How one Google Adsense settings doubled my CTR!

[unlimitedwealth]

I am into micro niches. Here's my results.

- CTR went down
- Earnings went down as well

While it seems that it is quite logical to set the ad to be relevant to the micro niche topic we are targeting but i don't think adsense engine behind this work in the manner we perceived.

So got to stick back to things that work.

Nice experiment though.

[Toby.T]

I am getting no clicks on my 30-40 uniques a day for the last week. So ill switch it up and see if I can get a click.

[nettech]

OK, I'm going to throw a spanner in the works here.

2 days and I've noticed a slight increase in CTR. The CPC is a little higher too but what is interesting is my overall earnings are slightly lower not sure how that works out.....strange huh???

[lisaann]

Originally Posted by cagliostro

Guys it is impossible to tell the difference in 2-3 days. You need at least a month to be sure.

You're kidding right? Some of us get hundreds of clicks per day. Easily enough to test this out in 2-3 days.

[TheChanger]

Originally Posted by rayan

I have been using XFactor adsense strategy for about 5 months and always wonder how best can we maximize the CTR. And out of curiosity, I change one of the settings in my adsense account for a week to test out and I am delighted by the results =)

The setting is: Interest Based Ads. If you are doing micro niche, I would strongly advice you to turn this setting off! After disabling this setting, I have seen an increase in CTR, one channel even close to double (from 15% to 26%). This experiment is conducted without any other changes to the ads.

To change the setting, go to your google adsense acount under account settings, click edit the interest based ads and choose the disable option.



I have also attach 2 screen shots showing some of the improvements before and after.

BEFORE
Total Average CTR (on 8 channels) = 5.59%

AFTER
Total Average CTR (on 8 channels) = 8.3%

Edit: I removed the actual screen shot showing my adsense account due to the advice of the kind Warriors =)

Important Note
Before you go and change the settings, please understand this sharing is based on my personal observations. And I highly encourage to only change this settings for your adsense account if you are targeting micro niches.

Anyone has similar experience to share?

Thanks for the tip. I discovered this option earlier today while exploring my Adsense account. I will change this setting ASAP.

Thank you,
Gordon

[Joseph Then]

OK guys, here's my findings:

My CTR increase by 1%+ only but my overall earning drops by 40%

That's not good. I changed back to my original settings and my earnings came back to 'normal'.

So, it seems like it work for some guys and it may not work for others.



Let me do a little exploration:

80% of my sites are information sites. ie. They are not products-related. Perhaps information-based adsense sites don't work well with the recommended setting?

Post your results if your earnings dropped and if your sites are mainly information sites.


Perhaps those who had an increased in their CTR are product-related sites?

With a little discussion, we may find something really interesting here...

[lisaann]

Originally Posted by Joseph Then

OK guys, here's my findings:

My CTR increase by 1%+ only but my overall earning drops by 40%

That's not good. I changed back to my original settings and my earnings came back to 'normal'.

So, it seems like it work for some guys and it may not work for others.



Let me do a little exploration:

80% of my sites are information sites. ie. They are not products-related. Perhaps information-based adsense sites don't work well with the recommended setting?

Post your results if your earnings dropped and if your sites are mainly information sites.


Perhaps those who had an increased in their CTR are product-related sites?

With a little discussion, we may find something really interesting here...

Hi Joseph,

I hope things are going well for you ...

My sites are mostly information sites as well and as I stated in an earlier thread I noticed a very big decrease in profits. Everything went right back to how it's been when I changed it back.

Lisa

[Joseph Then]

Originally Posted by lisaann

Hi Joseph,

I hope things are going well for you ...

My sites are mostly information sites as well and as I stated in an earlier thread I noticed a very big decrease in profits. Everything went right back to how it's been when I changed it back.

Lisa

OK, another warrior with drop in earnings because of information sites. Anyone experience the same thing?

For those with an increase in CTR and earnings, do you run information sites?

[Filter]

Well as I mentioned in my original post, I get the opposite result of most people but the same result as the OP.

I turned the interest based adds ON and though it's only been one day, so far my CTR has DROPPED 70% and my eCPM has DROPPED 60%

It's costing me a chunk of money but I'm going to let this run for at least a couple of days to fully test it and report back.

(This isn't an info site, it's an arcade site.)

Cheers

[unlimitedwealth]

My CTR and earnings are back to normal level after reverting the setting to interest based.

During the experiment period, my eCPM dropped by half. Some clicks are miserable < 10 cents.

I believe by setting it to interest based, it gives adsense much flexibility to include more advertisers to bid for the same spot, thus higher eCPM.

Personally I do not think ads displayed will be too far from the topic which the website is targeting.

[Zeus66]

Here's the thing, guys and gals.... believe it or not, Google's looking out for you as Adsense publishers! They want you happy, just like they want their advertisers happy. They win when that's the case. It's a money decision, regardless of your personal feelings about Google as a company. And trust me, I have many problems with them overall. But not as an Adsense publisher.

I suspect anyone seeing big increases in earnings after doing what the OP suggests is either getting only a few clicks anyway (which means the sample size is too small to make conclusions) or they have target-poor content and were showing ads that weren't quite hitting the mark to begin with.

It's highly unlikely that Google's going to set something in your account as a default as it relates to which ads show on your pages that would hurt your earnings potential. I think you need to keep that in mind and think long and hard before you monkey with the settings.

I'm not messing with this, although I do appreciate the OP reporting his results. A drop for even 2-3 days can mean hundreds of dollars in my case. My wife needs her next pair of new shoes. Know what I mean?

John

[Toby.T]

I am just starting out with my new site and this thread has confused me what to do. Not getting any clicks after I turned it off...and none when its on.. what should I do?
I think to be safe I will put it back on.

[Ernie Lonardo]

Just put it back on if its working out better for you.

At least you tested and came to your own conclusion rather then just hear say.

Originally Posted by Toby.T

I am just starting out with my new site and this thread has confused me what to do. Not getting any clicks after I turned it off...and none when its on.. what should I do?
I think to be safe I will put it back on.

[Toby.T]

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

Just put it back on if its working out better for you.

At least you tested and came to your own conclusion rather then just hear say.

Cheers good to see another aussie internet warrior.

[Street Jammer]

even i getting better ctr these days xfactor adsense guide is a helpful one

[SyndicateMarketing]

My earnings from micro niche sites drop by 90% in the last 2 days.. I'm switching this feature back to normal...

[Filter]

For what it's worth, here are my final results. I turned interest based ads on for several days and my results went thru the floor. I'd never had such low numbers since starting this site.

I turned them back OFF yesterday and my numbers are higher than I've ever seen them. CTR up 185%, eCPM up 210%! Maybe I flushed out all the bad ads? :-)

So with the mixed results from other Warriors, and as a few here have already suggested, it really is a site by site and niche by niche thing. Test it at your own risk.

Cheers

[valkerie]

I have a few niche sites, so I turned this off to see what if anything changes. Will report the findings back, but the different responses have been interesting.

[mejohn]

Still too early to tell, but after seven days with the new setting, my CTR is up 10%, and my earnings are up 34%.

[Sarah Russell]

Makes sense - I'm definitely going to try this out! Thanks for posting

[r3bb]

I'm going to try this out as well. Within 10 minutes after making the change I can tell that the Adsense Ads seem to be much more relevantly targeted to my niches, which makes me super happy... Now I'll just monitor the CPC and eCPM. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

[warfore]

I have validated this change and it works well. I have seen a significant jump in CTR and earnings.

[nandu26]

Can you please tell me what you mean by the term "micro niches"