Added some content and CTR drops

My best performing ads is a link unit on the top of the left nav, previously with a 800px wide design. Now I added more content on the rightmost of the page to form a 1000px design. And the CTR of the link unit drops considerably.

What should I do now? Rip off the newly added content?

 

The more content you provide, the better. Aslong as it is quality content.

Maybe because you have diverted your viewers attention away from the ad's at the top, you need to add another unit somewhere near or within this new content.

 

Usually, more content means more money.

 

You made 2 changes: page width (layout) and content. So which of the 2 made the ctr decrease is difficult to know.
Take out the new content and leave the new layout, see if ctr increases again.


I don't agree with the more content the better.
Imo a lot of content isn't always optimal for earning through clicks..

Think about it: if people click an ad they will leave your site. They think that the site in the ad will give them more info or answer their questions better than your page they are on now.

Many people surf the net to get an answer on questions they have, through a SE or other site they get to your site, and if they don't find what they want they will continue to another site. Either use back button and take the next result in the SE resultlist, or click on an ad on your site they think is interesting.

But if your content is so good they learn everything they want to know, why should they still go to another website or click an ad ?

What you want is enough content with keywords to attract visitors and get a good rank in search engines.. but don't answer all questions someone can have as they need a reason to leave your site and click an ad.

 

Because the adsense ads should be relevant to the content. For example, I've just given people some great info about xbox's, now that person feels like buying an xbox, Oh look, adsense has an ad for that.

The more content, the easier it'll be for adsense to spider through it. It also increases the quality of your website. If you want people to come back to your site, give them more content.

 

How much did CTR drop?

 

Thank you all for the replies.

to jacobs, from 2.5% to 1.5%,


Now I have added 2 more link units on the right sidebar to see what happens.

 

It's a trade-off.
Sometimes when you put interesting content, CTR will drop...
But eventually you will get more visitors and loyal readers.

 

If it's repeat visitors, they may be distracted by the change in your overall design and are led to explore your new content. Also, adding more content causes people to browse more before an ad catches their attention. So in effect, you will see a spike in your ad impressions. Your click count may still be consistent but because your impressions have gone up considerably, you then get a lower CTR. Give it time to settle. I prefer to make gradual changes to my sites so I can measure the effects. Adding lots of content suddenly and then slapping on more ads are probably going to make it more difficult for you to pin-point what's good and what's bad.

Just my 2 cents...