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Popular Adsense Theory - It's Better to Test for Yourself

by Mike Montgomery
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
For quite some time now I've been following the herd in believing the opinion of many so called Adsense "experts" in only have 1 adblock on my pages.

The theory is that advertisers paying the most will get the top spot on the page so if you put more than one ad on a page then the ads positioned lower than the first will not generate as high CPC revenue.

In the past I had used more than 1 ad but jumped on the bandwagon and started using just one ad. I tested for a day maybe and it seemed that the theory was true so I started using just one.

But I decided that maybe two ads would be better so I gave it a shot. I've been running this test for over a week and the results are fantastic to say the least.

Not only has my CTR jumped up but my earnings have also gone up and you know what I'm consistently seeing higher CPC revenues from the ads positioned second.

Obviously you need to test this out on your own sites because every niche is different but hopefully your not just taking the word of all the "experts" and only using one ad.

Here's an example:

On one of my pages yesterday I got a total of 10 clicks on the top ad resulting in $3.68 earnings, so I made just over $.36 per click.

But I also got 3 clicks on the bottom ad resulting in $1.48 in earnings so my earnings per click on the bottom ad were nearly $.50 per click.

This is just an example of what I've been seeing over the last 10 days

Happy thanksgiving
#adsense #popular #theory
  • Profile picture of the author noble
    1 ad will assure that the highest CPC ones available to you will be the ones clicked.

    However, using more ads such as ads inline with your content that are blended well increase your CTR. Whether this leads to more money at the end of the day or not depends on a lot of things and will vary from site to site and just how exactly you apply these principles so testing yourself is best.
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    • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
      I agree 100%.

      There are countless stories on the adsense blog about people adding multiple units and making more money.

      One common tactic that seems to generate a lot of success is to is to put ads midway through your content.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Montgomery
      That's precisely what did NOT happen, hence the who point of my post.

      The lower ads are sometimes making more per click than the top ads.

      Originally Posted by noble View Post

      1 ad will assure that the highest CPC ones available to you will be the ones clicked.

      However, using more ads such as ads inline with your content that are blended well increase your CTR. Whether this leads to more money at the end of the day or not depends on a lot of things and will vary from site to site and just how exactly you apply these principles so testing yourself is best.
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      Skyrocket Your Site To The Top Of Google Without Lifting A Finger
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    • Profile picture of the author AJsVRE
      Originally Posted by noble View Post

      1 ad will assure that the highest CPC ones available to you will be the ones clicked.
      The information given from the adsense team would suggest that IS NOT true.

      The ads that appear on your site do take into account what would make the most money for you, the publisher, but it's also part of the bidding system. This means, the ads in the "only 1 block" could pay less, but could be there because that specific ad has a better quality score and higher ctr. I can hear your brain thinking now "well if it has a higher ctr, it should give you more money because people will click on it more than a different ad" - but that's not always entirely true for your site/your visitors.

      Here's a video from adsense that talks about this:

      I also looked for the link to something from the adsense team that talked about how a user significantly increased their earnings for their site by ADDING more adsense blocks to their pages, but unfortunately I couldn't find it right away. Dig around the adsense blog and you might find it.

      Either way, just test yourself and see what happens.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Brian
    I personally use just one ad block so my site will not look so much like MFA.
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  • Profile picture of the author noble
    That's because they don't put all of the highest CPC ads in 1 ad unit when you have 2 units, they are split up.

    It's also because you do not always qualify for high CPC ads, if you have low quality traffic in general, etc. you will not be displaying the best ads. There are a number of reasons here and you're drawing some pretty big conclusions.

    I do agree, however, that it is important for each site that you test different ad layouts over a good period of time and tweak it for maximum revenue.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
      The only experienced Adsense publisher that I've seen recommend only 1 ad block is Xfactor. Besides that if you ask the well known publishers around here, you'll get a much different response.

      I for one have 3 ad blocks on most of my pages across most of my sites. And it works great for me.

      Having an ad block at the bottom of your content is one of the best things you can do if you aren't already. It won't get a great CTR, but some people will click it when they normally would have just left the page. Adding bottom ad units is a great way to make more money with the same amount of traffic.
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