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Adsense CTR very low - shall i ditch it for the sake of other sites?

CTR question

Zanet

7:46 am on Aug 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

Sorry my 2nd question of the day and thanks for your patience on this one

I'm never sure if you are allowed to discuss Adsense CTR figures so i will just give close estimates

I run 5 web sites on topics that i have a good knowledge on for the sake of the example i'll use 2 sites...

SITE A gets a couple of thousand visitors a day, but they are regular fans of the site - so the adsense click thru is very poor say 0.5%CTR

SITE B gets a few hundred visitors a day all unique and adsense is very good say 2.5%CTR

I've tried split testing both sites and even changed the layouts - I've studied heat maps and my conclusion is clearly SITE A will always have around 0.5%CTR

So overall my CTR for my adsense account is 1.5%CTR TOTAL

I've read about smart pricing in the past but never been sure of whether its true - if it is Then should i remove SITE A from Adsense?

Any suggestions as to what i should do for the sake of SITE B?

Thanks in advance
Zane

HuskyPup

2:49 pm on Aug 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

SITE A gets a couple of thousand visitors a day, but they are regular fans of the site

And usually therein lies your problem. Generally speaking you need fresh visitors to subjects and articles etc to get a higher CTR. Fan sites and forums have notoriously low CTRs.

What are your click values like in comparison? The same or much lower?

Zanet

3:06 pm on Aug 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

Thanks for the reply HuskyPup
Its a big difference one sixth of Site B

So for example if the Page eCPM on Site B is 3
Then Site A Page eCPM is 0.5

HuskyPup

3:30 pm on Aug 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

Its a big difference one sixth of Site B

Is it showing a similar type of advert and advertisers or completely different?

Is Site A of a forum style and Site B the real meat of the subject since you say:

SITE B gets a few hundred visitors a day all unique

If your click earnings on B are good then A is being smart priced or discounted as being not of high a unique or authority value as B.

I see this across several sites with a very similar subject matter and the lower paying sites do not appear to affect the click values of the higher paying sites, they all seem to be judged on their own merit...even if I FEEL Google has got it wrong!

It's something multiple site owners have to get used to/accept until you do something different to that site in the eyes of Google.

Zanet

3:36 pm on Aug 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

Both sites are completely diffeent though both using Wordpress as a CMS

Site A a fan site for a BBC sitcom

Site B a site reviewing the current UK property market

Its tempting to loose Site A off Google Adsense all together to see if Site B benefits even more

this is assuming smartpricing exists - is there any proof?

HuskyPup

4:43 pm on Aug 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

Site A a fan site for a BBC sitcom

Low paying subject...what is there to sell/advertise apart from fan merchandise or old videos/music etc.

Site B a site reviewing the current UK property market

Much higher paying subject but not as much as it used to be I guess?

Its tempting to loose Site A off Google Adsense all together to see if Site B benefits even more

Doubtful, it seems as though they already have it spot on.

this is assuming smartpricing exists - is there any proof?

Oh yeah, it exists, locally we call if Stupid Pricing (TM). Your low click values are simply that, low values since most people are not interested in buying from fan sites however they do like to visit and copy stuff!

Your property site has intrinsic value, concentrate on that even if you do prefer the fan stuff...and when you get bored update the fan stuff to relax.

netmeg

5:12 pm on Aug 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

I have very high paying and very low paying sites in the same account; I also have seasonal sites that earn very differently at different times of the years. And I move sites in and out of my AdSense account, as I create them, sell them, or find other monetization. I haven't seen that the low paying ones particularly affect the high paying ones; in fact, my highest paying site blew the roof off earnings this year. I think you're probably okay.