition. That is what you wrap around yourself and smile. Amongst the dials and meters on the "black box" yet one more site is near 100% of what is offered!

[super70s]

I noticed the message today that I might make an extra 5% if I enable Gambling & Betting ads. It turns out that's the only category I block. My sites are geared toward high school and older folks so it seems a bit risky to turn that on... hmmm... I'm not sure what to do.

You mean they allow gambling ads? I have a page on my site about "top gambling songs" and they sent me a TOS violation (logically, there's not a word about gambling in their TOS explanation either).

[EditorialGuy]

Anyone who relies on canned, algorithmically-generated messages for publishing advice is headed for failure anyway.

[lucy24]

I enabled the category and got nearly 100% increase over the past few days.

If the increase holds steady, it suggests that there is something about your specific site's readers that you didn't know and/or didn't take into consideration. And then it's time to ask yourself whether you should have known.

:: currently reeling over discovery that one particular ebook-- an utterly benign, boring text written more than 200 years ago-- happens to contain text strings, or combinations of words, that come up in searches for ### ###. Should I have anticipated this? Dunno ::

[tangor]

boring text written more than 200 years ago-- happens to contain text strings, or combinations of words, that come up in searches for ### ###. Should I have anticipated this? Dunno ::

Nah... that's Serendipity.

[SmallP]

I have no problem with "religion" ads as far as my values are concerned, I just wish i could find some of the ads, to see what they are about. I can't find a trace of them.

I used to allow religious ads but last weekend, while doing my weekly search-and-destroy for "download" arrow ads on my site, I noticed a very similar ad using "convert" rather than "download". So I tried a search using "convert" and was shocked to find hundreds of really quite aggressive ads offering help with converting to a particular faith. I have nothing against that faith or any faith (and recognise that the ads were probably interest-based) but they weren't appropriate so I switched off religion.

I now have all the sensitive categories turned off and this week I have been promised gazillions in increased revenue. It's really hard to resist! But I have to live with myself. And there is nothing I hate more than getting irate emails from people who have seen inappropriate ads on my site, or who have clicked on that Download button (thinking they are getting one of my pdfs) and instead get malware.

[netmeg]

Hey I finally got one of these notices. They want me to enable "Ringtones" People still buy ringtones? In 2015? Who'd a thunk.

One thing I wish is that they'd split out the political category into candidates and issues. I don't mind running candidate ads (in fact it makes sense on my local based sites) but I really don't want issue ads; those are too divisive.

[CrazyHorse23]

I don't understand why you guys are all seemingly so shocked about the 'Drugs' ad category? In my Adsense account it's listed as 'Drugs & Supplements'. The "drugs" part refers to pharmaceutical drugs not recreational drugs! Since I run a site in the medical/health niche this category is far and away the most popular and best performing.

[CrazyHorse23]

Slightly amused! I don't understand why you guys are all seemingly so shocked about the 'Drugs' ad category? In my Adsense account it's listed as 'Drugs & Supplements'. The "drugs" part refers to pharmaceutical drugs not recreational drugs. Since I run a site in the medical/health niche this category is far and away the most popular and best performing and my site would be dead without it. Seems like some of you are expecting to have ads suggesting your visitors light up a 'joint' while browsing your site if you enable this category!

As for Google's wild claims about the percentage increases you'll see if you enable certain categories - ignore. I've been getting loads of these lately and there was a period a few years ago when I received similar 'alerts'. I ran a few experiments, then and now and the result was the same; either no change or a decrease in revenue along with a lot of angry visitors. As others have speculated, it's probably just Google trying to fill Publishers' sites with the junky ads they can't (or don't want to) place on their search network.

[adamxcl]

I turned them off long ago and saw noticeable improvements. So I thought after getting these messages, I would try a test again. After a few days, my revenue and just about all stats are looking noticeable worse. If I am going to annoy customers, I have a to make a TON more money. So it's a waste so far for me. Just another dumb message from Google that really doesn't care about your site.

[trebuchet]

I'm not offended by pharmaceutical drugs advertising, it's just not relevant to my site or my audience. If I had a medical or health related site then I'd certainly have them activated.

[MikeNoLastName]

So here we are, at least 2 weeks into "allowing categories" recommended by G and the objective results are in. For the two week period ending 10/13 (carefully including same days Tues-Tues of each period) earnings are DOWN 8.8% after allowing the previously blocked ads and our ad selection looks like @#^!
PPC is down 9.3% while CTR is up about 2.1%.
Hopefully this helped G gain some new advertisers or make more money because it certainly didn't help me to the extent of the 150% or so increase they predicted.
These results even included censoring out the obvious daily shotgun attacks (we have cheapest [%keyword] for sale) paying half a cent per CT until they drop off the ranks, of which there were 3 times as many on the recommended categories.
I would say it might improve a general interest blog with a dozen available ads making .03 PPC, by giving them a wider selection of ads, but definitely NOT for a niche site with 10K plus different ads paying 10-20x that. The non-specific ads just can't compete.
Turning them off NOW G, and next time analyze your publisher's sites better before blanket recommending changes.

[londrum]

at least you didn't put a downpayment on a brand-new Ferrari, like i did — that's the last time I listen to Google as well

[MikeNoLastName]

Nah, but even a slightly used, late model VW diesel would have been nice...

[IanCP]

AdSense are still at it. Today's latest blurb.

Up to 10% predicted increase in weekly earnings....
Match the border and background colour of ad unit "728x15, XYZ Site - Footer created 19/06/09" to improve performance. You can also run an experiment to try it out.

A 728X15 text link? No fangs Mr AdSense.

[IanCP]

Isn't that the source of Unbillable numbers?

[Portland79]

I think I just realized why my Adsense earnings tanked hard in May.
I enabled all this crap.
Just disabled and will see how it goes.
If my 2nd half of October stomps the last 5 months, I'm back on track.

But I have lost like 80% of earnings due to loss of clicks.

[CrazyHorse23]

I enabled practically all categories except gambling a couple of weeks ago when we started this discussion (having previously disabled maybe 20%). At the same time I added the new 'Matched Content' units below the Adsense at the bottom of my content - I expected this to reduce CTR but it hasn't!

Results: Page Views UP ~15% & Adsense Earnings UP ~25%

10k page health site. I'll let you guys interpret my results so far as you wish...I'm just hoping they continue!

[IanCP]

As the old expression goes:

YMMV - "Your mileage might vary"

[farmboy]

You're currently blocking the following sensitive category of ads: "yyyyy". Maximise your revenue by allowing these ads to appear on all of your sites.

Whenever I see one of these remarks, it's an easy decision as to what I should do. My experience has been that "yyyyy" gets poor ads for me, which is why I blocked them in the first place. Improve the quality and ask me again for consideration. Simple.


FarmBoy