In this post I would like to talk about a simple change I made to an ad unit that doubled the amount of income it generated. Now, don’t get too excited, the income has only increased by $6.00 a day, but the fact remains, that the new figure is double what it once was.
**I’ve had this ad unit running for a while now and the income from it has steadily increased to the current level of about $20 per day, on average.
The site in question is my most popular. It offers desktop wallpapers to download for free, it’s been around for many years and gets a fair amount of daily traffic.
Where does the money come from?
AdSense is the primary source of income. Affiliate ads provided by Neverblue and the occasional ad purchased through AdvertiseSpace makes up the rest. The income for last month from Neverblue was $175 ($5.64 per day), and the income from AdvertiseSpace was $0. I can’t disclose the amount of money earned through AdSense as that would breach Google’s terms of service.
**The income generated through Neverblue for December 2010 was $636.87
The site uses two different page designs. The main pages consist of three columns with the two main ads placed horizontally next to each other above the fold and in the middle of the page; just above the main content (thumbnails of the wallpapers). The space allocated is about 600 pixels wide. I was a little hesitant about this choice of ad placement initially, but from a business point of view the location works very well.
Before the recent changes I used two 250 x 250 ad units. AdSense allows you to choose which types of ads you would like to display in each unit you use. The choices are as follows:
- Text Ads Only
- Image Ads Only
- Text and Image Ads
In one box I used Text Ads only and in the other I used Image Ads only. I chose these options to reduce the chances of the two boxes displaying the same ad at the same time.
This setup works well. The ads are very relevant and people do click on them, but a few days ago I noticed something about the ads in the images only unit; AdSense was showing adverts for one of Neverblue’s clients.
Time to take a closer look
I was already a member of said program (it offers screensavers) on Neverblue so I took a closer look at the payout. It pays out at a few different rates (dependant on the location of the visitor who takes the desired action (toolbar installation)). The maximum payout is $3.25 for US visitors and the minimum payout is $0.12 for international visitors.
Earnings from AdSense fluctuate a lot as it relies on income generated by AdWords. Google recently revealed that AdSense publishers earn 68% of the income Google earns from AdWords and after doing some sums I realised that I could be making more money if I replaced my AdSense image ads with the same ads from Neverblue.
This was a gamble as the ads delivered by AdSense are location based, so people in other parts of world may see different ads to me.
I decided it was worth the punt and went ahead and made the changes.
At the same time I reduced the amount of ads on the pages I wanted to test. Each page now carries a maximum of 3 AdSense units, instead of four (and sometimes five), as they had previously.
Generally I use two text ad units. The best performing unit is 160 x 90 and is located in the first column, right above the vertical navigation menu. The second unit is 468 x 72 and is placed at different locations, but usually within the centre column and amongst the main content (the thumbnails). I replaced the 250 x 250 AdSense ad unit with a 300 x 250 (text only unit). I don’t have any AdSense units in the right hand column.
The new unit from Neverblue is 250 x 250 images only and shows different banners on a rotation system.
A good decision
I am now eight days into the test and the earnings from AdSense have not changed, but the earnings from Neverblue (in the ad unit I am using to display the ads) have doubled. At the current time I am making $12 per day on the site in question from the Neverblue network. I know it’s not a great deal of money in the great scheme of things, but this ad unit is just one revenue stream, there are others that make more. If the increase stayed at an average of $6.00 per day, over one week it would generate an extra $42, over one (average) month it would generate an extra $180 and over one year it would earn an extra $2190.
The only problem is I could be missing out on a better income from AdSense. I don’t know. In the long term the wallpaper/screensaver market may pick up and bids for those keywords may increase. Therefore increasing the income generated by AdSense. I will have to monitor how the AdSense ad units perform and if I see them improving, I should perhaps revert back to AdSense.
This has been an interesting experiment. One of the most popular pieces of advice you will hear about running ads, be they AdSense or not, is the power of testing. The site I have been talking about in this post has been around for about seven years, but I still need to work on ad placement. I still need to test things out. And I don’t think that will ever stop.
I do find adsense tricky, especially on testing how it can really convert, given that there are lots of areas that’s really needed to be tested such as size, type and placements. But I do think that the real trick to have an effective ads setup is it’s visibility to “targeted traffic”. I guess 200 bucks each month is great if they are generated alone from these type of monetization, I’m not really familiar with Neverblue, and thank you for noting that one Stephen :)
Anyway, I’m excited to see your experiment’s results, if ever you’ll make a sequel of this post in the coming weeks, because I really did find something useful from this post.
Regards,
Jason
AdSense is very tricky to monitor, and it never ceases to amaze me how the income from it can fluctuate from month to month. Targeted traffic and making sure the ads are relevant are essential – sometimes the ads can be completely wrong.
Neverblue is a great company. I have been with them for a quite a few months now and have had excellent results and some good interactions with my account manager.
I will do my best to do a follow up post on how this experiment goes. I will give it at least a month to see what happens. Glad you found it useful.