Adsense and Multiple Ads

Is there any proof that having more than one ad per page is adversely effecting the price per click on these ads? I have *not* seen a decrease (rather an increase in total profit of about 30%) and a CPC of roughly the same.

Anyone have a different story?

 

Mine has been all over the board. I went back to just one ad block because my overall revenue was down. Now that I'm back to one block, the revenue is almost back to where it was before I added the second one.

 

my thinking - is that if you have 3 ad blocks, you have 3 times the ad's for someone to click --- only the first one or two are going to be high paying ads. So you might have 12 ads on a page, and only 2 or 3 that are decent paying --- too many options for the user to find a low paying ad.

 

Because it is relatively recently that Google allowed more that 1 ad block per page, I'm waiting to see the outcomes pro and con before putting more than 1 ad block on all of my pages. Bottom line, if additional ad blocks don't bring in more revenue then why waste the space or force our viewers to stare at more as than they have to?

 

I put a second 468 banner up a few days ago. Like I had assumed, the CTR is down. My site never really got many clicks on the ads to begin with, but now it's worse.

 

Putting up an additional 468 banner might be the best way to double ad block because each banner of that size serves up only 2 ads for a total of four - not overwhelming and offerring better choice like a five ad skyscraper. For the other larger ads sizes I just can't see two skyscraper block columns along with a large rectangle working well on a single page.

 

I can only speak for what I have done on my sites but I have added two ad blocks on some of my pages and three on others. I have also designed the ads so they only look like links instead of ad blocks. I can't say which change caused the great change, but I have seen a 300% increase in revenue!

 

300% could be pretty impressive, what does this sites traffic look like?

 

I experienced probably 20% revenue increase after placing second ad units. Not impressive, but not bad either.

 

Are there any ideas/experiences as to where to place a second ad block for the most effective returns?

 

Mind sharing your url so we can see how you laid them out?

 

There is some logic in CPC going down due to lower price ads being clicked instead of higher price ones. But, why would CTR be down?
Ajeet

 

Because there are more ads for them to choose form.

The impressions are doubled (Because there are multiple ads) - but the clicks may only be slightly higher.

Thus the CTR being lower.

 

Cool. Got it. I was thinking in terms of clicks per page view and not clicks per displayed ad box.

Thanks
Ajeet

 

one advantage though :

if your site content does not change much and if you have an steady set of regular users... putting in a new block or two of ads help as the regular users have been seeing the first block and the usual ads always .. now the new ads get attention and get more clicks ...

 

I havent seen a dramatic increase in my Impressions after adding double ads on each page..

 

Theoretically the impressions should double with the addition of another ad box and triple with the addition of a third one.

 

This is correct.
However, if google does not have enough ads to fill up the second (or third) ad unit, it will not count as an impression.

On the pages we have used 3 ad units, we have seen impressions for unit two to be slightly higher than unit three, with unit one slightly higher than unit two.

Both CTR and EPC have been A LOT lower on unit two, and especially unit three, compared to unit one though. (Makes perfect sense of course, since these would be lower paying ads displayed in a less prominent position on our site.)

Geir