1, 2 or 3 adsense units? - What is your experience with CPC

[Jeremy Banks]

I have found that the more units I put on the page it seems the lower the average cost per click. Having one unit seems to only display high paying ads while displaying three units will increase my click through rate but lower my CPC

Have you found the same? What is your general rule?

Lately I have been displaying two high paying units of different shapes and having good success.

[Droopy Dawg]

I think your CPC depends on the niche/keywords you're targeting rather than the # of ads on the page. I could be wrong...but be sure you do your CPC research when you're researching the competition for rank.

For instance... I have 2 sites with the EXACT same layout, but 2 different niches.

One niche is in the "skin care" niche and the other is in the "medical professional" niche. The Skin Care niche pays out at about 12-13 cents per click whereas the the other niche site averages over 2 dollars per click.

I didn't intend the Skin Care site to be an Adsense site... it was a CPA site that I converted to an Adsense site. Had I done my CPC research for the Skin Care site (as I did for the other) I wouldn't have wasted my time converting it.

Just my experience... others will have their own views.

DeShon

[Jeremy Banks]

Originally Posted by Droopy Dawg

I think your CPC depends on the niche/keywords you're targeting rather than the # of ads on the page. I could be wrong...but be sure you do your CPC research when you're researching the competition for rank.



DeShon

CPC definitely depends on the niche, but after you build the site you can narrow it down even more and find the best CPC depending on the ads like image vs text and 1 ad vs 3

It seems like 1 ad pays better per click then having 3 ads, but I like to put two on the page because then I get a lot more clicks

[omrishabbat]

This is very much depends on your page structure. There are pages that 3 ads are a lot and become very annoying for the surfing experience and there are pages (which are long enough) that 3 ads are comfortable enough.

[Strangler]

My experience mirrors yours. With one unit, I get higher paying clicks but less of them. I mostly stick with one well placed large rectangle, but if I have a lengthy article I'll add a second unit at the bottom as long as there are enough relevant advertisers in the niche. I've noticed with the second unit, sometimes the ads are not all that targeted.

I'd also suggest creating a custom channel and making it targetable for advertisers. My CPC on those has always been higher. Sometimes significantly so.

[freeman84]

cpc depends on niche ( done alot of niche research to find this out )

click thru rates depends on niche / audience / placement of ads...etc...

so all i can say is do your initial research well and not waste effort on low paying ones...

thats my 3 cents worth of thought...

[faceblogger]

CPC does not depend on the number of ad units. It depends on the niche

[Strangler]

Originally Posted by faceblogger

CPC does not depend on the number of ad units. It depends on the niche

While some niches obviously pay more relative to others, all advertisers in a niche do not bid the same amount. If someone clicks on an ad in position 1, are you suggesting that it pays the same as a click on the ad in position 8 because it's in the same niche?

[kmachine]

1 of 336x280 and 1 of link units.

[faceblogger]

Originally Posted by Strangler

While some niches obviously pay more relative to others, all advertisers in a niche do not bid the same amount. If someone clicks on an ad in position 1, are you suggesting that it pays the same as a click on the ad in position 8 because it's in the same niche?

Obviously no. Also, you have to remember that the payouts differ within the niches depending on the key word that influences, that question comes before the ad ordering payout difference.

[seoservicescontract]

My experience says that CPC depends on your niche. It does not matter how much. Also, I noticed impression also is a valuable things for CPC.

[Strangler]

Originally Posted by faceblogger

Obviously no. Also, you have to remember that the payouts differ within the niches depending on the key word that influences, that question comes before the ad ordering payout difference.

The OP asked whether the number of units per page influences CPC in others' experience. In mine, yes. What about yours?

[faceblogger]

Originally Posted by Strangler

The OP asked whether the number of units per page influences CPC in others' experience. In mine, yes. What about yours?

No, in my experience the number of units per page has not influenced CPC. There might be accidental differences but there is no general rule like that. If you have been advertising with Adwords on google content network you would understand that there are some more things that determine the payment of a click.

[paulgl]

When you only have a block, you are cutting off the number of bidders.

Many (most?) adsense users don't have a clue as to how adwords works.

To be in the first block, most times you need a QS of 9 or 10. But those
people are rewarded with a lower CPC. It comes with the perks of awords.

So, anyone with a QS of 8 would need to bid much higher. But, you are
making it impossible for them. Many adwords users actually know they
can't get the tops spots and only bid for placements #5 on down. Those
could be the highest bidders.

The ad on top is the best performing. That's how it's chosen in most
cases. Google will in many instances never allow a lower QS site to
even get there no matter how high they bid. Drives adwords users nuts.
It's not the highest paid ad. It may be, but in many cases, it's not.

Your highest paid ad could be the one on the last line of the bottom block.
That person may have had to bid very high just to get on your page.

Your page is also judged and given some sort of quality score. The more
visitors you get that click in a buying mood, the higher your bids will be.
And that's how you get high bids no matter what the niche. You want
people bidding on your site and lots of them. By having only one ad
block, you are cutting out a lot of paying customers who may actually
pay more to be on your site.

Just as another example, someone with a QS of 7 has little shot at the
top spots. Those may be going to someone paying (let's say) $5. The one
with the QS of 7 may need to pay $10 to get in on the second block. You
have one block, you could be blocking the higher paying ad.

You want 3 ad blocks. You want one on the bottom. Google tells you that
when someone finishes to the bottom of your page, where are they going
next? Give them a choice.

If you have a new site, no history, don't expect any large clicks. People
think google cheats them. But you are getting tossed the leftover bidders.
The highest bidders don't know or care about you yet. That's why people
see some crazy $50 CPC, build a site, get 5 cents, then scream.

It's not about CPC anyway. It's about how much money is brought in.

Paul