I've been searching through the forums here and haven't found definitive answers to these questions. First, does Google optimize the ads it serves on my site over time? I'm only nine days into this and have seen really wacky things. For instance, on Monday I had near 10K page views and made over $43. On Tuesday I had only slightly fewer page views and made less than $19. On Wednesday, almost as many page views as Monday, but nearly $49 made. So about a 5% differential (low vs. high) in page views over three days, but more than 100% differential in revenue (again, low to high). Further, the previous Wednesday saw over 12K page view, but less than $23 earnings. Is this just Google trying out a bunch of different stuff on my ad in an attempt to find the correct formula? Will my revenue settle down into a more predictable stream over time or are wild fluctuations par for the course? Do page views and earnings normally correlate? Second, should I be optimizing my ads myself? If so, is it true that blocking ad categories is a bad idea (from a revenue standpoint) and not a method to optimize? Should I just be sticking to ad type and placement? How long should I wait before trying to optimize? I'm guessing at least several weeks of data should be collected before I can make any judgments. Thanks much!
Yes, at first the ads shown are based on simple things such as page title, after when the adsense bot had a chance to parse your pages and analyse the content, it will be able to tailor the ads more. But fluctuations are usual. Personally I care only about my CTR with good ad placement in order to achieve a minimum of $5 RPM, then for all the rest I let adsense do its job, it is in the interest of adsense to display best RPM ads on your site whenever possible. Then you have time to focus on your job as a publisher of content.
Thanks for the reply, James. My CTR is very low. The best I've seen is 0.85, but 0.6 seems more common. I think I need to work on placement, but I'm also hesitant to make changes abruptly. Since the revenue swings are so volatile maybe I should wait long enough to see a pattern so I'll be able to distinguish ad changes from the normal variations. I'm on day 11 and have only seen one day with an RPM over $5. That day I was just shy of $49. My goal is to average $50/day. Obviously, keeping the site current, continually adding compelling content and functionality are bedrock principles of keeping my SERP ranking and traffic, but I also feel as if I don't have ad type and placement figured out. I'd love a CTR of 2%, but have no idea if that's realistic. Right now, my biggest difficulty is patience. I can't wait for the results to come in so I can begin tweaking.
With 10K ad impressions I think you can analyse day by day, it's enough traffic to jump to conclusions I think, although the best would be to wait one week data in-between changes to be sure. My guess is your ad placement could be improved by seeing your CTR, but there are some exceptions, if your niche in one of them, then there isn't much you can do, I don't know about your current ad placement, but you have to be tricky and not shy at the same time
Thanks James. Your suggestion that my ad impressions level is high enough to show changes quickly sent me back for another look. I'm kind of embarrassed to say I really misunderstood my data. The volatility I was seeing was in revenue and CPC only. I had assumed it was in CTR and clicks. But clicks actually have been closely tracking page impressions. So now I'm wondering how I find out what phrases/key words are associated with my higher cost ads so I can target them. Is there anyway to find this type of information? Thanks much!
You can do that by linking your asdense account with your google analytics account, search about that.. After you'll have adsense datas in your analytics account, and will be able to order pages of your sites by adsense earnings or by adsense RPM, etc..
My Adsense and Analytics accounts are linked, but I can't find anything on Adsense keywords. Maybe that's not something Google makes available? I did add a skyscraper ad (160x600). Hoping that will increase CTR. None of my other ads are Google's top performers as their dimensions don't fit my current layout. I am due for a layout/graphic design overhaul. I suppose I should make it Adsense centric, no? I also thought I might rotate ad positions to combat ad blindness, but only 20% of my traffic is repeat. BTW, spent about eight months in Chiang Mai way back in '83-'84.
Standard Reporting > Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Organic Above the graphic presentation you'll find: Site Usage | Ecommerce | AdSense Click on AdSense. Enjoy...
After one day using the 160 x 600 skyscraper it is clearly a significant enhancement. RPM is more than double the previous high.