Recommended period for testing new placement

The shared common wisdom seems to be that one should experiment with size and placement of ads. But I don't recall any postings about how soon one can expect to see the results (good or bad) of such experimentation. . .and how long one should wait for any positive results to kick in. When I switched to a long tower perfectly color blended with my site navigation bar at the left side of the page--the jump UP was almost immediate. When things went the other way about a month ago annd after Google's email suggesting more text/image 250x300 boxes, I implemented a lot of pages with this format-- with content text wrapping around the boxes for good integration (not as blended as the towers or some of the other ad formats used but okay) and also removed some ads so the focus would be on that supposedly popular box -- so far the results have been nil-- or more to the point, negative. Average that was up to between $12 and $16 a day (my site is geared to maintining its content and audience base not google big bucks) droppedf to below $10 average. My ads are all relevant but I have a low earnings niche (entertainment) so this may have been smart priced. My question: Do I wait this out-- for another couple of weeks, a month-- or shift gears again?

 

Time isn't as important as volume. Statistically speaking, to draw a reasonable conclusion, you need a large sample. I read somewhere that 10,000 impressions of an ad should be sufficient. If you see an improvement after 10,000 impressions, then it works - otherwise, try something else.

 

I think time is significant - it's a fact that some days of the week are poor at attracting clicks and impressions whereas other days are better. I would recommend you wait at least one week, preferably 2, before making an informed decision about your placement.

 

Go with you gut, and improve on whatever works with your readership. Mid-content ads never ever worked for me, though they did for others, and so I made a gut call - much happier now

 

I would give it 2 weeks, change it up and compare your results.... the highest ones you should give a longer go at.