Experiment: Is reducing the number of ADs will improve earnings?

Hi

In some many threads I read the theory about how reducing the number of ADs on a page results in
increase of your earnings. In regard to this theory the less options for ads to click on you have the more
often the clicks occur on high paying ads.

Theory Example #1:
You display three Banners, the first gets served the highest paying ads and down it goes from there.
The more banners you display the more choice the user has to click on an AD which increases the
likelihood of clicks occurring on lower priced ads.

Theory Example #2:
If you reduce this number to only 1 AD the user only has one choice to click on a banner and therefor
(if he clicks) he clicks on the highest paying ADs served.

However I have never believed very much in this theory.

This theory presumes that if a user visits your site he clicks on an ad regardless of the number of choices.
But is this really the case?

Let's take the above Example #2.
If a user visits my site and reads a thread and between two posts is a banner with 3 ads in it.
When the user reaches the AD he has a choice. Does one AD catches his interest and makes him click?
If yes he clicks and you get money. If not then he reads further down the thread and when he found
what he was looking for (or not) he is leaving the thread or even (worst case) your site.

Now with the above mentioned Example #1 let's assume he would make the same choice and don't click
on one of the links in the first AD. He reads further down the thread and at the end of the thread there
is another AD giving him three more links in this AD which have the chance to catch his interest.
Now he again has a choice. If he clicks you get money. Yes it is less but non the less you get
money from him where he otherwise would have left your site (in the worst case).

There is an article written about this theory that seems to confirm it but has one major design flaw.
The article is this: http://adsense4money.com/AdSense/double-earnings-fewer-ads.php

If this Example of a website would do as the article says it would earn more by reducing the number of
ADs. However in this Example the best performing banner is the last one. All the Example shows is that
the banner with the highest CTR should be loaded first to get the highest paying ADs.
Yes you can do that by removing any other banner on that page and you will increase earnings if that banner
was not the first that was loaded in your html. However if you would simply switch loading order of your banners
using CSS positioning you would not only get the increase in earnings by having the banner with the highest
CTR filled with the highest paying ads you would also get the money from the 550 clicks on the other banners
that you would not if you simply removed them.

This is exactly what I did on my forum I use for the experiment (see below).
I switched the order of the leaderboard below the navbar and the large rectangle placed in the content
as second post of each thread because the rectangle had a much higher CTR then the leaderboard.

So in conclusion my theory is that displaying more ADs should increase the odds of users clicking
on your ADs and increase your earnings not lower it as long as you see to it that the AD with the highest
CTR is loaded first.

Also people debating that the CTR and eCPM has influence on your earnings and displaying multiple banners is
lowering your overall CTR and therefor your earnings.

In regards to the CTR and PIs I am unsure as of now.
I never really saw a field test which demonstrated evidence to one or the other side.

This is why I run my own private test starting tomorrow for 10 full days.

The Experiment:

One of my forums earned me around 25USD (which is low enough to risk it for this test ) with
around 45k Banner impressions from 05.05. - 15.05.2010 (10 full days)

Banners displayed currently on this forum are:
- a Leaderboard below the forum navigation (all users) - 2nd highest CTR
(this Leaderboard is loaded AFTER the following two rectangles in the html and positioned via CSS.)
- a Large Rectangle as second post of each thread (guests only) - highest CTR
(Loaded first in HTML even though it is the second banner displayed for the user)
- a Large Rectangle as last post of each thread (guests only)
(Loaded second in HTML even though it is the third banner displayed for the user)
- a Large Rectangle after first blog post (all users)
- a Leaderboard below the thread list in FORUMDISPLAY (all users)
- a Leaderboard below the forums on index (all users)
- A Square Banner in the Blog side navigation (all users)
- a Link unit in the navbar (guests only)
- a Link unit below the thread list in FORUMDISPLAY (all users)
- a Link unit below the last post of each thread (all users)
- a Link Unit besides the Forum Rules (posting rules) below each thread

Banners displayed from now on for 10 full days counting from tomorrow are:
- a Leaderboard below the forum navigation (all users)
(this Leaderboard is loaded AFTER the following rectangle in the html and positioned via CSS)
- a Large Rectangle as second post of each thread (guests only)
(Loaded first in HTML even though it is the second banner displayed for the user)

I leave the following ADs running because the Impressions are lower then 50 and it's much more
trouble to remove them temporarily.
- A Square Banner in the Blog side navigation (all users)
- a Large Rectangle after first Blog post (all users)

If the CTR and Impression theory is correct I will earn significantly more then 25USD in the next 10 days.

After 10 Days I will post my results and conclusions here.

What is your point of view?

StarBuG

 

Hello, me too I've read people advising to reduce the number of ad blocks, but by doing experiment as well I've found that the eCPM decreased, so now I always put the maximum number of ad blocks allowed.
I'm conscious that my little experiment doesn't mean it would result the same for all types of sites and ad placement.
But I can't be bothered to run the experiment on each and every sites, and honestly I read so many totally wrong advices (on things I know to be wrong) that no matter how many times I'll read that reduce number of ads advice, I can't trust forum advice at all.

But I'm interested in the results of your experiment, that's why I answered so that I'll be able to follow it easily (I know I can subscribe to a thread without replying to it, but I wanted to give my opinion at the same time)

 

Hey,

Awesome posts, thanks for sharing. At first I had 1 ad, now I've got 3 (different sizes).

Here's a little tip that increased my earnings;
1. I've got a banner at the top
2. I placed a Text-Link ad below it, near the title of my post which is Orange
3. Since the Text-Link is white, you immediately notice it. What's even better is that the banner above also goes into your eyes with its blue and white colors
4. So now I've got people clicking the Text-Link ads and the top banner more often

I get more clicks and all of that because of colors.

 

Colors are important and you need to experiment with them.
For me blending the ads to my site does result in the best CTR though.

 

Nice post bro but sometimes experiment make one loose revenue.
Its a bold move to find out whats good for you.
Please share your result.

I think digital point is doing something similar as they only have three ads only no other ads...only adsense ads only
i dont understand why because they had earn a lot from tribal fusion cpm ads.

anyways am out for now.

 

less ads = less CTR => high income

 

That's very good post. In my opinion, reducing ads will force Google to show the highest paying ads.
I assume that your CTR is still, your earning will be increased.

 

Yes,reducing the number of ads can definetly improve earnings.

 

I think you should start reading about Adsense first bro

Google always shows the highest paying ads first.
Reducing the number of ads does not force google to show ads with higher value.
The value of Ads depend on your niche and how "much" google likes your site.
There is only so much premium ad inventory to spread around publishers and good quality sites usually get better Ads over time.

However that has nothing to do with this experiment nor my theory

And why is that?
What is your theory?
Do you have proof or is it just a feeling or guess?

 

One should also take into account another version of the theory, which is to still use the maximum allowed number of adsense blocks, but use smaller formats such as the 234x60 which can hold only one ad (but no image or video unfortunately)
Thus you can place three ads in strategic locations (to try to keep a high CTR) and those three ads will have the best three eCPMs you would have had anyway with more ads (number of individual ads)

But keeping a high CTR with small format is hard, I know I've tried that also, but for sure I didn't really tried enough time at all, it would require another way of ad placement, a new reasonning than when using 3 large format blocks like I do nowadays.

Maybe this alternative version of the theory (which says it's best to have more ad blocks than fewer) can work wonder if one can allow to put the time to experiement with ad placement in this condition (only using 234x60 adsense blocks)

 

Smaller ad formats tend to have lower CTR then big formats because not the number of ads is important
the number of choices you give your visitors is.
3 small ad formats means 3 choices for the user to click on.
3 big ad formats mean 8-12 choices for the user.

 

How did the test go?

 

hi, i would like to see your site, to see the add below title.

 

11 days later, I think it's time for the results DaStarBuG

 

I am still eagerly waiting for the experimented post!!!

 

The experiment started 2010/05/18 and will end by tomorrow.
I'll post the results then.

 

Okay.. I'll also wait for your results.

Subscribing to this thread.

 

Experiment results:

05. - 15.05. : 43.000 AD Impressions : 19,21 €
18. - 28.05. : 16.000 AD Impressions : 22,08 €

The CTR on each AD is exactly the same in both time periods.

Discussion:

The increase in money is not significant enough to proof the thesis that reducing the number of ADs
will increase your overall CTR and therefor make you more money.

However it showed me that it is possible to remove low performing ADs without losing money and
thereby increase the users experience on my forum.

After This experiment I added my 2 best performing link unites again but the rest of the ADs stay off for now.

Maybe in a few days I start experimenting with totally new placement spots.


Feel free to discuss your own conclusion of the results.
I am interested to hear more opinions.

StarBuG

 

I want to know how duplicate ads works into all of this. I've had times where all 3 of the units on a page are showing the exact same ads.

 

i'd say that reducing ads helped me before, i strongly believe giving the visitor 1 ad will give you better ctr, because the more ads you have visitors will ignore them while having one ad it'll catch the user's eye!
this is what i believe in