Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Previously my site's navigation menu was in that section, but I moved that to the right sidebar (where the ads USED to be). I did only my main index page last Friday, and then a bunch of other busy areas of the site on Saturday.
I noticed improved CTR on the pages that I have made the changes to. Today will be an interesting day to watch since it will be the first full day with the most pages having the ads in the left sidebar.
Sure enough it has been an interesting day so far. My CTR has nearly doubled from my average. However, I am seeing a very lowered EPC, even from the day before! In fact, despite the very improved CTR, if the EPC remains where it is I really haven't moved up in the world at all and may even have moved down in overall earnings....
One day is obviously to short of a time to make a conclusive assessment, but I am hard-pressed to think that the drop in EPC is not somehow related to the recent change in ad placement.
It should be noted that I also have several ad units on most of my pages. On most pages I have a large rectangle ad unit at the top of the page in the middle of the screen. This ad unit has always been my best performer. I wanted to compare the results between this ad unit, and the one in the left sidebar to see which performs better. I'll keep an eye on this over the next few days. I'm wondering if Google keeps track of which ad units perform well over time on any given page and then uses this information to place the highest earning ads in that ad unit. This may explain why my EPC may have gone down. Perhaps because the large rectangle has been the best performer in CTR it is getting the better ads, and perhaps now that I have an ad unit in the left sidebar I am getting an improved CTR in the left sidebar, but it may contain the lower paying ads so I am seeing a decrease in overall EPC.... There's just so many variables to think about eh?
The next thing I may try is to remove the ad unit in the middle of the page and keep the one in the left sidebar to see if the EPC goes up as a result.
Any thoughts on any of this would be appreciated.
Regards,
sr123
I too noticed my EPC dropped with I added the skyscraper but the extra CTR made up the difference.
If earnings are up I'd let it ride a few days and see what happens.
It's hard to say, but at the rate the day is going it looks like it will be a very low earnings day. Either way, I'm going to leave the ad placements as is for a few days at least to see how things go, as you suggested.
Do you use multiple ad units as well? I'm seriously considering getting rid of the large rectangle ads in the top center of my pages. I'm thinking that with the improved CTR from the ads in the left sidebar, then perhaps having less ad units on a page will cause the better paying ones to display in the left sidebar... I just can't shake the hunch that it may not always be best to have multiple ad units on a page in all cases. It may be best to discover 1 or 2 sweetspots on a page, and then place your largest ad unit in sweetspot #1, and a smaller one in sweetspot #2. I think perhaps having too many ad units on the page dilutes your overall earnings, especially if the best ads are not always displaying in the highest CTR-generating ad unit...
[poynterextra.org...]
There's nothing really all that suprising but it is a must read to remind you the best way to structure your pages according to how the human eye naturally scans a page. BTW, I noticed the EPC tank on my site this weekend also. Was very healthy all week and then went yesterday morning although the CTR remained constant. I'm guessing the weekdays will see a return to higher EPC (Hopefully!)
Don
Do you use multiple ad units as well?
Yes, leader board on top, skyscraper on the left starting 50% above the fold. People read left to right, top to bottom, seems to catch a lot of clicks.
Today has been wacky, at noon my Sunday earnings were about half normal, but earnings just started picking back up radically an hour ago so I think it will even out by the end of the day. I attribute this wacky day to the stinking DST change.
The CTR increase is almost surely because of the ads being placed in the left sidebar, but the decrease in EPC is inexplicable.
Despite the lower earnings, I will keep the ads in the left sidebar for a few more days at least to see if during the normal weekday the EPC will get back to "normal" levels. I place normal in quotes because it can fluctuate over time. However, lately I am getting some of the lowest EPC days I've ever had.
Regards,
sr123
my ctr is up and down like a yoyo.
I'm definitely considering large left side tower blocks after reading that article on eye tracking but I'm wondering wether I should move the top leaderboard above the h1 headline
global navs
leaderboard
h1
content
Recall that I moved my wide skyscraper ad unit from my right sidebar to my left sidebar to see if it would improve my CTR and earnings.
Monday was another RECORD day for CTR, but earnings were still flat in comparison to the number of clicks. So what I have gleaned so far is that it is definitely worth having the ads in the left sidebar, at least for my site. However, this has not translated to much improvement in my overall earnings. Last month and the months prior my EPC was much higher than it is now. If I had the same EPC now as I did then I'd be doing very well indeed.
I'll still keep the ads in the left sidebar to see if the EPC catches up over the next while.
In the meantime, anyone got any theories as to why EPC is going down just as my CTR is going up?
Regards,
sr123
But in general, seems the more clicks I get over time, the lower the EPC... Smart pricing in effect?
CTR way up, EPC way down
Not True
Move/change position of Ads, increase in CTR, lower EPC.
Not True
