My CTR has been below 0.40% for 2 years now.

Discussion in 'AdSense' started by Digital08, Jan 22, 2011.

  1. #1
    I have 3 popular gaming sites... each one gets a good amount of uniques a day, most are from search engines. There are no forums. Its great content and people give me great comments about.

    Every day, adsense shows 10,000+ page views in my ad reporting.

    Problem is, my CTR is always less than 0.40%. I have tried EVERYTHING.

    Changing the layout, changing the colors, changing how many ads I use, I went from 1 ad, to 3 ads, nothing changed. I changed the places of the ads, I tried blocking major categories, I tried EVERYTHING possible!

    I am very sad, because I worked a long time for pretty much nothing.

    I make like 5 dollars a day, and can never break that. On some days, I can make 10 bucks maybe, but that is all.

    CTR is always very very low. CPC is not bad at all, Ive seen even 1 dollar for a click.

    But CTR that is my biggest problem.

    Should I just give up on gaming sites? Do gamers NEVER click ads? What am I doing wrong?

    And if so, can you guys please tell me which categories of sites get a decent CTR?

    Financial sites? Business sites? Travel sites? Excercise and bodybuilding?

    Because I will stop, and try to make those types of sites instead.

    I am tired of every day waking up to crappy earnings, despite working on my websites every day, updating, creating walkthroughs for games which take days. Sometimes weeks.

    My content is original, and even the content I have that is NOT original (submitted) I spice up to make it look better and easily accesible to the visitor.

    Should I stop making GOOD sites? Maybe people dont want to leave my site that is why they never click.

    Anyway sorry for the long post. I am very frustrated. I have tried everything, only to get lower and lower earnings every day all because my CTR is always less than 0.40%.

    Thanks for your time, I really hope you guys can give me some advice...
     
    Digital08, Jan 22, 2011 IP
  2. RumpledElf

    RumpledElf Well-Known Member

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    #2
    The more computer literate your audience, the less they click ads.

    Pretty much.

    Spoken as someone who has major issues getting CTR over 0.3%.
     
    RumpledElf, Jan 22, 2011 IP
  3. Internet Marketing IQ

    Internet Marketing IQ Guest

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    #3
    Adsense is about matching User intentions to Advertising Inventory.

    Clearly people come to your site to use the content. Thus there is no reason for them to click on any ads. If the ads match the reason that people come to your site then they get clicked.

    1-2% is a fairly average click through in most niches.

    In your case you would be well served to limit the number of ads you are serving for adsense. If you have not done so already you should really dig into your traffic analytics and see which pages get visited and which keywords are used to find those pages. Then adjust your advertising campaigns accordingly.

    Making money with Adsense requires you to really understand the motives of your traffic. And if your content is so good and it's free... then perhaps you need to figure out another way to leverage what you are doing for more profit.
     
    Internet Marketing IQ, Jan 22, 2011 IP
  4. farhajr

    farhajr Well-Known Member

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    #4
    I also have a similar problem.. I have the very same websites that I owned in back 2008 .. then my ctr used to go btw 9-15%... bUT NOW IT IS REDUCED TO 1-3% or may sometimes slightly go higher.. All I ever did since then was add few more pages to my those very same websites.. Nothing extra domain / website was added ,,

    what could be the main reasons behind it..?
     
    farhajr, Jan 23, 2011 IP
  5. quiz

    quiz Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Digital08, the game niche is maybe even the hardest adsense niche there is. Most of the time text-ads are useless and even image ads don't have a high CTR or CPC. I don't have any good tips for you since i am in the same position. If your site is big enough you could try cpmstar, bigpoint publisher, game server ads or selling game related ads.
     
    quiz, Feb 8, 2011 IP
  6. ForgottenCreature

    ForgottenCreature Notable Member

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    #6
    If your site gets enough traffic, I'd recommend implementing CPM ads along with Adsense. How you tried Vibrant Media along with adsense, or Kontera? If people are coming just for the content, then you can easily monetize it - just don't keep your eggs in Adsense. You need to diverse. Sites in the games niche usually sell in-house ads, or have various ad networks running.
     
    ForgottenCreature, Feb 8, 2011 IP
  7. lifeplayer

    lifeplayer Notable Member

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    #7
    Not sure whether you try this
    - dont use text only or image/text ads. use image only ads in skycrapper or leaderboard
     
    lifeplayer, Feb 8, 2011 IP
  8. mrsing

    mrsing Peon

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    #8
    Don't Adsense text ads also use CMP?
     
    mrsing, Feb 8, 2011 IP
  9. ruletheworld

    ruletheworld Peon

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    #9
    Have you tried private advertising? Since your sites get good traffic, perhaps you can cut the middle men and directly look at companies that would be interested to advertise on your site.
     
    ruletheworld, Feb 8, 2011 IP
  10. digitalfriends

    digitalfriends Well-Known Member

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    #10
    I think its good if your traffic is too high and it really depends on what type of visitors you are having, so according ot me this is good ctr
     
    digitalfriends, Feb 8, 2011 IP
  11. anitaviera

    anitaviera Peon

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    #11
    low ctr is very good man, its better than high ctr
     
    anitaviera, Feb 8, 2011 IP
  12. ravsreddy56

    ravsreddy56 Peon

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    #12
    see try to put ur adsense between the post u are saying that u have good number of visitors then really it can help u to push up your CTR adsense is just implementing
     
    ravsreddy56, Feb 8, 2011 IP
  13. markov

    markov Peon

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    #13
    As you said it is paying less for more than 2 years, I think you should research for a new niche that has high CTR and of course pays well.
     
    markov, Feb 9, 2011 IP
  14. quiz

    quiz Well-Known Member

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    #14
    Sure it is.... its like having less traffic and say you should keep it that way to avoid to many impressions?
     
    quiz, Feb 9, 2011 IP
  15. bhathiya99

    bhathiya99 Active Member

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    #15
    Same problem with me..
     
    bhathiya99, Feb 9, 2011 IP
  16. Brody8925874

    Brody8925874 Peon

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    #16
    It is quite low. I was confused also about that. what happen to you now?
     
    Brody8925874, Feb 9, 2011 IP
  17. rationale

    rationale Member

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    #17
    Are your ads game related? First make sure that the ads that are showing are actually game related.. If they're not, then I would find a game related ad network that would serve 100% game related ads.. Obviously your clickthrough is low because your visitors are not finding any interest in the ads.. For a game site, game related ads are the way to go..
     
    rationale, Feb 10, 2011 IP
  18. ferdyfauzi

    ferdyfauzi Peon

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    #18
    This is REALLY bad.. 0.04% only for 10K pageviews? maybe you should give up on Adsense.. try CPA or u just sell links to others.
     
    ferdyfauzi, Feb 10, 2011 IP
  19. mazzo

    mazzo Member

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    #19
    man
    forget gaming niche
    i had one and i got 0 earnings every day
    hehhe
    although i had 2500k impression
    now i turned to forex niche
    www.3rb-web.net
    lol
    now i earn 5-11$ aday with less work
    lol
     
    mazzo, Feb 10, 2011 IP