SEO

If I display Google ads for all users, guests and members, I get a very high impression count, but a low CTR.

If I display Google ads for only guests, I get relatively low impression count, but a higher than average CTR.

Which is better?

it really doesn't matter.

its the actual clicks that matter.


However, if you end up sending too many impressions, and thus a low CTR, you get smart priced. Try to keep your site around 2% CTR.

Brian,

Can you talk a bit more about "smart pricing"? Sounds very interesting.

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Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
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By the way, why not high impressions + high CTR?

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Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
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If you end up having a horrible CTR (under 1%) you end up getting lower paying ads and lower paying per click ads, as your site doesn't appear to 'convert' as well.

This happened to me a while back. I was sending in 25-30,000 impressions a day and around 200 clicks.
arpc was like 9 cents.

I killed all my multiple ad units, and dropped to about 18,000 impressions, and about the same clicks, and i ended up making more over time.
arpc went back up to 20-25 cents, which is good for my niche.

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Who should I host with?

From a monitary standpoint, this only lasts so long.

If all your visitors leave via ads, they obviously aren't interested in your content. Over time, your traffic will lessen dramitcally, and there goes your impression oppertunities altogether.

further note, its best to judge based off the effective CPM of the page.

ctr and impressions are both the factors that lead to this figure, as its a ratio of those as well as how much each click is worth.

I make the most money when I'm in the $4 cpm range.
$5 ecpm days are usually lower traffic (weekends for me), and thus, lower total clicks.
$3 ecpm days are high traffic days, but less clicks per impression.

Ok - I understand. So the higher the CTR, the better. That is extremely important. This also might be a good reason to do some advanced stuff on how to eliminate ads completely in some situations in order to lower impressions, and increase CTR.

Example:

Create separate Google channels for different types of users, including Guests, Registered Users, Time Frame Users (Members since x days), Post Users (Members with > x Posts), Gender, Age, etc. It would require a plugin to switch out the channel identifier in your AdSense code, but it would give you the capability of tracking which channels are low producers.

You could then make the decision to turn off ads on the low producing channels, and therefore increase your CTR. The result is a better per-click payoff.

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Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
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Thanks, guys. I think I've been "smart priced".

I'm going to turn off the ads to my members, since they're not clicked anyway. This will drastically lower my page impressions, but the clicks will remain the same, so my CTR will go way up.

try giving your members CPM based ads (you will need to turn on images)

You can't get CPM with text?
Would any size image ads do?

My only problem with showing image ads is that sometimes they are flash, and that causes some members problems... :(

Excellent point.

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Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
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I've got a half banner image ad turned on for members. I'll see how it goes.

I've experimented a lot with adsense. Not too long ago I got an e-mail from them saying that they wanted to include my site in a special group for select advertisers.

They recommended I use the medium rectangle. It is the hot format right now. I display an ad to unregistered users under the first post. I went from a letterboard to a medium rectangle and the CTR went up another $1 !! That's huge!

A while back google also recommended that I take out the 468x60 ads. I guess no one uses them as much anymore and they aren't as effective.

I have found that the txt links are also very effective.

briansol, you have some good points regarding members and keeping them. Unfortunately for my niche (cell phones) 85% of the users are looking for an answer to a simple question. They either find it or they don't. However, on other similar sites I have seen stronger user bases. I'm starting to wonder if I display too many ads to unregistered users. IMO, it's not cluttered and flows well. On the other hand, it could just be that the other sites are older and more established.

In the same thought a similar site with a low CTR and high returning daily visitors may have the same amount of impressions daily with more active threads, but does not make as much because of that low CTR. And that kinda brings us back to the original question.

99% of your regular members will never click on ads unless and until you are running some distinct topic (sceince, astro, medical, etc.) showing your ads to registered members atleast is not a good idea.