Disagree, if i may People want to click those ads. If along the page they dont find the last imput, they will click those ads. I believe that true visitors who come from serp's want to click those ads, that's what they are looking for after a brief read along the page. WE think as marketers/webmasters/adsense publishers, BUT the regular visitors don't think as we do: they will click those ads if that's what they are looking for. Period. * my ex director used to tell me, "don't try to get perfection while on air (at radio), the crowd won't notice the diference between perfection and a good job. Only others radio freaks.
Do you think visitors care much about AdSense? Do you think they're SO interested in AdSense that they will actually seek for more? Then it's not surprising the arrows have NO impact on earnings.
If this were the case then CTR's would be high instead of in the 2-4% range. These arrows may prove to be more successful on those sites that lack content (MFA sites), or sites where the information the visitors are really looking for cant be found. But CTR's on these types of sites are already high without the arrows. But you may be right that we are thinking as Webmasters. Google did test this out for a while before placing it on all the ads. I assume Google determined it has some sort of positive effect on clicks. In one of my sites, I'm thinking it may have helped. But on the others my CTR's remain unchanged. So if it does not hurt most sites while helping others, I could see the benefit. Either way, those arrows make it tough to blend the ads.
Good points. I am an amateur DJ and to me it's blatantly obvious when someone 'crashes' a mix, it sounds horrible but the public do not notice!!!