Dismal Adsense Performance - What do you think?

www.pinkpt.com

I run two google ads, the leaderboard underneath the header image and the thin skyscraper on the left hand side of the layout.

It receives aproximately 6,000 unique visitors a day.

Even though the side has over 1,300 pages of unique content, the click through rate is dismal... for example, I'd get say... 17,000 page impressions but only receive 18 clicks which calculates to an effective CTR of 0.1%. (Hypothetically)

<<Removed Statistics because I was told it was against TOS to disclose them>>

(eCPM is usually around the $0.10 mark) but I'm usually seeing around $1 per day on average.

I'm... dumbfounded... I'm guessing the market has a lot to do with it? For example, the keywords that appear are Neopets... which is basically what the site is based upon and most of the keywords link to auctions on ebay that sell items valued at approximately $3 give or take. --> Keywords aren't paying that much then seems logical... but the dismal CTR? I see some people get 5%+ and numbers that high look near impossible right now lol.

Neopets will be releasing a movie and playstation games soon so maybe that'll up the keyword values...

I've had a play around with ad placement and layout, position etc.

At the moment, I've changed the URL link colours to blue so it stands out from the sea of light blue links.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could be the cause of the low CTR? I've printed out and read literally.. over 100 pages of adsense articles but most of them say the same thing (which I'm guessing makes them logically very important)... ad integration into the site (which I've done)... and position (they're placed in the prime hot spots).

Frankly... I could make a lot more off CPM ads... but contextual links are the ads of the future baby... and I want to jump on board today!

 

Maybe I'm lost, but I see no adsense ads on the page nor adsense code in the page source.

 

You can see this thread to improve your CTR.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=17104 every one is getting higher CTR after implmenthing this change! have a look!

 

Yes, that worked for me too.

Regarding AdSense, a lot of it also depends on the nature ofo your site. Because Google can't target it well, http://www.rootes-chrysler.co.uk/ gets HORRIBLE AdSense earnings - not enough to justify keeping the banners up (I took 'em down after getting about 10 cents a day on 2,400 impressions). I'm considering moving to another plan, e.g. searchfeed.com, while finding a permanent banner sponsor.

 

Sorry I had google on a default but I've placed google up on again for the purposes of this thread.

 

Ah, ok, that is where I kinda expect them. The one on the left should perform, you'd think.

The one on top I would try under the second navbar if that could be done.

 

Some people find that brighter ads work better than blended ads. Maybe your site will work best with brigt ads. Try putting pictures around them like the other thread suggests.


Greg

 

When I read this, it made me think that you should just become an eBay affiliate. If your site is about NeoPets, and most of your ads just go to a neopets eBay auction, and you are recieving a few cents a piece for each click, you might want to try out eBay affiliate and show the eBay Editor Kit where your ads are on the left.

You get $0.10 per bid. And with that much traffic and the low price for eBay auctions, people are more likely to bid. Plus you'll get a couple new registrants every now and then which gives you $20 a piece.

I'd seriously look into it.
Only thing I'm not sure of is if you can fit the Editor Kit (search eBay Editor Kit on Google) in that skinny side on the left.

Good Luck either way.

 

In my experience, people tend to ignore eBay ads in Adsense. I know I do! Especially with some of the really dumb keyword headlines they come up with: "disease ridden hooker, Find it on eBay!", type thing.

I'm only guessing here but isn't a neopet more targeted towards the younger audience? Who like pictures and don't bother reading stuff?

An eBay editor kit sounds like a great place to begin.

 

I hate those ads too. It's so transparent as garbage.

 

I agree, eBay adsense, probably don't lure anyone in. Well, ok some people, because otherwise they wouldn't keep doing it.

But yeah the Editor Kit does do 120 by 600 and you can make sure it only displays auctions with pictures, which might work great for your visitors. Especially if they are young-ish, well old enough to go on eBay, then they probably need a new account.

 

Maybe adsense isn;t for your site. Try more banners and amazon/CJ programs. Another problem is that neopets pays very poorly for adsense..something like 2 cents.

Try putting your ads at the top and bottom of the fold. Get rid of those tax irs ads.

 

Not a problem. Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll try them and report back to let everyone know how it's all doing so hopefully everyone can learn something from this

The biggest problem (IMO) is not the poor payment for the clicks... but the actual Click Through Rate. 0.1% is pretty dismal and I'm stumped.

There were some key observations here though. The core demographic appears to be tweens and such and are more focused on images (generalization) --> which brought me to my next revelation... all the content needs to be short, concise and image prettiful.

I guess I'll play around and see how things go

 

people who play neopets are pretty much trained to not click on any unknown links or external links due to cookie grabbers. besides, almost everyone knows all the neopets tricks and they only visit pinkpt for info about avatars or stuff like that

 

Your best best may be to sell direct merchandise. Have ou consiudered T-shirts or hats? I dunno you have a lot of traffic to work with. Your average visitor is willing to spend 19.95 is compelled. The problem is your ads only pay .05, so try to aim for the 19.95.