Link your adsense and analytics accounts. You can then see which individual pages perform best. This is as close as you can get to knowing what ads perform.

Thanks Dave. I've linked the accounts and see how certain pages perform. That's too bad that you can't get more granular data than that.

High epc doesn't necessarily equal higher earnings. This is one of those concepts you really need to get your head around. Multiple clicks on a lower priced but well written ad will earn more than a higher bid ad that isn't as well written or that might be poorly targeted. Keyword phrase targeted, competition for those terms, accidental bids (didn't mean to bid in content network). There are reasons why more of your clicks are not priced at the two buck level, and those are just a couple.

Other reasons may have to do with geographical issues. For example, an advertiser targetting specific states or counties because they're a service provider. The higher bid price may be a reflection of the competition between the local service providers who are only bidding within a geographical area. In that case, to reproduce that click you would have to find a way to get more visitors from that geographic area.

martinibuster - if I see ads appearing on my site that are really poorly written, is it a good idea to block that URL?

If there is an ad from a particular URL that I like and that I think will continue to do well on my site, is there a way to make sure it shows up more?

I know I can filter ads I don't like but it'd be great to be able to do the reverse as well.

There are a few who claim to aggressively filter ads but if you check their past posts on WebmasterWorld they're often the same ones complaining about poor earnings. So either they have poor niches and filtering doesn't make a difference or else they're filtering themselves into poor earnings, or their traffic levels and SEO kung fu isn't strong enough. Whatever. Lots of reasons, but as far as I know, I have never known anyone to claim on this forum that filtering ads was the way to improve earnings. In my opinion, filtering ads is a way to remove irrelevant or competitive ads. Removing irrelevant ads should improve your earnings. But filtering ads in itself is not really a strategy for improving earnings.

Don't waste your time focusing on the ads showing on your site, your epc, the daily ups and downs. These are things outside of your control. Focus on the things that you CAN have an effect on, those things that are outside of your AdSense Control Panel. If you want to improve your earnings look outside the AdSense forum to the other forums [webmasterworld.com], particularly the link dev and affiliate forums and learn what works. If you are serious about improving your financial situation, invest in yourself, consider purchasing a subscription [webmasterworld.com] to WebmasterWorld and read some of the good threads posted in the subscribers area.

Filtering ads is a way to remove ads that are not relevant to your site, are offensive, or do not match your site's particularly philosophy. Beyond that, in my experience it's pointless to filter ads simply because you do not like them or feel they are bidding low.

I have placed all my google gifts (refrig, electronics, radio) in a corner of my room with candles. Each morning I light the candles and say a prayer.

Magically this seems to work since my articles about high-priced stuff always get multi-dollar clicks.

LOL.

That's too bad that you can't get more granular data than that.

Not really when you think about it. Data like that is open to fraud.

There are a few who claim to aggressively filter ads but if you check their past posts on WebmasterWorld they're often the same ones complaining about poor earnings. So either they have poor niches and filtering doesn't make a difference or else they're filtering themselves into poor earnings.

I am one that "aggressively filter ads" and yes, I have complained because of poor earnings. But in my case, it was the fact that...

1: Filters hadn't changed.
2: Prior to the huge drop in earnings I was on a "regular amount" day in, day out. I could tell roughly what my earning would be for the whole day 14 hours before it ended.
3: Nothing altered on the site.
4: Same visitors.
5: Same adverts.

I still use filters, and this month will be the best ever in over 4 years.