Googles just emailed me to let me know i`m missing out on money and need to add more adsense units !

[jimkirk1943]

Hi guys,

Just got a email from google adsense....

"Our system analyzed 6 pages across your domain, mysite.org, and found only one Google ad unit per page on 6 of your pages. The AdSense program currently allows placing up to three ad units on each page, and we strongly suggest you do so."

It goes into a little more detail and gives me a heat map too, What do you guys think as i always thought that just having 1 adsense block gives me the highest cpc and best ads, is this really 100% set in stone ?

My pages are set with just 1 large block of ads top left just like the xfactor sites, but i`m thinking about adding another block of ads.

What about you guys if where to add another adsense block where would you put it and how do you feel about the idea that it could lower you cpc ?

Jim

[Mark Brian]

They did this to me also, and they also did this a year ago every month.

For me one ad block is better. I've tried plastering my sites with as many ad blocks as possible and it only looked like a very ugly MFA. IMHO, their suggestion of putting as many ads as you can can actually makes their "monitoring department" mark your site as MFA and ban you. I don't think their "suggestions" department is working together with the monitoring department at all.

Besides looking non-MFA, I'll stick to one ad to be safe.

[paulgl]

Kind of takes the wind out of the sails of "google is out to get everybody."
Google actually wants people to succeed. On both ends.

But it is also a warning to those who try and shmooze the TOS.
Google will eventually find it.

Paul

[k_a_babji]

You can put one more block of adsense. I suggest you can put it on the left panel 120x600 or 160x600.

[Tom Goodwin]

Also, depending on how many people are bidding on the relevant keywords for your site, adding in additional blocks can drastically decrease the price per click. So, by adding in additional blocks you might increase CTR but could actually decrease overall profit by introducing very low priced clicks.

Not to mention, as already stated, adding too many just makes it look more and more MFA.

Tom

Originally Posted by Mark Brian

They did this to me also, and they also did this a year ago every month.

For me one ad block is better. I've tried plastering my sites with as many ad blocks as possible and it only looked like a very ugly MFA. IMHO, their suggestion of putting as many ads as you can can actually makes their "monitoring department" mark your site as MFA and ban you. I don't think their "suggestions" department is working together with the monitoring department at all.

Besides looking non-MFA, I'll stick to one ad to be safe.

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by k_a_babji

You can put one more block of adsense. I suggest you can put it on the left panel 120x600 or 160x600.

He can actually have up to 3 blocks and 3 lists (or whatever Google calls those things). Of course, I think it's a big mistake to do that, but it's out there.

[dburk]

Hi jimkirk1943,

There are no absolutes in ad placement optimization. Generally, I like to keep my ad space relatively rare. It seems to catch readers eyes more when it is a single ad unit, and of course only the highest ad bidders can be placed on your page. However, if you have a lot of content on a single page it may be beneficial to add another unit near the bottom where the top ad unit is above the fold and the bottom unit is below the fold.

[yukon]

I got a very similar email from Adsense a couple days ago.

They wanted me to try image Ads. Maybe since all I run is text Ads?

I just now switched one of my text Ads to show both "text & image Ads", I'll let it run for a week or so, & see what happens.

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi jimkirk1943,

There are no absolutes in ad placement optimization. Generally, I like to keep my ad space relatively rare. It seems to catch readers eyes more when it is a single ad unit, and of course only the highest ad bidders can be placed on your page. However, if you have a lot of content on a single page it may be beneficial to add another unit near the bottom where the top ad unit is above the fold and the bottom unit is below the fold.

Very good insight. Obviously having a prominent block above the fold is key, but if the page/text is vertically long, it could certainly help to have another chance for a click out at the end of the post.

Of course, mine are usually relatively short so I don't.

[mikemac1]

That's very cool that Google has contacted you guys about increasing your AdSense revenue, also, I would have to agree with dburk about recommending placing an ad after or just below your text/article.

I know some (especially in the past) recommended ending your text with "..." so that it would draw a visitor to check out the AdSense ads just below it. I've done this but never saw that it made a difference, maybe someone else has had better success.

[jimkirk1943]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I think i will stick to the single adsense block i dont want to make my sites look like MFA at all !

[yukon]

My email also included a heatmap from Adsense.

I won't change any of my Adsense Ads location based on the heatmap. I know my site better than Google does, I know after 2.5 years of testing what area of my pages make money.

My #1 money maker is top center of the page, text-ad instead of a nav. bar.

All nav. is in the footer, below the fold.

[Fernando Veloso]

For some sites you better add some more Ads - while for the others, as Tom said, you'll lose money in the end: low CPC advertisers, low credibility ads, etc etc.

We could talk about the content also: how it was written... etc. Some of my sites perform pretty well with footer Ads cause they're so narrowed down inside a niche market, people do read the articles and find the answer bellow, in one small Ad, where the highest bidders show up.

People need to understand this is NOT a exact science. Test, test, test.

[sdkWriter]

Originally Posted by jimkirk1943

Thanks for all the advice guys, I think i will stick to the single adsense block i dont want to make my sites look like MFA at all !

I did a little bit of testing earlier this year, using one block as the baseline. After inserting additional google ad units, my bounce rate increased, according to google analytics. So I went back to the single block.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by sdkWriter

I did a little bit of testing earlier this year, using one block as the baseline. After inserting additional google ad units, my bounce rate increased, according to google analytics. So I went back to the single block.

Hi sdkWriter,

When your AdSense CTR rate goes up you will see a corresponding increase in bounce rates. For a publisher that uses an ad based revenue model, high bounce rates are often a sign that your revenue model is working well. Why would you want back off from a high bounce rate? I would see that as a good thing if you also have a corresponding increase in ad CTR.

If you see an increase in bounce rate without a corresponding increase in CTR that would be an indication that you may have over done you ad space. However, you can't increase ad CTR without increasing bounce rates as a result of those increased clicks.