Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I've only had the ads on my site for a few days now + may have made 2 or 3 test clicks on the first day, but that was it.
Do you think they're trying to get out of paying me?
Thanks
Maku
Ironically, during our five-day test of the program we recorded a click-through rate no lower than 0.4% and no higher than 0.6%. (How in the world could anyone achieve a 15 or 20% click-through rate? I've been in this business for a few years. That dog don't float!)
I'm sorry to disappoint you. Genuine CTRs in that range are not only possible but they are happening, have been happening for a while, and - on some sites - with no objection from Google. If you've established a steady CTR of 17-18% no email. If that jumps to 20% you will get a warning email. It's not the CTR itself, it's sudden variations.
Ironically, during our five-day test of the program we recorded a click-through rate no lower than 0.4% and no higher than 0.6%.
well, I personally have something in a range between 1 and 3 % but I must say that it all depends on how well AdSense banners are targeting your audience - how good information are they providing. On some of my websites they are not so much relevant - just "similar in topic" but on other sites they really are good completion to the content that I provide. So it depends on the targetting - if they are good targetted then I believe that CTR higher than 10% may be possible... although I have never experienced it myself...
It's a legitimate question. And remember some people are claiming they get 30%! It is significantly above the average click-throughs you will get for most advertising in history! But a lot depends on the page.
So to answer the question i would suggest some possible ways this could be acheived:
1. The adsense panels are the only links on the page, or maybe only with one or two other far less prominent internal links, with extremely limited content (lets say even 10 to 25 words only)
2. They could be "incentivised" to some extent by many methods, including "off-page" incentivisation that would be harder for google to detect.
3. The page itself is so devoid of content or so ugly that people click on these links just to get outta there!
Though it may well be within the Adsense TOS, I doubt these clicks would give a large ROI to the advertiser, and that Google will eventually get rid of these types of pages as they dont actually add much value than maybe some clever SEO to get the page to the top of the keyword results.
Scenario: you've got a content page on a particular product with a "Buy Now" button being the only outward link from that page (apart from "Home"). The page is pretty much plain text with product specs, editorial comment, and other useful information. It gets to #1 in SERPS.
Now you stop selling this popular product and rather than remove the page you put a note on the top boldly stating "Sorry, we have now stopped selling X", but you keep all the other content. You put an Adsense tower at the top right and it blends with the rest of the colours.
Trust me, you'll be surprised if the CTR drops to 30% on a bad day.
In fact I know at least one webmaster who decided to stop selling a product because he was making more on Adsense on that page than he was on the sale of the product itself.
Better to have small simple pages like that each targeting a product class, and you will probably get the same or close result yes?
In fact I know at least one webmaster who decided to stop selling a product because he was making more on Adsense on that page than he was on the sale of the product itself.
but for how long can it go? after some time users will be going directly to the competitors, without even visiting his site... (unless he has a domain name like buy.com ...)
I still have a few more pages that I haven't put the code on yet, but I'm almost afraid to do so for fear of the unknown. :-)
I think I'll wait to see if I hear back from them. If I knew approximately what they saw and when, I could go through my logfiles and see if there's any correlation.
I would guess it has a limited life in the SE's too, as Google may well downgrade pages with very little content, almost no links, and just an Adsense panel, the idea being i guess, that they think it would be better for users (and google) if they found the ad through Adwords in subseuqnt or original searches.
Not being negative, but its not something i would do... Im a low risk taker!
How in the world could anyone achieve a 15 or 20% click-through rate?
By:
1) Offering extremely targeted content on a topic that's geared to buyers, and...
2) Having very few pages, or having very few pages with the AdSense code.
On most true "content sites" (information or editorial sites), the CTR is likely to be far lower than 15% or 20% because the pages aren't optimized for sales. Still, there could be exceptions. A site titled "Bagpiping for Beginners" might achieve a high CTR if an advertiser were offering inexpensive chanters (after all, where else are most people going to buy such devices?), a site about a rare medical condition might achieve a high CTR if a pharmaceutical company were advertising its miracle drug on every page, and a site titled "How to Knit Faroese Sweaters" might achieve a high CTR if advertisers offered imported yarns from the Faroe Islands (which aren't likely to be available at the local knitters' shop).
it may just be more cost effective and risk-reducing to work on things you know, rather than things you guess. ... A certain high profile member of this board has already suggested that Adsense has 6 months at the most.. and then will slowly decline...
My my, such contradiction. We don't know what the future of AdSense will hold. Neither does this high profile member. In the spirit of sticking to what we know, why not focus on the fact that AdSense pays well now and stick to that until we see evidence that something else is going on?
My goodness! This thread just runs and runs, doesn't it :-)
And I thought it would end with msg # 251
:-)
My goodness! This thread just runs and runs, doesn't it :-)
because google cannot do: ignore clicks that are from the same IP address instead of sending terror email about fraudulant clicks!
