Adsense--Google wants me to use more ads...

[deepsand]

In hindsight, I note that this is just an extension of what Big G's been doing for quite some time re. AdWords.

One of their favored ploys is to suggest countless new keywords, most/all of which are certain to bring a low Quality Score owing to low click-through rates and/or poor relevance to Ad Title/Body and/or Landing Page; which, of course, means outlandish bids are required in order to gain a reasonable portion of the total possible impressions, and thus a poor ROI.

[Sweet Tooth #3]

I am in full agreement with Sweet Tooth #3 when he questions "Should I minimize my ads or just whore it up?"

Lol...thanks Tubby. I know it's not exactly Shakespearean, but it's how I really feel. My sites exist for 2 reasons, to help people, and to make money. Sometimes it's hard to find a balance.

Last night I decided to try the skyscraper in the sidebar again, this time with my site set to a narrower width. I also added a horizontal link unit under the header. So far so good. They've taken some click away from my top leaderboard ad, but so far it's a net gain. It looks really nice too...gives my sites some life. But I'm sure this wouldn't work for some site layouts/ad units.

I just hate it when I land on a page and the only above the fold content is 2 honkin' 336x280's staring me in the face. I also hate it when that large rec ad takes up 80% of the main column width.

One other thing I noticed while browsing my pages on my brothers computer is that for the 2 ad units that are in close vicinity to each other, Google always displays 1 ad as text, and one as image. I don't know if this is by design or just luck, but it doesn't make the page look "loaded." And the link unit under the header just looks like a menu.

I'll post back in a week or so with a more definitive answer.

[KEVINRBECK]

I test what works and run between one and three on my pages. My daily ads number in the hundreds, across my Mosaic Portal sites in Australia and the USA. Australia is the original site and the US are all mirrors. There is is no increase in revenue. Google also clipped $US30.00 off my running total between when they converted the old dashboard to the new structure. They have given no explanation of this. I actually agree with "deepsand" they do not care.

[jordanmcclements]

Google is a PLC. It's primary objective is to make as much money as possible.

If they recommend using an extra ad unit on each page - then you can be sure that this is worth doing (purely from an revenue point of view) the majority of the time.

Having said that - if you have pages that are not long enough for 3 ad blocks and you stick a 3rd one out on it's own at the bottom of the page - it isn't likely to make much difference (other than make your page look crap) - which was my experience.

To summarise, if you pages are big enough to add more ads and not make them look crap then do it. If they are not you can still do it but you are unlikely to make very much more ad revenue...

[Glen Lawrence]

What single ad unit can magically increase clickthrough? I'm assuming banner-sized ads are already in place where applicable, so we're talking text ad units or small boxes here. Can it really make a difference?

[jordanmcclements]

When you're creating a new ad unit you'll see the recommended sizes at the top - these generally give most income otherwise Google wouldn't recommend you use them..

[Glen Lawrence]

I know about the recommended sizes, but what I mean is when you start putting ads on your website, you tend to place ads wherever possible without sacrificing aesthetics or functionality. OP must have done that already, so there's little opportunity to ad one magical ad that is going to reap major clickthroughs. Like I said, the banner-sized ads must already be there, and those provide the highest clickthrough rate.

[jordanmcclements]

so there's little opportunity to ad one magical ad that is going to reap major clickthroughs.

Correct......

[Sweet Tooth #3]

I know about the recommended sizes, but what I mean is when you start putting ads on your website, you tend to place ads wherever possible without sacrificing aesthetics or functionality. OP must have done that already, so there's little opportunity to ad one magical ad that is going to reap major clickthroughs. Like I said, the banner-sized ads must already be there, and those provide the highest clickthrough rate.

Nope, I haven't done that. And I know there's not one magical ad. But I can talk about one area where revenue has improved. The link unit I added below the header, it gets a good CTR. I was worried that this unit might take away from the leaderboard ad below it. But it actually increased the CTR for the LB under the title. So I guess Google had a point. My overall CTR has also gone up...Shit...

The SKY in the sidebar doesn't get a lot of clicks, but you have too add it up with all of the clicks to the LB and the LU....

So overall, my income has gone up. Now I'm not going to get too crazy, but this is worth considering. I recent found a position where a search unit is doing good...crazy...

[Glen Lawrence]

That's pretty awesome. I stand corrected. I'm assuming this ad unit is all text (because it fit between the header and leaderboard ad)?