Do you block categories that bring more revenue than impressions?

[tryingtogrowsite]

I have three or four categories which are not directly related to my niche but bring in, at least according to the category section in the adsense panel, more revenue than impressions. These categories seem on paper to be very unrelated.

The best fit category shows around half the impressions but brings in around 25% revenue.

The above categories that bring in more revenue than impressions get a round 3% to 5% impressions, which means I am getting a staggering 30% of impressions from all the unrelated categories. I have decided to block them for now because I want Adsense to be showing ads only from the best fit category (and one or two other semi-related ones). This should give the ads the most chance of being clicked.

I have recently been targeted by impressions based ads because I've noticed I've been making around 25 to 30% of my revenue in the last month from impressions only, which is extremely high from a historical perspective. I normally get under 5% monthly revenue from impressions-based ads.

I wish I could block all non-related categories, but they restrict you to around 200 sub-categories.

[tryingtogrowsite]

By the way, Adsense suggests I should allow all categories (not bar any) in the optimization page.

[NickMNS]

I wish I could block all non-related categories, but they restrict you to around 200 sub-categories.

It is very simple, go to Allow and block ads, ad serving and switch of off the personalized ad category.

Now I must tell you that I do not agree with your logic. Revenue is based on an auction system that is heavily influenced by supply and demand. If you reduce the demand side of the equation by blocking personalized ads this will should have major negative impact on your revenue. This is because there will be far greater supply (supply has not changed but the ratio has) as compared to the now limited number of contextual based ads. It is possible then, that more contextual will be shown, and this could benefit you in more clicks, but each click will be worth far less. The net result in my opinion will a loss in revenue.

Internet advertising is user based, not publisher based. Advertisers ultimately are indifferent as to what website displays their ads, what is import is which users see the ads. Much of the revenue we earn as publishers is the result of pure luck, the users may have seen the same on five different websites before landing on your site. But finally on your site the user decides to click the ad, and you get the payout.

Eliminating this dynamic and relying solely on contextual ads is in view big mistake. And, if your site is so inherently topic specific then a better solution would be use affiliates as the payout will be much higher.

[martinibuster]

AdSense not only shows ads related to your content but they also show ads that are related to your site visitors.

Thus, there are two kinds of contextual ads:

1. Contextual to your content
   
2. Contextual to your visitor

While those categories may not be relevant to your content they may be relevant to your visitors.

[tryingtogrowsite]

I am trying to work on finding good affiliates that I can use on the site. The problem with affiliate programs is that you usually need to pre-sell the audience to generate sales, or what happens is people go to the merchant site from your link but then google for a review, turning your potential sale into someone else's.I don't mind linking to the merchant site but don't want to review the product.

[CommandDork]

I tried blocking categories before, only seems to eat into total revenue. So I leave everything on nowadays and it doesn't hurt anything.

[Chrispcritters]

I tend to turn off political ads during heated election cycles as they sometime give the appearance that I am for or against a particular politician, view, or legislation... It's worth the drop in revenue to not have to deal with the "I'll never use your site again, you're a horrible person for being for/against..."