Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2003 4:15 pm Post subject: Public Service Ads
Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum, all though I've been lurking for a while
I was reading various posts about adsense showing irrelevant ads and public service ads on people's websites...plus the decline in revenue on many of the revelant ads. Here's why...
I started using Adsense back in July and it was doing great until October...then serious drop in revenue (only getting 1/3 of what I was before). As it turns out, I just signed up for Adwords myself to try promoting ads related to the various products I sell, as well as my own websites.
First, the public service ads...When someone sets up an Adwords campaign, they can check a couple of boxes to choose where their ads will be displayed. In this case, you can turn it on or off to show ads on content sites or not. I'm guessing a lot of advertisers in Adwords are turning this feature off.
The reason being is that ads displayed on content sites are usually clicked on by "curious" or "freebie" seekers. Although the ads may be relevant to your site, the person clicking on them may not have been specifically searching for that product...they just happened to see the ad and were curious on what was being offered. Whereas, if they typed a keyword(s) into the search engine, they are specifically looking for that product.
An Adwords advertiser is looking for sales from people specifically looking for their product.
Since Adwords advertisers still have to pay for those clicks from content websites (often without any resulting sales from it), they are most likely electing NOT to have their ads displayed on websites.
As for the drop in revenue from relevant ads, many people think that Adwords works much like Overture, where the highest bidder is at the top. Not so. I can set alot of my ads at 0.05 cents per click and still be in the top 3 listing of ads if a lot of people click on my ad. The higher my click through rate, the better my ad is displayed, yet still at a very low price.
Overture bids aren't overly helpful in determining how much revenue you might receive from Adsense. Here's an example (as it stands at the time of this posting):
One of my keyword search terms is "wedding speeches". (I also have very specific keywords, but also try the general ones too).
Checking Overtures Max Bid Tool, costs for bidding on "wedding speeches" is: 0.34 (1st place), 0.31 (2nd place), 0.28 (3rd place), 0.14(4th place).
With Adwords, I'm currently paying only 0.08 cents per click and I'm in 4th position for that search term. If I was to play 0.08 cents on Overture, my ad would end up in the 13th position. Plus, someone could elect to pay 0.09 cents and bump me even further down the list.
So, what's probably happened with the Adsense revenue is that people started out paying like they did on Overture thinking this would guarantee them top positions (which is not necessarily the case). Now with all the really good ebooks out there teaching people how to use Adwords to maximize profits, I'm guessing a lot of advertisers are lowering their "cost per clicks" on their keywords to maximize revenue. As a result, revenue from Adsense ads on content sites is lower.
Hope this helps clarify some of the confusion. _________________ Rose Smith
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2003 5:00 pm Post subject: Re: Public Service Ads
Rose wrote:
I was reading various posts about adsense showing irrelevant ads and public service ads on people's websites...plus the decline in revenue on many of the revelant ads. Here's why...
Is this a general trend?
To be honest, I've been expecting something like this for exactly the reasons Rose listed.
But so far it hasn't happened to me. Well, perhaps there's been a very slight drop in the click-through and earning-per-click ratios, but not very much (and for me more than compensated for by a steadily increasing number of visitors ) _________________ Frank Nordberg
http://www.musicaviva.com
The internet center for free sheet music
<<<<<I'm guessing a lot of advertisers in Adwords are turning this feature off. >>>>>>
Rose,
With all due respect, I think you're making a lot of assumptions. There are probably examples one could use to support your assumption and examples one could use to dispute your assumption.
The one thing we do know for sure about AdSense is there is not a lot of good solid factual information available.
<<<<<The reason being is that ads displayed on content sites are usually clicked on by "curious" or "freebie" seekers.>>>>>>
That's not necessarily true in general. Again, one could find antecdotal examples to support or dispute this.
<<<< The higher my click through rate, the better my ad is displayed, yet still at a very low price. >>>>>
There may be other factors at work here. For example, suppose there are 10 AdWords advertisers for a particular keyword. At any time during the month, some of their budgets are expiring and others are increasing their budgets. This will effect the position of the ads at any given time.
<<<<Overture ads aren't overly helpful in determining how much revenue you might receive from Adsense. >>>>>
Not overly helpful, but they are one more tool in the toolbox so to speak.
<<<<<Checking Overtures Max Bid Tool, costs for bidding on "wedding speeches" is: 0.34 (1st place), 0.31 (2nd place), 0.28 (3rd place), 0.14(4th place). >>>>>
With Overture, you have to keep in mind that some people raise their bids high for a few days in an attempt to get the competition to bid high, then lower their bids back down.
<<<<<As a result, revenue from Adsense ads on content sites is lower. >>>>
Lower as compared to what?
My own experience is very different, but I think the AdSense Terms prohibits a public discussion of the details.
________________
With AdSense, it's easy to misunderstand the cause-effect relationship of a variety of factors.
I have some pages that I have put very little effort into and get very relevant & profitable ads. It makes me look like a genius - maybe I should call myself an AdSense guru and write an ebook.
On the other hand, I have pages that I have been working on for weeks, have implemented every tip & suggestion I could find, and still can't get good relevant ads on those pages. I know the inventory is available because the ads appear on other AdSense pages.
Long before AdSense came along, the most sound advice around for building sites was to include keyword rich relevant content. Those who did that can now profit from AdSense. And those who continue to do that will profit from whatever comes after AdSense.
Well, I can only go by what I've observed with my own sites and hoped it could explain some of the drops in revenue from Adsense on many people's sites.
I did do a little test on this yesterday and turned on "website content serving" for one of my campaigns. Clickthroughs went way up...sales didn't change any. But my costs definitely skyrocketed for the click throughs. I've turned it off again, needless to say.
I realize some people won't experience much of a drop in revenues (such as Frank), but I think that may have to do with what the site is about and how relevant the keywords in the content pages are in relation to the ads displayed.
Anyway, I just wanted to post what I thought may be a factor in dropping revenues and public ad displays.
I did do a little test on this yesterday and turned on "website content serving" for one of my campaigns. Clickthroughs went way up...sales didn't change any.
Rose, how do your Saturday sales typically compare to other days of the week? In ecommerce in general, Saturday is the slowest day of the week, so I'm not sure that choosing a Saturday to test your theory was the right day to do this.
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:58 am Post subject: Re: Public Service Ads
Hello Rose.
Rose wrote:
The reason being is that ads displayed on content sites are usually clicked on by "curious" or "freebie" seekers. Although the ads may be relevant to your site, the person clicking on them may not have been specifically searching for that product...they just happened to see the ad and were curious on what was being offered. Whereas, if they typed a keyword(s) into the search engine, they are specifically looking for that product.
I think this is an excellent point - part of a larger problem with content sites...
Inviting someone on the promise of something free and then expecting them to buy, is less than reasonable in most cases, yet this is exactly the theory behind most content sites. I think that Adsense ads on many content sites are a very much better deal for the publisher (and Google) than they are for the advertiser.
You need a very strong relationship between the publisher and the visitor to convert much. Considering many content sites (as per the SBI! method) rely on the free SEs for an ongoing stream of new visitors, this relationship is not significant.
From an advertiser's point of view, I think it is important to make sure the ads are worded to discourage "curious misers" if Adsense is used. High clickthrough rates are not the game of the game with PPC. That can easily result in inflated costs related to sales.
Rose wrote:
As for the drop in revenue from relevant ads, many people think that Adwords works much like Overture, where the highest bidder is at the top. Not so. I can set alot of my ads at 0.05 cents per click and still be in the top 3 listing of ads if a lot of people click on my ad. The higher my click through rate, the better my ad is displayed, yet still at a very low price.
I don't think this adds up...
Surely Google's formula combines clickthrough rate with bid price to make sure the best-earning ads are top. Assuming we get the same proportion of bid price for each Adsense ad clicked, surely publishers will make the most money this way, as well as Google.
All the best,
Charlie. _________________ "Before I speak, I have something important to say."
- Groucho Marx
True, Saturday's bring in lowest revenue for Adsense. However, I was looking at it from an Adwords advertiser point of view. Once I enabled my ads to be shown on content websites, the click-through rate went up (which I have to pay for based on my cost-per-click), however there was no increase in sales because of it.
I've only started advertising using Adwords this past week, so this is all theory at the moment. But I think it's a good possiblility that if what I saw in the results is true, then other Adword advertisers may be turning the website content feature off (or lowering their price per click that they're paying to Google), which in turn would result in lower revenue for those with Adsense on their website.
Like I said, these are just my observations and perhaps something to keep an eye on with Adsense. Believe me, I'm not overly happy with the sudden drop in revenue from Adsense (over 65% drop). Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done from the webmaster's end. It's all based on what the Adword advertisers do on their end when placing ads.
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