Has anyone tried the new ignore tag sniplets?

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Has anyone tried the new ignore tag sniplets?

The html code Google provided for this

spaceylacie

1:17 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

I tried it out. I set it to ignore my navigational bar because I was getting CPM ads that were related to my overall site theme, but not so much the individual pages.

Well, all the CPM ads went away after adding the ignore tags(I think they were CPMs-large text that covered the whole ad unit) and my earnings went down.

So, I removed the ignore tags and earnings are back to normal, even up a little. CPMs with a broad site match are back too.

vincevincevince

1:52 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

I was getting CPM ads that were related to my overall site theme, but not so much the individual pages.

Is it possible that there are few ads focused for the individual pages?

hunderdown

2:57 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

spacey, did you try the opposite--rather than telling it to ignore certain text, that it should look at certain text? I was just reading the info. at AdSense about it and that approach seemed worth trying.

jbgilbert

3:13 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

I've tried both the ignore and the includes very carefully, but I'm seeing virtually no benefit in the way of better ad targeting.

It's been two weeks and MediaPartners has spidered the page, so I'm not sure what the issue is.

I do see a few issues though:

- If there is not enough "content" inventory for adsense for a particular page or subject, I doubt the controls would have an impact.

- If the page using the controls does not use large enough blocks of text within the control (especially the include control), the controls may not have an impact.

- Since the controls can't be used around the <head></head> area of the page, it could be that the <head> area carries so much weight that the controls can't override it much.

Any other thoughts?

spaceylacie

3:26 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

vince, that's what I think could have happened(but, fewer, no really "few"). The ads that used to be CPMs filled up with regular ads, no PSAs, but there may have been less competition for those keywords... hence, a lower payout.

No, I haven't tried the opposite hunderdown, that's another idea. I'm sort of afraid to try it after my last failed experiment, but it does make sense that it could be a better way to do it.

My CTR also went down during my experiment. Then came right back afterwards(within about 24 hours). They say to allow up to 2 weeks for any effects to take place, but the site I am referencing is popular(high rankings and many inbounds) and gets crawled daily by Google.

I am hoping to hear from other webmasters who have experimented with this new feature.

ownerrim

3:29 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

I was going to post that the targeting is great but I just checked a site and the targeting is...sadly, pathetic today.

I have used the ignore code on my menus and the other code on my content. And all the pages have lots of wordage. Why they can't get it right, I haven't a clue.
But it definitely affects earnings. In fact, targeting seems to be the biggest determinant regarding whether or not earnings are up or down on a given day.

spaceylacie

3:41 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

jb, I read your post after submitting my last one, thanks for commenting as someone who has experimented with it. I realize that there are reasons why the tags would have no effect, but in my case, I did notice changes.

The ads looked much more targeted to me when I added ignore tags. They were right on target for each page, but less money. Now that the CPMs are back, the ads are less targeted to the page(but targeted to the overall site) and more money...

hunderdown

4:01 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

spaceylacie, sounds like what you did had an inadvertent side-effect--it eliminated some of the ads competing for place on the page, and that reduced the cost that the remaining advertisers would have to pay.... That's speculative but I think reasonable given the way AdSense works. So narrowing the targeting too much could actually be counter-productive to earnings.

novice

4:14 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

On the index page on one of my sites I was getting poorly targeted ads. All I was getting were register domain ads, which was not even close to the topic of my site. I used the "emphasize this section" script and began getting highly targeted ads in 2 hours.

spaceylacie

5:30 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

I may try the emphasize feature, rather than the ignore. A good idea that I haven't thought much about until now. It makes sense that for my site in particular, this might work better.

I think hunderdown summarized what I also had been theorizing. I know the feature is new, but I'd love to hear about even more experiences with it, in this thread or another.

novice

5:50 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

The emphasize and ignore tags are both good features. We just have to learn to use them properly.

A good example of when to use the ignore tag is if you add the following to your site:

"Please help aid the victims of hurricane Katrina by making a donation to the Red Cross"

Using the ignore tags in this case will help prevent your site from getting ads about hurricane Katrina.