Using Ad Units Exclusively for Mobile

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Using Ad Units Exclusively for Mobile

Does that strategy affect CPC and RPM

anefarious1

10:55 am on Mar 15, 2015 (gmt 0)

I recently started using Adsense ad units to be served only on Mobile. I thought this would be a good strategy because it would allow me to serve different units (336X280) on Desktop which can't be done on mobile.

To my surprise, I believe this has lowered my overall performance. It seems, and I may be wrong, that having certain ad units which depend on mobile for 100% of traffic makes them less than optimal and out of favor (smart pricing?) What I mean is that when I served up the same ad units for both mobile and desktop, the balance probably kept those units performing within acceptable boundaries.

Does that make sense? It is all speculation because Google doesn't reveal all their secrets. Does anyone have any insight into the strategy of separating ad units by device? I realize Google already knows which type of device any unit appears on, but I believe the balance does have an affect overall. I have learned this the hard way. What do you think?

graeme_p

11:17 am on Mar 15, 2015 (gmt 0)

How long have you tried it for?

One possible problem is that there is a wide variation in both mobile and desktop screens - some smartphones may be tiny, but large tablets have bigger screens than low end netbooks.

The best approach is probably to use responsive ad units.

anefarious1

12:24 pm on Mar 15, 2015 (gmt 0)

I've been seeing poor results for about 4 days using ad units exclusive to mobile viewers. I get a lot of traffic and it seems consistent.

I think the vast majority of smartphones are sporting a screen which is 300px to 320px so I don't think that's an issue.

In any case, I may need to find an alternative to Adsense for the mobile side because the average RPM is now less than 40% vs. Desktop stats.