Check your adsense units stats. You may be missing something big!

[paulgl]

I have not been one on checking stats, just keeping track of the
cash.

Decided yesterday, for fun, to check out some ad units. Lo and behold,
I noticed one ad unit I had not touched in months, getting 200+
impressions a day. I said WTF. No clicks! It was a unit I was not
even familiar with!

It took me while of digging through pages that don't get updated
and are somewhat forgotten. Found the page. Checked that it
ranks #1 for a decent keyword! But the page was not optimized
by what I have learned in the past 2 years here.

Needless to say, I immediately optimized it.

Can you say adsense cha-ching today? Holy cow!

All I can say is to check your units that get a lot of views
but no clicks. A lot of views means you are getting traffic.
Now you can start some tweaking.

Paul

[Bulldozer]

Originally Posted by paulgl

But the page was not optimized
by what I have learned in the past 2 years here.

Needless to say, I immediately optimized it.

Can you say adsense cha-ching today? Holy cow!

All I can say is to check your units that get a lot of views
but no clicks. A lot of views means you are getting traffic.
Now you can start some tweaking.

Paul

Please, explain.
If your page was getting a lot of traffic, then it must have been well optimized for SEO.
Do you mean it wasn't optimized in terms of increasing the CTR? (color of ads, integration, placement on the page, etc?)

[JoshuaG]

I always use the ad units view as opposed to URL channels to view all my data. When you clearly label your units its a very effective way to track your performance.

[yukon]

That's the very reason I track every single page on all my sites with Adsense + Google Analytics. The data never lies.

Paul,

Now create more pages of the same type of content + keywords & get those similar pages ranked in the SERPs.

Go after all long-tail variations of the same keyword.

[bhuff85]

You know, for some reason I still haven't used the new interface much. Don't know why. I guess I just like seeing the day's earnings in that big green font

On the flipside, I have to agree that it is good for tracking purposes and identifying ads that are performing well or underperforming. I'll make the switch someday...

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by Bulldozer

Please, explain.
If your page was getting a lot of traffic, then it must have been well optimized for SEO.
Do you mean it wasn't optimized in terms of increasing the CTR? (color of ads, integration, placement on the page, etc?)

I optimize all pages with "basic" SEO, and certainly use internal linking.
Those links, as I keep preaching are gold.

Of course, as we all know, not all pages get ranked that are
optimized.

Yes, I meant optimizing the site as far as adsense. I was using old
ad units, odd placements, (before I knew any better) odd colors,
the whole page looked okay, but not from an adsense standpoint.

I was even using a 468 banner in the middle of the page. I used
to love those. Until I realized that they were trash, especially
when you are wasting ad block space. The page is now using the
same layout and same looking ads.

I am a person who just checks overall channel data. I am
going to start paying attention to individual ad units.

I don't like the new interface much either, but switch back and
forth as I want some info from the new one, but the old
one just seems so much better when you want to glance at
your stats quick. Wish google would have just improved the old
one.

Paul

[Bulldozer]

Great, so Ads design optimization was the key in your case.

BTW, I don't mean to hijack this thread but I have a quick question: how do I track individual Ad units as opposed to URL channels?
Every time I am creating a new Ad unit, I am labeling it. However, I seem not to be able to find how to track those labeled Ad units.
Where to find them them in my AdSense account? Is there a way to do a search for their labels?

[bhuff85]

Originally Posted by Bulldozer

Great, so Ads design optimization was the key in your case.

BTW, I don't mean to hijack this thread but I have a quick question: how do I track individual Ad units as opposed to URL channels?
Every time I am creating a new Ad unit, I am labeling it. However, I seem not to be able to find how to track those labeled Ad units.
Where to find them them in my AdSense account? Is there a way to do a search for their labels?

Using the new interface, go into your Performance Reports and simply select "Ad Units" on the left sidebar. You'll see all of your ad units and there stats from there.

[Bulldozer]

^ Cool, thanks.
It seems that my units are missing the labels that I gave them, but I can recognize them by their size.
I guess it's wise to stick to the new AdSense interface?
I will be doing it from now on.