AdSense never ceases to amaze me in the way they sometimes display ads. If you look at the front page of Article Depot, there are ads for Breast Cancer and Speed Reading in the same block. They alternate in the ads along the left hand side too. I have never seen such a strange mix in the same box. Any ideas on if these ads might actually be sharing a keyword?
No Idea, but while testing on my own computer I've seen some strange combinations that just has to be from G reading the local URL and serving ads from that. My local URL contains both the word palm and carmen (computer name) and AS shows ads for both palm software and operas. So I do think they can fit more than one keyword into a single ad block.
Do you think that hurts or helps CTR? I think it looks bad when they aren't related in any way and would discopurage people from clicking. The other side is that a variety ensures they apeal to more people although I just don't see that being the case.
What it should help reduce is half full ad boxes, if one keyword does not produce enough ads, using two (or more) should fill up the box. Hopefully all ads have some relevancy to your content.
Hi, I've only noticed it on my blogs where there can be one advert in context to the actual subject and another related to blogs themselves. But I can imagine it happening elsewhere. I guess they take several keywords and take the "best" ads based on them. Dunno really. Cheers Chris
It's most likely the keyword "article" that is causing the speed reading ads. On that site you will see ads related to your site "Article Depot" as well as the subject of whatever article is on the page.
The URL absolutely has something to do with the ads that are shown on the site. On my wedding forum, if I enter the site with the domain I registered, I get nothing but PSAs but if i enter through the forum hosts long winded link with no real words in it, then I get all the appropriate related ads showing.
It was "Are Fleas Biting You" and "Work From Home" before this. The flea ads were the worst converters yet. It has a lot to do with the content when it spiders it and because the "Featured Categories" rotate, it produces interesting combinations. As a test I am going to make it so most of the "Featured Categories" are related and see if I can get some uniformity.
Your homepage is pulling ads from two things: 1. The "article" content at the top 2. The lead ins to various articles When the subject matter for the article summary/lead ins are higher bidding advertisers they will show first. When the "article" keyword advertisers out bid the other content you will see those. If you want to reduce the amount of "article" (speed reading, etc.) ads you can reduce the number of times you reference that keyword. I noticed that your article pages are showing ads relevant to the article and little or no "article" ads. That is because you don't have the article content at the top of those pages and the article content out weighs what is left.
I guess I don't remember it combining Ads in the same block to such a degree. I don't mind any of the Article related ads as those appeal to my visitors. Its this every other thing that throws off the CTR.
In that case you could increase the "article" content. Like this: "Last 5 Submitted Articles" "Featured Articles" Things like that.
I have another example of URL affecting ads. I opperate a yahoo store. When you visit my store you will see bridal ads but when I am in the edit mode of my store, behind the scenes, I am shown ads that would be good for online merchants such as accepting credit cards and web hosting ads.
Nice one. My admin panel is exactly the same in every way to my index page except that it has admin somewhere in the url. I get password recovery ads on there. (That reminds me I've got to remove the AdSense from that page )