sailorjwd, did the change in CTR happened only this October? I was also having thoughts that the certified ad network affected my ecpm too or maybe just a coincidence. My impressions and CTR are better this October than last year but earnings and ecpm were lower.

I blocked them from the start. October is going to be the all-time best month for me.

The CTR fall started this early summer. October has been the worse month ever. My ads appear generally on target but seeing more 'whitepapers' and 'top 10' cr*p ads and generally more odd-ball ads.

How do you know which are the Google certified ad networks?

Certified ads in the Ad Setup ->> Ad Review Center.

Results of blocking all Certified ad Networks are in!

After several days I see absolutely no difference in CTR, EPC or anything else.

I had also blocked all placement ads since they tend to show up all over a varied-topic site. Yesterday I've started allowing a few reasonable ones to come through.

I can't play with the ads anymore this year...need to keep my passive income status :)

If blocking Certified Ad Networks ads were to increase your CTR, so what? How would eliminating the revenue from those ads increase your income?

Just blocked them today. If I see anything significant I'll post back.

We have not blocked them, but we do block placement targeted ads (and have for over a year now).

Our earnings (eCPM) have, if anything, been going in the upward direction these past few months... Not sure if it is related. But that is what we see.

Our earnings (eCPM) have, if anything, been going in the upward direction these past few months... Not sure if it is related. But that is what we see.

I don't block placement-targeted ads, and my eCPM has also been rising in the last few months.

IMHO, AdSense has so many variables that a simplistic approach (whether it's "block" or "don't block") is likely to be a shot in the dark.

shot in the dark

Agree with that! And often even if we make changes to the settings, we are never really sure when the change actually takes effect. Whether it takes a day, a week or longer... We just don't know.

Agreed.. this is more like a guesswork. We have to try, experiment everything to know if it works for us..

I am still not convinced if blocking can be helpful, however, I am afraid of change in cpm as well!

Nowadays adsense is kinda low for me but won't block certified networks right now :) Will wait for a week!

John,
The idea is that some ads are likely to be more appealing than others. If I could find out a way to weed out the particular ads with low CTR then I would do it (as long as it isn't too complicated or time consuming). If that theory hurts EPC then I'll worry about that at that time. Yes, it is a shot in the dark, I shot and missed. I don't mind a shot in the dark especially when it only takes 2 minutes to do.

PS. Just in case: 'I love you Google'

I don't block placement-targeted ads, and my eCPM has also been rising in the last few months.

I don't block them either. There are too many advertisers with deep pockets targeting those ad slots on my site.

As others have pointed out, I think a sweeping block of placement-targeted and certified network ads won't yield many positive results. There are too many inconsistencies and unknowns in the system.

This surely must depend on the website topic or what many like to call niche....

If you block Certified Ad Networks ads - for travel sites wont have the same effect if you block Certified Ad Networks ads for furniture sites.

So its up for grabs cant we put the 'general topic of the sites' along with the posts.

For the most part I only use the Filter to block the MFA's. But Im in the Travel Industry and have blocked to day. I will report! in a few days

Guys, this is not a good idea. I can't share the exact numbers, but I would be shocked if a single one of you were seeing any impressions whatsoever from Google certified ad networks yet. We're rolling this out slowly. Very slowly.

I know it's tempting to start fiddling with things when you see any variations in your earnings, but I'm telling you it's not a good idea to start opting out of things that are barely launched, especially given the potential for real upside in the longer term.

If you want to talk about optimizing, let's talk about things that can really make a difference to you right away. Do you have the maximum number of ad units on your pages? Do you have your ads positioned above the fold and in places that are likely to get attention from site visitors? Are you using the top 3 ad formats? Are your ad units opted in to receive both text and image ads? Are you using channels to analyze the performance of your ads? Have you tried setting up A/B tests with your color palettes? Are you using Google Webmaster Tools to improve the quality and performance of your site? Most importantly, are you continuing to create new, interesting, and valuable content for your users?

I'm not trying to be cranky here. I'm just worried that you guys are on the wrong track, and my team is as invested in your success as you are.

ASA

As others have pointed out, I think a sweeping block of placement-targeted and certified network ads won't yield many positive results

Agreed. It is a case-by-case decision. For us, we started seeing weight-loss ads in the 1-2 slot on our 4-slot ad blocks on every page on our site (last Spring). It was completely off-target and looked very spammy to our visitors. I didn't care how much they were paying (which wasn't much). We didn't want the ads. We tried blocking them on per-advertiser basis... but they were using so many domain name variations it become an impossible task.

We talked with our Adsense rep, and were advised that the only way to truly stop it was to have the placement targeted ads turned off for our account completely. We were told that even if we blocked all the advertisers directly, they could still target our site via "category targeting" which we cannot control. And the only way to stop that was to turn off placement targeting all together.

So long story short, we had it disable in our account and have not used it since. No more weight loss ads... =)

We do not block anything with the exception of adult themed adverts and I generally advise people when asked to not waste your time. It's Googles system and they know it far better then we do.

For the longest time my adsense reps gave me advice I neglected or brushed aside. Colors, placements and image ads. Having fully embraced those suggestions we are seeing a 25% increase in our bottomline through the worst economic tragedy in our lifetime.

I would listen carefully to what ASA has to say and take it to heart.

thanks ASA. That answers why I didn't see any change after blocking those ad partners. I've already unblocked them.

I do all things you suggest. Except overloading a page with ads. My personal feeling is I'll hit the back button if I see ads before content or see more ads than content. I still see a large percentage of sites that are purely cr*p and serve no purpose but to hope for the occasional idiot to click an ad - not much different than email spam and I feel the same about both. You should too.

The internet would be a better place without adsense spam sites.

Sorry to me for hijacking the thread.

I know it's tempting to start fiddling with things when you see any variations in your earnings, but I'm telling you it's not a good idea to start opting out of things that are barely launched, especially given the potential for real upside in the longer term.

Fair enough. But it works both ways.
Now, if you and I were standing in Mexico and I asked you to drive my bullet ridden car across the border and deliver it to Fat Tony, would you ? No questions asked ? No.
So why do you expect us to "just open the gates" to these companies without knowing more about them ?
How hard is it for your team to include what they cater for ?
For instance, you could have...
ABC company caters for automotive trade.
XYZ caters mainly white goods.
DEF caters mainly for computers.
NOP caters everything.

Then we will have an idea to block certain ones as they do not cater for our niche[s].

What steps have you got to stop banned adwords accounts reappearing through one of these networks ? Nothing specific needs to be mentioned, but we need to know that you've got something in place to stop them.

If you want to talk about optimizing, let's talk about things that can really make a difference to you right away.

Okay, as long as these are positive things.

Do you have the maximum number of ad units on your pages?

I said positive things ;)
Tried that. Looks spammy, see adverts appear on more than one block, CPC drops.

Do you have your ads positioned above the fold

Tried that. Didn't see better CPC for one above the fold compared to below it.
Plus, if you have an article, I am more likely to get a click after the person has read it, rather than hoping they will scroll back up to the top and click. If I have something on the page, it's because I want that person to read/view what I have, not make a page for a click.

and in places that are likely to get attention from site visitors?

hmmm
We are not allowed to bring attention to adverts, yet you want us to put them in a place that will bring attention.
I have seen sites where you have to horizontally scroll to see the adverts. In those cases, I doubt they will receive any clicks, but I tend not to have them "in your face". YMMV.

Are you using the top 3 ad formats?

Tried them all over time, but there are about 4, maybe 5, types that I use. Some I will never use again.

Are your ad units opted in to receive both text and image ads?

99.9% of mine are for text adverts only. You should have had "text_image_flash" instead of "text_image" (referring to old code)
Flash adverts are a PITA to block at times. You should automatically ban any account that redirects traffic through such adverts.

I also think it depends on your niche as well as your audience. A site for kids may do well with image adverts, whereas it may be awful on a site with a more mature audience.

Are you using channels to analyze the performance of your ads?

Yes. But we need more channels.

Have you tried setting up A/B tests with your color palettes?

Yes.

Are you using Google Webmaster Tools to improve the quality and performance of your site?

No. More important things to do than trawl through that for the sake of the possibility of a few extra clicks.

Most importantly, are you continuing to create new, interesting, and valuable content for your users?

Yes, but more visitors and more content does not mean you will gain more clicks or increased income.

I can earn more on a day where I have 8000 visitors than on days where I receive 15000.
I have earnt more on days where I have had 100 clicks less than the day before.

Give us an "adsense suggest" button. I have a number of suggestions but nowhere to share them.

I appreciate your passion ASA, however the reality for us publishers is that all that you suggest doesn't work predictably.

I have done all that you suggested and here are the facts:

Website size = 3X to over 20,000 unique and quality webpages

UNIQUE visitors - increased from 180,000 to over 440,000 per month

Today my AdSense revenue is approximately 1/2 my peak five years ago.

In other words ASA imagine that you are working 120 hours per week (40 x 3) and earning half the pay you made five years ago.

I don't want to sound cranky either ASA, however as this and many other WebmasterWorld threads demonstrate that we publishers simply do not know what is going on nor do we have any real control over our AdSense revenue destiny.

Today my AdSense revenue is approximately 1/2 my peak five years ago.

Your competition is probably a lot greater than it was five years ago, too.

Even if advertisers didn't have more tools and choices than they did five years ago (placement targeting, filters, separate bidding for search and content networks, etc.), it's likely that many early AdSense publishers would be earning less today than they did in 2004. Why? Because common sense suggests that the number of available impressions has grown even faster than AdSense expenditures have grown, so that the AdSense pie (even though it's bigger) is being cut into smaller slices. Toss the worst recession since the 1930s into the mix, and you've got a recipe for diminished expectations and income.

On the brighter side, some publishers have been seeing dramatic increases in EPC over the past year. To me, that suggests that AdSense is headed in the right direction, because it means that changes in the network have increased advertiser confidence and the willingness of advertisers to bid more aggressively for traffic that meets their objectives.

I have to agree with Lame_Wolf... October is going to be even better than September, and that was best of 2009 for me. It may be because the financial sector (my sites) attract more, and higher payers, for these types of advertisers. Just more FYI for you...

I agree with both Edge and Lame_Wolf.

The guidelines given by adsense (stuff pages with as many ads as possible and stick them all above the fold) don't work for me either. And I tried that when testing still worked.

Testing is tricky these days. I tried blocking the other ad networks and my earnings fell to a 6 month low the next day. So I enabled them again and things returned to normal. It could have been a glitch day but I didn't want to test any further.

I find Adsense positions and formats really tricky to test. Even when I through all my dollies out of the pram and changed the prominant big rectangales above the fold to the same below the footer I didn't notice a difference in income.

So they are staying there for want of further information about what on earth is going on. I've not seen that info on here yet. In the meantime I'm doing other cool things above the fold.

Your competition is probably a lot greater than it was five years ago, too.

Probably? I know who my competition is and I don't have any details on their revenues. Let's exchange "probably" to "maybe".

On the brighter side, some publishers have been seeing dramatic increases in EPC over the past year. To me, that suggests that AdSense is headed in the right direction..

Really? how do you know this? Can you share with everybody the facts and where you get it?

Question directed to ASA.

What is going on with the month of October? I have been making a steady income with Adsense for the last year. It has been increasing every month for the last year.

This month out of the blue I am down by over $1k dollars this month?

My traffic is increasing and earning are taking a nose dive.

Man what is going on?

I tried messing with the new ad network settings and it did nothing, seemed to make things worse.

I am going to be living on the streets soon..lol

Really? how do you know this? Can you share with everybody the facts and where you get it?

From my own AdSense statistics and other posts on this forum. As always, your mileage may vary.

-blocking all Certified ad Networks ?

-block placement targeted ads ?

Any folks will give the methods how to do it please. As I am not an expert, want to give a try and let you know the observations to my sites.

Regards,

I have not really tried it but will definitely try and post the results...

But can anybody explore little bit more "what is this certified ad networks in adsense" and how does it really help to block such ad networks?

I have blocked Ad networks since last week and I experience a 20% increase of my eCPM each day since then. Why is that? Since competition is not so intensive, I expected to see lower eCPM.