Increased my CTR by removing ad targetting

[andre75]

I have tried to target my ads for a long time. But no matter what I did, I always got off-topic ads (mainly real estate and weird tools).
So I finally got sick of it and removed the targetting and low and behold, my ctr increased.
The ads are still off-topic but they get clicked more. I think YPN is pretty good in figuring out what gets clicked (out of their large pool of real estate ads).

[andy11]

thnx andre! - I'll see if works 4 me.

[jackburton2006]

I have tried to target my ads for a long time. But no matter what I did, I always got off-topic ads (mainly real estate and weird tools).
So I finally got sick of it and removed the targetting and low and behold, my ctr increased.
The ads are still off-topic but they get clicked more. I think YPN is pretty good in figuring out what gets clicked (out of their large pool of real estate ads).

Wow, this is a new concept. Anyone else have thoughts on this? I'm getting pretty damn tired of blocking out mortgage and nascar ads for sites that have nothing to do with mortgage or nascar.

[andre75]

Well, I noticed that no matter how much I block, other irrelevant ads will show up in their place. So I might as well remove blocking and get the highest paying crap ads instead.

[jackburton2006]

Well, I noticed that no matter how much I block, other irrelevant ads will show up in their place. So I might as well remove blocking and get the highest paying crap ads instead.

And you say CTR and earnings increased? I would guess CTR goes down but earnings increase, since the ads would be high paying, but the lack of relevant ads would mean less clicks. But you are saying it was the opposite?

[andre75]

And you say CTR and earnings increased? I would guess CTR goes down but earnings increase, since the ads would be high paying, but the lack of relevant ads would mean less clicks. But you are saying it was the opposite?

It's hard to say since it is so irratic (some days I get a lot of clicks and some days none). I have about 1500 uniques a day and I am still getting days with no clicks, but on average it went from about 0.1% to 0.2%.
I haven't really checked earnings per click, only CTR and overall earnings (both are up).

[OMI]

YPN targeting royally sucks sometimes. I tend to switch back and forth between YPN and AS to get the most, but you have to make a choice, too. Do you want more revenue (YPN pays more I think) or do you please your visitors (AS targets better). I've tried different days of the week (AS on weekends, YPN on weekdays), but I'd like to just use one network. I'll try taking off the targeting on YPN to see if that improved results. Thanks for the tip!

[alfredn]

YPN will just take time; when we used them they gave good rates but it annoyed some of our visitors when they saw medical ads on the pages.

[andre75]

Can't use Adsense on that site. Even though the ads are targetted and I get a lot of clicks they are not as valuable, so overall it pays less then having adsense only on another site. Means two sites together make less on Adsense than one site alone, due to smartpricing I guess. Tried it a few times and always get the same result.

[jackburton2006]

I've decided to give andre75's concept a try. I have to say, I never even considered doing this until I read this thread. I'll leave it running for a full day or two to see what the effects are. I don't expect the ads to be any LESS targeted, since I don't think that's possible. Let's see what happens...

[andre75]

Huh. Don't ask me to compensate you for your losses :p
I hesitated long before I did this, simply because the stupid tool offers no way for saving all the targetting settings to re-apply them easily. (I copied and pasted them into a text editor, I just hope you did the same).

[jackburton2006]

Huh. Don't ask me to compensate you for your losses :p
I hesitated long before I did this, simply because the stupid tool offers no way for saving all the targetting settings to re-apply them easily. (I copied and pasted them into a text editor, I just hope you did the same).

No worries. I'm using the experiment on just one site. Should be easy enough to re-target it via the domain.

[danimal]

most of my ypn ads are untargeted, and some days the ads are horrible... the other day i was getting ads for male body shaving >ack!< on a widget site.

don't expect too much in the way of targeted ads from ypn these days.

[andre75]

LOL. Thats even worse than me. I usually get real estate.
When I review a digital camera I usually get ads about rifle telescopes.
Yes I shoot animals, but with my camera. Other than that I try to protect them as much as possible. Drives me nuts to have ads for killing equipment on my site.

[peterlloyd]

Targeted ads use rudimentary logic to influence buying and are a long way from science and here is proof by this example. I have seen horrible (in my opinion) creative served to the wrong demographic and great creative served to the same well suited demographic with gravity defying results. Sometimes products find customers in the most unlikely places and it could be simply because we overexpose product to its most likely audience. If I ever see another classmates ad I'm going to puke.

[Qryztufre]

Generally if I find a site via a search engine and click into it, I've found what I've been looking for, or I head back to the search engine results. So in the case of searches, targeted ads do not work on me (unless I click into them via the search engine).

On the other hand, when just randomly surfing the net I do tend to pay more attention to the ads and am more willing to click on them...and when noticing ads I find the off topic ads to be more eye catching because they are not in my current mindset of looking at a given page.

Should one of these ads catch my attention & actually be something I care about then maybe I'll give it a click...in fact, I'm more inclined to click these types of ads then I am for one that's pointing directly at something I'm actually looking for.

I think trying non-targeted ads is certainly worth a try...
Q

[karagold]

ok qryztufre,

the question then becomes, will you fulfill the purchase of that product that you were not even looking for?

getting people to click on ads, whether you are a publisher or an advertiser, is easy. if you test enough you will find the right creative or ad placement to get people clicking. getting people to purchase the product that is being advertised is another story. in the case of ypn, too many clicks without conversions will lead to termination. doesnt make sense, but hey... its their network and they are in beta.

so, while trying non targetted ads is always worth a try, it is a greater risk with ypn then targetted ads (in my opinion of course). this is because while people may click the ad of a product they werent even searching for, they are not likely to purchase the product but instead are interested in getting information on the product, etc. what i imagine is that, after investigating that off-topic ad, people will go back to what they were originally searching for. so the publisher got paid (this time), the advertiser didnt make a sale and ypn chalks up 1 click to 1 non conversion in your account. considering that most clicks do not lead to actual sales and that these "conversion" metrics must be very low prior to termination, i would think the risk is too high. its like adding fuel to the fire and giving them more reason to terminate.

i have said this before. i would rather make less money per click, get more clicks and stay in the program longer than to make more money in the short term only to find the door hitting me in the ass as i get kicked out.

jmo

[Qryztufre]

ok qryztufre,

the question then becomes, will you fulfill the purchase of that product that you were not even looking for?


I've only bought a small number of things online, and only one from an ad...so I'm really not sure. Generally when I buy something, I know exactly what it is and where to get it, so ads do nothing for me in that sense.

But I am prone to click into things that standout for whatever reason...for instance I saw the title of this thread "Increased my CTR by removing" then thought "removing what?" and clicked into the yahoo board (and the publishing network at that) rather then heading into Google where I generally go. So in a way, a non-targeted ad caught my attention right here, and got me to post in a board where I likely would not have looked in...

Though, hmmm... if you get terminated for too many non-buying clicks, then I hope I've not hurt anyone (as that system does seem kind of silly). I think I'll actually read the ToS for Yahoo, as I've already read Googles (I'll be seriously getting into this in a few months & will need to know anyway). Currently though I'm pretty much out of my element (yahoo & I tend not to get along for some reason, unless it's YIM) I was just moved to give a testimonial of sorts *shrug* from a semi-consumer perspective.
Q

[ReadyToGo]

That seems like an interesting irony.

[andre75]

@karagold: My ads on YPN were always not targetted correctly. I actually have the feeling that they are a bit better after I removed targetting (may just be my paranoia speeking), but it defenitely did not hurt targetting.
I'd rather have 100% on-topic ads, but selecting a few categories for my pages does nothing like this for me.

[andre75]

I've decided to give andre75's concept a try. I have to say, I never even considered doing this until I read this thread. I'll leave it running for a full day or two to see what the effects are. I don't expect the ads to be any LESS targeted, since I don't think that's possible. Let's see what happens...

Could you enlighten us with your findings?
I now have the feeling that not much has changed at all. Its almost like the targetting doesn't work.

[jackburton2006]

Could you enlighten us with your findings?
I now have the feeling that not much has changed at all. Its almost like the targetting doesn't work.

There's really no change. Same untargeted ads. Same level of earnings. I don't see much difference at all. :)