Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I'm testing out adding fewer ads on my primary site. We had the 160 x 600 skyscraper at the top of our site, and then far below the "break", we had a second 160 x 600 down there. The majority of our content is business related, mostly articles.
TOS says I can't reveal our numbers, but the CPM of our lower 5 ads is only 1/4 of what the top is. And our top ads receive 2/3 of the clicks, the bottom 1/3.
The idea is we'll now only show 4 ads at the top, and 2 ads at the bottom.
I'm just curious if anyone else has tried this? I know that adding the lower ads did add revenue to our site, but the CPM on it has never been that great. Still, some money is always better than no money...
I have also been experimenting actively with not displaying any ads at all, by rotation:-
[webmasterworld.com...]
There might be some posts in there of interest to you.
TJ
I notice that a lot of newspaper sites seem to be placing a "rectangle" ad block, with two to four ads, below the article, with typically a pale gray border or a pale gray background.
Great thread, thanks for that. Sounds like our sites are exact opposites: We have a lot more transient, one-time visitors. If they don't like the content, the ads are a good "way out".
The CTR on the lower ads is dismal, as is the CPM. I do have to say, its early, I've only had about two hours but I think I see a negative impact on the bottom line - not the usual "jump" in revenue at this time of the day. Hard to patient if I'm tossing away revenue. The only thing is that our site is very steady, the trends are easy to read even throughout the day. It seems below normal right now. I will stick with it, though.
Hyper: I appreciate the advice. I have tested out "wrap boxes" as well as boxes below the ads. Our left placed ads do the best for us, so far. I will test out all the Google Search box to the bottom of our pages next. Early tests did not show much promise, but hey, its easy to test and even easier to yank it.
No offense intended, but I *never* do what major or minor newspapers do - they the most clueless freakin' bunch on the planet when it comes to internet advertising. Don't get me started on this...! I highly urge you to do - or at least test - the exact opposite of whatever any major newspaper does.
I speak from experience. I'm actually consulting with a publishing group right now. These guys are great: they don't pretend to know it all. Not like their competitors, whose attempts are laughable on a good day. Sure makes my job easier.
I pulled the plug on the experiment already. Our site is so steady, I had an idea within a few hours of how we were doing, and it just was not pretty.
I guess in another day or two I'll have the actual stats for those channels. All I know for sure is that the overall revenue was below norm enough to make me break out a sweat this morning.
Instead, I've moved forward with putting a few of the Google search boxes around the site, and made some changes weighting additional page views views over the Lower ad group.
