CPC bidding for Site Targeted Adsense Ads (Beta Program)

It would be a good idea to pay attention to your site targeted revenue from google adsense. As many of you are aware, most adsense publishers received and email a few weeks ago encouraging the use of 200x250 ads because they were favored by most advertisers that use site targeting.

You are also aware that you may now specify (or encourage) ad locations for site targeting via your ad channels now. This sounded like some really great options for publishers.

After further review, this may not have been in the interest of publishers at all. Google has started a beta program (only available for U.S. advertisers), allowing advertisers to bid on targeted ads on a CPC basis. This could be a bad change for publishers that run ads on forums. If you have targeted ads on your site, you most likely will notice that the CTR of these ads are not very high due to the repetition in which they are seen by your visitors, and at times the fact that they are image ads, or rather ugly ads that stick out like a sore thumb.

Keep an eye on your targeted ad revenue, as well as your overall revenue and see how this affects you.

Information on the Adwords Beta Program: https://services.google.com/ads_inqu..._sitetargeting

i've been using it for about 2 weeks now, along with a targetted ad block, and my revenue has only increased, along with my CTR. I was over 6% CTR for a few hours this morning

Not sure I am following what you are saying. You say you have been using this for about two weeks, is there a way you can specifically allow CPC site targeting as opposed to the normal CPM site targeting that google has always had? The only thing I can find in my reports is how to split between contextual and site targeted. I see no way to see whether sites are using this new CPC site targeting or not.

I have always allowed site targeting, but this is something new for advertisers.

i set up a 2nd channel for the zone targetting on top of the regular channel tracking. Just by watching the stats, you can tell roughly whats going on as far as CPC vs CPM. Since my zone is shared with regular and targetted, and each is channeled, I can tell whats going on. cpm ads I get like a cent or 2 every 15 min update. If i jump to say 40 or 50 cents on that channel in that time period, I know i got a cpc click on that channel, not a cpm.
Unless for some ungodly reason someone is paying $400 CPM on my site, i think it's a pretty accurate assumption.

Originally Posted by briansol

i set up a 2nd channel for the zone targetting on top of the regular channel tracking. Just by watching the stats, you can tell roughly whats going on as far as CPC vs CPM. Since my zone is shared with regular and targetted, and each is channeled, I can tell whats going on. cpm ads I get like a cent or 2 every 15 min update. If i jump to say 40 or 50 cents on that channel in that time period, I know i got a cpc click on that channel, not a cpm.
Unless for some ungodly reason someone is paying $400 CPM on my site, i think it's a pretty accurate assumption.

I'm going to try this out...

I am curious as to what the CTR is on targeted ads as opposed to contextual ads for you guys. For my site, the CTR is very low on site targeted ads, mainly because they are image ads, or those big ugly ads that take up an entire ad block.

This is my concern with this new beta program. It is these ads that companies will begin to start targeting your site with, only now they will be able to do it on a CPC basis, not a CPM basis. In other words, they can outbid your contextual ads and place an ad that most likely wont get clicked by very many people. When someone does click the ad, it will pay good, but anybody that understand advertising and knows how to manipulate adwords a little will be able to easily capitalize on this from an advertisers standpoint.

They will use this to get their site branded in your visitors mind, kind of like a billboard ad. Advertisers are loving this beta test, and hoping it becomes mainstream with adwords.

Should also note that this will potentially affect publishers who have heavy site targeting on their sites, probably won't be noticed very much by others.

block 'em. That's what I do.

If I see the same ad over and over again, i add them to my competitive filter.

Advertisers don't pay up front- they get billed at the end of the day/month. You can still block them, and they simply won't be charged by google and won't show any more.

Variety is the key to successful ad clicks.

especially on forums... if your users keep seeing the same ads over and over again, the odds of it getting clicked a 2nd time is extremely low.