Monetising mobile traffic

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Monetising mobile traffic

johnnie

7:37 am on Oct 14, 2014 (gmt 0)

hi guys,

Been a while since I posted here. Time to get back on the adsense bandwagon. Despite all my efforts in lead generation, affiliate marketing, e commerce, etc. I've found adsense the single most consistent earner. My six year old sites are still happily raking in money, albeit less than before (my own fault - neglect). Evergreen content is where it's at.

One of the things that I've always thought was a primary driver behind my slowly declining revenue, was the rise of mobile and my utter ignorance in regards to that. So I've gone the stretch and given these old sites a mobile makeover. Responsive design, responsive as units, the works.

To no effect.

My mobile traffic simply doesn't click. The ads are obvious, big, and the site ticks all the mobile design boxes. Yet CTR is a mere fifth of desktop traffic!

Now what? How to monetize mobile traffic that doesn't act? Replace Adsense with crappy battery apps?

netmeg

12:24 pm on Oct 14, 2014 (gmt 0)

No, start with the users. Think about where and why they are accessing your sites on mobile. Does it make sense that, in that scenario, they would be clicking on ads?

I have some sites that are event sites. Those do really well in mobile, probably because Google shows local ads for things like restaurants and clubs and other events that might appeal to my audience while they are researching my events. So it makes sense they would click on the ads.

On one of my other sites, all I've ever seen in mobile are ads for cars. If there's a person out there who buys a car via his phone, I want to get a look at him. Even the larger phone screens are too small to show off a car to its best advantage. Not surprisingly, while that site is responsive design, it doesn't make much in mobile at all.

What are your users most likely doing while they're accessing your site via their phone? If you can figure that out, maybe you can come up with some kind of content that would appeal to them (and draw the kinds of ads you want)

IanCP

8:41 pm on Oct 14, 2014 (gmt 0)

I've found adsense the single most consistent earner.

Well that would put you in company with 90+% of us.

Speaking entirely for my own sites, I would be immensely surprised if my modest traffic from mobile produced any deliberate clicks.

The only people I can visualise looking at my sites on mobile would be people seeking quick answers to refresh memories. Certainly no one in a buying mood.

One possible exception might be a person going to buy from Amazon.

Or kids cheating in exams.

zdgn

10:28 pm on Oct 14, 2014 (gmt 0)

I've found adsense the single most consistent earner.

Ditto.

A program well over ten years (in internet terms its a lifetime) and I am still amazed every month how atrociously difficult it was to monetise websites before AdSense (and that there is *still* nothing remotely close to it!)

Some mobile versions of my sites overtake desktop regularly, some don't.

I'd say one should give mobile its due share of adspace, but not expect anything exceptional to happen instantly.

IMHO, Mobile is yet to reach maturity and, I think, it's only fair that advertisers take it cautiously for now. After all, it took AdSense a while to get invented after the Web came along. :D

johnnie

11:41 pm on Oct 14, 2014 (gmt 0)

I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I wonder if Facebook's content ad platform will shake things up. Google could use some healthy competition to perhaps increase the publisher payout rate ;)