Google-certified ad networks

Allow, block, how the perform etc...

[dolcevita]

Just wonder what is your CPC for this year for Google AdWords as the primary ad network (since 01 January 2017 )? And if you allow other ad networks automatically (wonder why not because there are plenty stronger Ad networks who pay much more) do you analyze how they perform in the past and do you then take action to block them to increase generally CPC and CPM?

[NickMNS]

I allow other ad networks and yes in the report many networks show impression RPM values that are orders of magnitude higher than Adwords. But, and this is a big but, none of those networks generate enough impressions to allow me to draw any significance from those RPM values. One click on the first impression will result in a RPM value that could be in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. Obviously this is not actually the case but simply a side effect of how the reports are generated.

So the only blocking I do, is based on whether an ad network consistently serves spammy or low quality ads. And surprisingly, since I have been watching this I have only blocked 1 network. Sadly most of the spam ads come from Adwords.

[dolcevita]

How do you know which ad network serves spammy ads?What I do is looking back.to year a go and if CPC is constant under 15c per click then simple block it whole ad network.

[Peter_S]

How do you know which ad network serves spammy ads

Using the ad review center, for each ad, you have the adword account, or the ad network. You can also filter by ad network (one at a time).

[NickMNS]

How do you know which ad network serves spammy ads

Exactly as Peter explained

[Peter_S]

Exactly as Peter explained

<3

[dolcevita]

Wonder how do you define spammy ads, how do you recognize it and when you decide to block it?

You can not see CPC or CPM per Ads. You can see how it looks, what advertise, link to site in ads.

Do you visit advertiser website/page to take decision or simple block it because it looks spammy for you ?Or there is something else that you know for sure that it is spammy Ads.

[NickMNS]

You can smell a spammy ad from a mile away.

First you need to enable ad-review center. It is located in the allow and block ads page of Adsense and it should be one of the last tabs. This allow you to see all the ads that appear on you site. You can see, how many impressions each ad had and when, the advertiser, the Adwords account or third party network and you get a preview of the target landing page. You can the block ads, by url, ad-unit, or Adwords account.

Most spam ads are obvious and nearly impossible to block (without the ad-balancer). Once you block the ad it will usually comeback, slightly modified, from a new account and pointing to a new domain. Currently I am chasing ads for apple cider vinegar that include heavily photo-shopped images of scantly clad women in workout wear making outrages weight-loss claims. I have seen at least two dozen iterations of these spam ads.

[dolcevita]

Thank you for sharing your view but i can count only on 'smell a spammy ad". Maybe you are blocking one of your high paying Ads. Who knows?

Take this situation.Why is for example big 'Download Now' button spam if you after click going to website where you can download not malicious toolbar or other not malicious software which pay for example between 0.35 - 0.50 CPC comparing with other great looking and not spammy ad which pay 0.05 - 0.10 CPC?

The story above is in theory but it is possible. I count only on exactly stats. details. That;s the reason that the way i do is only looking through Ad Networks and how they perform over period from 6 months or year.

[zdgn]

How do you know which ad network serves spammy ads?

DISCLAIMER: These are personal guidelines. Please do not try this at home. YMMV.

After 14ish years with AdSense I have this currently pasted on the wall:

1. All ads are essentially spammy to a degree. The degree being the amount of money spent on creating them.
   
2. AdSense 'tweaks' are a ploy, like zig-zag velvet ropes to prevent mobbing, or visitors books at huge public gatherings for people to do something & not get restless
   
3. Goog decides, Dude abides: Run as-is, out of the can.
   

:D

[NickMNS]

Maybe you are blocking one of your high paying Ads. Who knows?

Let me address this from two angles.
First, whether these ads are high paying or not is irrelevant as the cost of displaying these ads is much higher than any return one could expect. Ads reflect on the content of the page on which they are displayed. Say you have a site for helping kids with their homework, and the ads being displayed are for a Russian dating service. I can guarantee that the user that sees that ad will never comeback to your site. Even if the user has an interest in dating Russians. My example may be extreme but it illustrates the point. It then comes down to your judgment, what type of ads are acceptable to your users. If you have a site about gambling, then the Russian dating ad is not so misplaced. So it is a decision that only the webmaster can make.

Second, the proof is in the pudding. Using the Ad balancer (currently under maintenance) ranks the ads from highest paying to lowest and then only show the % of ads that you set. So if you set it to 50% it will only show half of all your ads, but the ads will be 50% highest paying ads. The feature also shows how much of revenue you can expect to loose. For many (see the ad balancer thread [webmasterworld.com...] 50% still returns 100%, in my case I was somewhere in the range 60% to 70% = 100%. In other words in my case more than 30% of the ads displayed provide no benefit. Now, with the ad balancer on at 60% almost all the spammy ads disappeared from my site.

So conclusion, spam ads provide no revenue or at best very little revenue, and come at a cost as displaying them may negatively impact the reputation and trust of your site.

Now, the ad balancer may provide a solution for what your are trying to achieve. In addition to limiting the coverage(fill rate) of the ads, you can implement back-up ads to show when ads are suppressed. So what this means is that you can show the most profitable ads, and show say affiliate links when ads are not shown. But this works on % of ads as opposed to a specific cpc.

If you want to limit ads shown to a specific cpc then you would need to use DoubleClick For Publishers.

[dolcevita]

Thank you for your explanation but i disagree absolutely with first part.

As you know Adsense are interest based (i guess that 90% publisher has enabled this option) to reach users based on their interests.I do not see any problem to showing dating ads to someone who is looking for dating with russian girl. It does not matter what kind of website is that.

For me as publisher and probably for many others is very important to disable spammy ads but we disagree in point of view for spammy ads.

As i have already pointed in my previosly reply for me is more spammy Ads who pay 0.05 CPC then Ads who pay 0.55CPC. The problem is that we do not know what is CPC/CPM per Ads but we may know how Ad Networks perform.

If you checkout performance of specific Ad network and see that Ads from Criteo (TR) for example over the last 12 months has been clicked 500 times with CPC never higher 0.07 and average 0.03-0.04 CPC then for me is clear what i must to do in such a situation.

And even if they (Criteo) do not tolerate spammy Ads for me it is spammy becsuse of low CPC/CPM.Simple block it.

I do not believe in classification of spamny Ads simple because say with font 22 'Click me' or 'Download me' if site where you get product is legitimate without malicious script or other bobby traps that can damage visitor of my website.

[NickMNS]

@dolcevita

As you know Adsense are interest based (i guess that 90% publisher has enabled this option) to reach users based on their interests.

I understand the interest based ad serving, and if you have site for helping kids homework and ads about new cars are shown, that is fine. The issue is when inappropriate ads are shown. But as I said, it is a matter of judgment, if you feel that for your site anything goes, then great.

More evidence of spamminess is when you block an ad, and then it comes back the next day, same ad slightly altered, from a new account, leading to another domain. Legitimate advertisers do not do this.

I'll agree to disagree.

Blocking low paying ads or ad networks doesn't work. The reason is that you advertisers are bidding in an auction. Blocking ads or ad networks reduces demand for a fixed supply. Low paying ads that are blocked will simply be replaced with ads that are even lower paying. The only solution to this problem is to remove the inventory from the market and this can only be done in two ways, 1- ad-balancer, and 2- DFP.

Both these tools block a portion of your inventory, and advertisers are bidding for fewer ad space so the price is maintained. If an advertiser wants to show an ad their only solution is to increase their bid and displace another advertiser. DFP works on a set price point, say cpc of 0.15, so as a result if no advertisers are will to more than that you will display no ads. But if the all the advertiser are will to may more than 0.15 then any unused inventory will be filled. Whereas the Ad-balancer works on % of bids, so set at 50% it will display the top 50% of all bids so say you have bids for the inventory ranging from 0.14 to 0.01 with a mean of 0.7 then all ads above 0.07 cents will be displayed across 50% of the available inventory. If the mean (50% rank) price goes up above 0.15, then advertisers need to bid more to have ads shown but still only 50% of the inventory is filled. Now for the ad balancer I have over simplified thing a bit, as Adsense has an algo that adjusts overtime, so I assume if you have sudden surge in interest then the algo may allow the more than 50% to be filled. But those details are unclear.

The bottom line is that both DFP and Ad balancer have down sides. But both will produce far better results than simply blocking ads.

The solution that provides the best outcome is simply to promote your site, grow traffic and essentially increase demand for your finite ad space. This is also the most difficult solution to implement!

[dolcevita]

Maybe it is coincidence but since i've started with blocking Ad Networks (2-3 weeks a go) by analyzing performance in the past 12 months (blocking all Ad Networks where click were from 0.00$ - 0.20$ CPC) CPC has been jumped up.

Maybe it is coincidence but i believe that following my way of the blocking can not be bad for overall CPC/RPM.

[netmeg]

I've been blocking everything but AdWords network for years because years ago I ran the numbers and my AdWords network earnings were mid five figures while all the other networks combined were about ten bucks. So why give them the space.

Probably time to re-test though; that was at least five years ago, maybe more.

[dolcevita]

I've started with blocking all networks whereby CPC is constantly lower for period of 12 months than Adworks.

For example if Adworks CPC is 0.25$ for month's and if average CPC is about 0.30$ then every networks between 0.00$- 0.20$ has been blocked.If I do not have enough evidence for performance in the last 12 months then I keep it till they are more evidence about performing. Networks performance between 0.20$ - 0.25$ which is lower than Adwords is for myself in some kind of gray zone.A bit lower but still with potential.I keep it.

Till now, but it is early to say anything, I see only positive things from logical decision about what to blocking and why.

[NickMNS]

I'm glad to see that you're seeing positive results but it is as you state

Maybe it is coincidence

The thing is, it is difficult to know whether this is really a positive result. You may have had an even greater increase in revenue had you not blocked those ad networks.

I see only positive things from logical decision

There is nothing logical about this decision. As explained above blocking buyers, reduces demand. Reducing demand while leaving supply unchanged causes prices to fall. Logically what you are proposing should not benefit you. Practically it may well be beneficial. Good luck.

[dolcevita]

Maybe you have right but i see it difference.

If there are 350 networks whereby by analize of 150 networks in period of 12 months they perform constantly above CPC from Adworks.And if they are another 100 networks whereby they perform constantly in range below 0.10$ for period of 12 months then it is logical to block bad performing networks in hope that their place fill be replaced with higher performing networks.

What i do is blocking spammy Ads through blocking whole network which constantly in long period served Ads with low CPC.

Btw

Who said that blocking low CPC i block buyer?I block spam through they performing.One cent or 0.10$ networks "Buyer" i do not need at all on my websites.

And as i have already said i see higher CPC, RPM and more page views.Incomes are 15-20% higher.

Maybe it is coincidence but maybe nit.We can only speculate it about.