Forum Moderators: martinibuster
there has been a lot of discussion around blocking competitors or advertisers with otherwise unwanted ads. I wanted to get your opinion on this...
...and wanted to start off with my experience!
Recently I blocked 15 advertisers
- scrapers
- self-appointed "directories"
- "services" with no valuable content
- sites with unacceptable offers
- sites that had nothing to do with my main topic (travel)
Clicks, CTR, CPM, and EPC dropped like a stone to about 50% of normal. Some ad containers could even not be filled with suitable ads any longer. Ouch. At the same time, overall traffic remained the same.
So I unblocked the advertisers, and things went back to normal quickly.
My conclusion: If my content is strong (it is), users will recognize it. They will also recognize bad/dubious sites operated by advertisers. If my user clicks an ad, he will wonder what to do on the advertisers site, and use the back button and continue browsing my site (except maybe clicking other ads). Thus, I will not block ads in the future, even if I am still very much tempted to do so (today I saw a leaderboard on my site with four ads pointing to different flavours of the same (!) dubious "directory" service containing just ad links from another AFF program).
What's your opinion? What's your experience?
-- Mark, with a smile from Munich, Germany
I had accumulated a list of about a dozen URLs over the past year, added mostly one or two at a time as I've noticed the ads. These included a couple of direct competitors, several fee-charging "literary agencies" (considered by most in publishing to be an unacceptable practice), and some self-publishing services with shaky ads.
I recently went over them and decided that I was splitting hairs when it came to the self-publishing companies--I get a lot of ads from that area on my site, from a lot of different companies, and it's impossible to keep track. Visitors can do their own research into them through resource sites I link to.
So I cut my block list from 12 to 7 entries. Not a big change? Well, it may be too early to draw firm conclusions, since this was only 4 days ago, but both earnings and eCPM are up about 25%. I don't think that's a coincidence.
So keep those lists as short as possible. They can have a big impact--you only block advertisers you can see, after all, so you are both depleting inventory and reducing competition for space on your site.....
[added] Jenstar, thanks for the link to that thread. I remember that discussion and your useful opening post. But it seems worthwhile to look at this again, since that was several months ago.
One of my channels is special affected by MLM ads.
When I do not clean up, CTR drops as MLM scams waste the valuable ad space.
As I noticed in this channel 308 impression, no clicks Sunday in the morning, I put several in the URL filter. Now CTR is back to normal.
Recently I blocked 15 advertisers
- scrapers
- self-appointed "directories"
- "services" with no valuable content
- sites with unacceptable offers
- sites that had nothing to do with my main topic (travel)
Test to let pages not having Your main topic in.
I had all sorts of ads not belonging to the main topic.
I sort only out what is not usefull.
* visitor resellers with no own offer
* MLM
* Companies offering Italians, the Vatican and used dog cake.
* Wrong labeled ads
I've watched my CTR's more than double, and somehow, eCPM has increased 3-4X at the same time. I attribute this to escalating AdWords competition. Once or twice I saw empty or partially-filled AS ads on my site but not enough to worry about.
Google should allow ad blocking by *keyword* as well as domain name, which would reduce my list by 5X.
If they promote a real product, it's fine.
Just discovered such a wonder.
A MLM showing a procut and not all the luxus cars and yachts, You will have 1 year after joining.
I even added them to my favorites and will write a test about their product.
