The AdSense Link Unit Goldmine
In my last post I talked about how Adsense earnings were down across the board. So instead of just sitting around, bitching (for the most part), and waiting for the situation to get better - I decided to test alternate adsense placement, ad sizes, and tweak a couple things here or there - on all of my websites across the board.
After a couple weeks of testing, I am proud to report I have increased my Adsense earnings by over 200%. And I did it with link units.
To be honest, I always thought link units were worthless. A visitor has to click twice for you to earn any revenue, so I figured why bother? I have never used link units on any of my sites. Ever.
The other day I was running out of ideas as far as placement and sizes, so I figured I might as well test out a link unit on my highest traffic site to see if it would perform. I replaced my 728×90 horizontal ad unit at the top of the site with a link unit. I set it up and let it sit for 24 hours. This site gets a good amount of traffic, so it would be sufficient for 24-hour testing purposes.
The next day, I checked my adsense stats and was greeted with a higher than normal earnings for the day. And it was all due to that one little link unit. I can’t say what the CTR was (Adsense policy, not mine), but it was double digits.
I quickly set up link units and scattered them all over my other sites. Adsense allows up to 3 per page, so go crazy with it. My adsense earnings are at 200% compared to what they were 2 weeks ago, and staying pretty steady. And all the clicks are coming from these link units.
Now, I’m not saying stick link units all over your pages just for the sake of having them (just like regular ad units, it ain’t gonna work), but if you can find good placement for them and integrate them flawlessly into your site design, you will be richly rewarded by the Adsense gods.
Okay, that’s all for now. Go forth, my children, and use this information to your advantage.
Adsense Earnings Low? Here’s Why
Browsing through some internet marketing forums I frequent, and reading some other blogs, one thing is painfully clear. Adsense earnings seem to be down across the board. People are bitching about it left and right. I’m glad it’s not just me. At first, I thought I got smartpriced but I don’t think that’s quite the case.
A while back, Adsense changed their ad unit format so that the entire ad unit was no longer clickable. Now, just the actual title and url link in the ad can be clicked. The entire middle “content/description” portion of the ad is no longer clickable. I have a feeling this one little change is the biggest factor in lowering alot of publishers’ CTRs.
Another thing that irritates me about Adsense at the moment is those little arrows they decided to put on every ad unit. While they’re not overly intrusive, they basically make your nicely blended adsense unit appear more like an ad. In the event someone actually decides to use the arrows to browse more ads (I have no idea why anyone would), they sure as hell aren’t scrolling over into more expensive ads. The first ad shown will most likely always get you the highest paying click — so, in theory, the more someone scrolls, the less you’re likely to earn when they do click.
After these incredibly stupid changes were made, the sites I did have making a few bucks per day with Adsense are now only making a dollar or so. I figure sooner or later Adsense will change these things back when they realize it’s hurting their bottom line, but in the meantime, publishers will remain frustrated with their lowered Adsense revenues.
You’d think a company that earns a majority of their revenue through their Adsense/Adwords advertising platform would think about these things in more detail before they go into effect. After all, they earn money from every click - just like we do.
