Strange case, any ideas?

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Strange case, any ideas?

didopido

7:24 am on Sep 12, 2016 (gmt 0)

Hello guys,

I need some opinions on my case:

I run a website in finance niche for an year. I have a responsive ad unit which my Wordpress theme resizes to 336x280, below 1st paragraph, text only. So far it had approximate CPC about $0.60 (1 year observation), CTR 3+%.

Last week Google removed the arrow buttons on my site, thus resulting a very poor CTR (about 1-2%). I decided to change the unit to a larger one - 640x300, text only again. The CTR jumped to 3+% which is nice, but the CPC dropped to $0.12-0.18.

I observe the adverts on my site all the time. The advertisers are just the same, the text ads are the same, just the size of the ad is different.

I am very confused. Can this ad size really cause poor CPC? Giving that the advertisers are the same?

Thanks for your opinion.

matbennett

8:09 am on Sep 12, 2016 (gmt 0)

3% is pretty high. That plus removing the arrows suggests a high proportion of accidental clicks and smart pricing was being applied. Different sizes can impact the CPC, particular as you go into non-standard sizes. Less advertisers bid on non-standard sizes, so you get reduced auction pressure. That's a pretty big drop though.

CTR is a dangerous metric to chase and often leads to issues like this.

IanTurner

8:10 am on Sep 12, 2016 (gmt 0)

Ad sizes vary in CPC quite a lot - as advertisers provide certain creative sizes and know which sizes produce the best return for them.

didopido

10:34 am on Sep 12, 2016 (gmt 0)

Thank you guys, I too believe that the high CTR was the reason for arrows to disappear. I was not sure if one and same ad in different text sizes can vary in CPC.

martinibuster

10:35 am on Sep 12, 2016 (gmt 0)

I agree with Ian, ad sizes can perform differently, possibly because of advertiser inventory. You should also keep in mind that the ads you see are not necessarily what your site visitors see.

You may wish to experiment with a 300x250 ad unit as those units accommodate a larger inventory of advertisers than the two ad sizes you mentioned so they may perform better (as well as give your visitors a better user experience, a win-win).

Good luck!
;)

Roger

didopido

1:46 pm on Sep 12, 2016 (gmt 0)

Hey Roger, this is exactly what I did - I put the 300x250 ad and waiting to see the results in CPC.

I am still wandering about the CPC drop - as I wrote on my 1st post, the ad unit is one and same - Responsive. My Wordpress theme changes the ad size. So my first belief was that it should not matter what size I will choose from the Wordpress theme - the ad itself is a Responsive ad.

But obviously, the ad size matters.

Thanks

Broadway

3:34 pm on Sep 16, 2016 (gmt 0)

>> I have a responsive ad unit which my Wordpress theme resizes to 336x280, below 1st paragraph<<

I don't know if the above statement refers to desktop or mobile, and I also don't know things like how large your header is and how much text your first paragraph contains, but I got notified over the weekend that one of my sites was in violation of Adsense TOS because a small portion of a 300 X 250 ad showed above the fold on mobile.

Evidently a a 320X100 ad can show above the fold, but at the bottom on mobile, but any thing larger is a no-no.

Adsense has a video that explains (of course it shows two ads within the same "page," which it says is also a no-no, so even their tutorial isn't in technical compliance).