Adsense of a commerce site, is it a good idea or not?

Discussion in 'AdSense' started by huntingblades, Mar 22, 2006.

  1. #1
    Hi,

    I added Adsense to my site a few months ago after reading about everyone’s success on DP. So far I have done alright with it, but since my site was created to generate sales I am wondering if anyone has any experience with using adsense on a e-commerce site.

    My conversions rate to sales is low <1% and I have not seen a drop in sales since adding adsense, but this may be due to the fact that since adding adsense I have concentrated on increasing my articles and my visitors has doubled.

    So is having adsense on a commerce site a good idea or bad? Why?

    Thank you ahead of time.
     
    huntingblades, Mar 22, 2006 IP
    Notting likes this.
  2. plusd

    plusd Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Using AdSense on a site where you want to sell something is not a good idea.
    Your potential customers might go to other competitors.
     
    plusd, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  3. whitespider

    whitespider Peon

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    #3
    IMHO - terrible idea. See my post in the "3 tips forum"

    What is the point in deliberately attempting to drive away your hard earned visitors - especailly your ads are "relevant" as they will probably be competitors who will be loving it.

    If you do keep them to try to encapsulate peoplke who will exit anyway make sure you use the competitive ads filter and opt OUT of the "Online Advertiser" programme.
     
    whitespider, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  4. pozer

    pozer Active Member

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    #4
    you are loosing your good company name by using ads, your page looks cheap, that's my opinion
     
    pozer, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  5. babbling

    babbling Peon

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    #5
    I'm not too sure I agree with the other replies.

    On the internet, it isn't hard for people to find your competitors. It's best to assume they will find them, sooner or later. Maybe they'll stick with you, maybe they won't.

    Assuming they do go with your competitors, though, wouldn't you like to at least still get SOME money from them? I think adsense on a site that sells stuff is actually a good idea.
     
    babbling, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  6. TheHoff

    TheHoff Peon

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    #6
    It depends on how much the keywords pay vs. how much you make on your sales. Normally I'd say improve your own conversions and ditch the ads.
     
    TheHoff, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  7. jackburton2006

    jackburton2006 Peon

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    #7
    Depends. If you're trying to promote that you're professional, having Adsense on your site is amateurish and indicates you're a schlub that they can't trust with something too big (like web hosting, etc). But if you're not selling/promoting anything that requires the buyer to see you as a "pro", then it doesn't matter. Speaking generally as a seasoned web surfer, of course.
     
    jackburton2006, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  8. FreeFox

    FreeFox Peon

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    #8
    It's not bad for all "commerce sites" type.

    Gagets,horoscope,gifts... works great with Adsense!
     
    FreeFox, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  9. huntingblades

    huntingblades Peon

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    #9
    Thank you for your help, I am removing adsense at least for now, see if that increases either my subscriptions to my newsletter or sales, I can always add it later I guess. Babbling, most of the adds are within my industry but since they are on my article pages they do not go directly to my competition, I was very careful to steer clear of anypages that might send people to purchase elsewhere.

    Thank you again
     
    huntingblades, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  10. jdi_knght

    jdi_knght Peon

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    #10
    If you end up making more from adsense than you do from actual sales, then depending on the amount of content you have on the site, it probably won't hurt to much to concentrate on Adsense. Basically you'd probably be turning your commerce-based site into a content-based site, even if you still generate sales here or there.

    However, if you make more from actual sales, I'd spend the time working on getting sales. You're bound to be losing at least some sales to customers who leave your site through ads.

    A lot of factors come into play though. For example, how much you make per sale and what your average click is paying you. If you're making $2000/month with sales, and $100/month through Adsense, then I'd suspect you're probably better to concentrate on your site sales and remove the adsense. However if you were making $100/month on Adsense and $100/month in sales, then it might be considering concentrating on Adsense, and using sales as secondary income.

    If your site is just generating 'play' income for you, then of course feel free to experiment. If the income is your livelyhood though, think long and hard about the decision you make, and think about what the long term effects might be.
     
    jdi_knght, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  11. huntingblades

    huntingblades Peon

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    #11
    KNGHT,

    So far it is just a hobby, although my sales are up 240% over the same time last year, so I guess I will concentrate on sales and maybe put adsense back on later. All the adds are now removed, I hope, it only took me 3 hours. It is amazing how many pages of good original content you can get from your visitors with free a monthly drawing.
     
    huntingblades, Mar 22, 2006 IP
  12. huntingblades

    huntingblades Peon

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    #12
    Time will tell if there is a correlation between my taking adsense down and the 200% increase in conversion I had yesterday. Within 12 hours of removing the code, I had 4 more orders than usual and 10 more phone calls.

    Thank you for all your responses and help!
     
    huntingblades, Mar 24, 2006 IP
  13. Crusader

    Crusader Peon

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    #13
    Personally I'm very weary of a site trying to sell something that has ads on the site itself. To me it shows that the site isn't too serious about selling their own products or that they are struggling to keep their heads above water (trying to get extra revenue from ads).

    So I'm against using Adsense on a site where you are trying to sell something. This might not be true for all e-commerce sites, but from a buyers perspective it definitely looks suspicious.
     
    Crusader, Mar 26, 2006 IP
  14. wwwbug

    wwwbug Peon

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    #14
    not a good idea ,the two things both need your hard work,if you do it ,no difference
     
    wwwbug, Mar 26, 2006 IP
  15. AoaoSo

    AoaoSo Peon

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    #15
    yes , it is not a good idea.
     
    AoaoSo, Mar 26, 2006 IP
  16. Sir Tom

    Sir Tom Banned

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    #16
    Agreed.

    If a visitor comes to your site there are basically two outcomes, they sign-up or they leave.

    Having them sign-up should obviously be priority #1, however, if a user is going to leave, it may be worthwhile (depending on the pay-per-click) to provide your users with a profitable out.
     
    Sir Tom, Mar 26, 2006 IP
  17. rick sample

    rick sample Peon

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    #17
    Definetly not a great ideal. I had adsense on all the pages of our e-com site for about 5-6 months. Sales decreased dramatically. We actually just took them down a few weeks ago. Gaining a few cents from adsense isn't worth loosing a sale over!
     
    rick sample, Mar 28, 2006 IP
  18. alvarez16

    alvarez16 Well-Known Member

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    #18
    Yeah this might get customers to go somewhere else due to the ads.
     
    alvarez16, Mar 28, 2006 IP
  19. ActiveFarming

    ActiveFarming Active Member

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    #19
    In my opinion it depends on what you mean by "commerce."

    If your website is about selling things through affiliate ads or feeds. You may make just as much money or more per impression having Adsense as you would through the other affiliates. In this case, I would offer the ads.

    If you are a legit commerce site selling unique products or services, I wouldn't have the ads.
     
    ActiveFarming, Mar 28, 2006 IP
  20. lonecrow

    lonecrow Peon

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    #20
    I am not sure its a bad idea. I ran the numbers for one of my clients sites and with their permssion put ads on it for one day.

    They sell low margin products and have to earn ~$15,000 in revenue in a month to make the same profit as the adSense did. Doing the math of the number of clicks and average page views per visitor they would have about 5% of their visitors leave their site via the ads. Some of those people may very well return later.

    So for me the jury is still out. For this customer repeat business is a big part of things (pet supplies) so we are not showing ads. But if you sold one off goods with low return business value, it might not be such a bad idea.
     
    lonecrow, Mar 28, 2006 IP