There are several major dating sites that have been spending close to $100k/month on the site and with the recent change in adsense, adsense was basically converted to a Banner ad network.
The CTR on text ads declined about 60% in the last 2 months with googles changes, Image ads on the other hand stayed the same. If you take a screen shot of a text ad and then run it as an image ad it will get 2 times the click thru rate.
If you want an ad that will get a lot of traffic create something like this.
If you want even more traffic, Create 5 different ads or variations on these ads. Then set the campaign to display them all equally. This way 1 person isn’t going to see the same ad 20 times. If you are a company like american singles you could create a campaign with 6 banner ads for 6 different sites. This will create a sort of artificial Frequency capping ability, something that google REALLY lacks.
I also suggest making use of the 37 channels set up on Plentyoffish, many of them are women only, men only, grouped by age etc. But most importantly if you are using CPM based text ads on the site they are going to do very poorly because of the dramatically reduced click thru rate.
January 4, 2008 at 10:11 pm |
Hi Markus–
So what did Google change that dropped the CTR rates? That’s a pretty dramatic drop in a short time.
Also, I didn’t quite understand how a screen shot as a text ad, run as an image ad, would get a higher clickthrough rate.
I’m kind of surprised that your 350 served through Google is the best way to serve that spot. I don’t use Adwords, so don’t know the cpm you average, but given the traffic of your site, it seems as though there’d be a more profitable way.
Thanks for your site and insight.
Longtime lurker,
Ken
January 5, 2008 at 12:43 am |
Google made it so only the title in the text link is clickable, opposed to the description text and url. There reasoning is that it would drastically decrease misclicks and drive up conversion rates.
January 5, 2008 at 1:26 am |
Yup, turns out that the “accidental” clicks convert at a higher rate then the supposid good ones.
January 5, 2008 at 10:29 pm |
“recent change in adsense” – Markus, how recent were those changes?
January 6, 2008 at 7:11 pm |
End of november or october don’t remember.
January 9, 2008 at 4:08 pm |
Markus – noticed that you are now the #1 dating site in the UK! Would be very interested to know whether you think there is a future for paid for sites? surely the paid for general type sites (your Matches and Dating Directs wont last) and only the niches (dating for parents, jdate, etc) will remain paid for?
Also – roughly how valuable are users / page impressions for a free site like yours? Presumably if match et al became free sites they would lose a helluva lot of revenue?
Wonder where this leaves them. I guess they advertise hard (as match are) and try to milk as much as they can from current subscribers….what are your thoughts?
Charlie
January 9, 2008 at 4:09 pm |
Markus – noticed that you are now the #1 dating site in the UK! Would be very interested to know whether you think there is a future for paid for sites? surely the paid for general type sites (your Matches and Dating Directs wont last) and only the niches (dating for parents, jdate, etc) will remain paid for?
Also – roughly how valuable are users / page impressions for a free site like yours? Presumably if match et al became free sites they would lose a helluva lot of revenue?
Wonder where this leaves them. I guess they advertise hard (as match are) and try to milk as much as they can from current subscribers….what are your thoughts?
Charlie
January 11, 2008 at 4:28 pm |
Markus,
What kinda cpm are you now pulling from the google site targeted text ads versus the site targeted image ads with these impacts on CTR?
January 18, 2008 at 6:25 pm |
[...] hat kürzlich von einem 60 prozentigem Einbruch seiner Klickrate innerhalb von 2 Monaten berichtet. Grund dafür ist wohl, das Google um versehentliche Klicks zu vermeiden nur noch den Titel einer [...]
January 23, 2008 at 3:11 am |
[...] dropped heavily because of the measure. Markus at Plenty of Fish reported that his click rate has declined by 60% in the past two months. If the AdSense publishers aren’t making money, it means the AdSense [...]
January 23, 2008 at 4:20 am |
i wished i was you!
January 23, 2008 at 9:50 am |
[...] I believe Google has messed things up when they made adsense ad unites less clickable. Markus at plenty of fish reported that the CTR on text adsense ad units has declined about 60% in the last two months! [...]
January 23, 2008 at 6:16 pm |
[...] Rate) on plenty of fish has decreased for 60% and he feels constricted to advice advertisers how to target ads on plentyofish.com to improve the referral traffic. Those numbers (60 percent) are huge even for a site that gets 100 [...]
January 24, 2008 at 4:00 pm |
[...] Markus Frind, el propietario de la famosa Web de contactos, ha reportado una caída de 60% de CTR en sus anuncios gracias al último ajuste de Google para evitar clics despistados y ‘dar más valor a sus anunciantes’. Ahora el navegante tiene que pinchar en el titulo o el enlace, en vez de cualquier parte del anuncio para ir a la página del anunciante. Markus está intentando reemplazar por completo su AdSense con anunciantes directos. Yo no he visto mucha diferencia después de este cambio, ¿alguien sí? Juntando esto con la rebaja y cancelación de comisiones de referidos y los bajos pagos de los últimos 2 meses, parecería que Google estuviera sufriendo económicamente. Nos está dando muchos pequeños palos. No puede andar tan mal teniendo monopolizado search y la publicidad contextual. [...]
January 26, 2008 at 6:37 am |
[...] all the free dating sites combined. He runs Google Adsense and has noticed a shocking result. His income is down 60% in the last 2 months, and this is a guy that makes well over $100k a month from Adsense, we are [...]
February 6, 2008 at 12:40 am |
[...] is made even more likely with Google Revenues on big publisher sites dropping as much as 60% with the change in the ‘ad click areas’ of the [...]
February 6, 2008 at 3:54 pm |
Hello Markus,
Now, do you think Adsense image ads are productively better than text ads. I have a dating site, but I make only $0.78 a day. Should I use image ads only?
Thanks.
February 14, 2008 at 2:39 pm |
[...] Carl Fremont of Digitas thinks their might be online CPM rate contraction in 2008. Google helped provide one form of CPM contraction when they changed what part of an AdSense ad block is clickable. Markus Friend said that knocked his CTR down by about 60%. [...]
February 27, 2008 at 11:47 am |
[...] “The CTR on text ads declined about 60% in the last 2 months with Googles changes, Image ads on the other hand stayed the same.” –January 4th, 2008 Marcus of Plentyoffish.com [...]
February 28, 2008 at 7:02 am |
[...] “The CTR on text ads declined about 60% in the last 2 months with Googles changes, Image ads on the other hand stayed the same.” –January 4th, 2008 Marcus of Plentyoffish.com [...]
February 29, 2008 at 1:48 pm |
When you say the Image ads remain the same, I assume you mean that they can be clicked anywhere. Well the image ads appearing on my site can’t be clicked. For a visitor to get to the advertiser’s page and record a click for me, they must locate the Advertiser’s URL which is in 6 point type below the ad, then click it. If they have a shaky hand, that’s never going to happen. This is good for advertisers because good graphic ads have a lasting impact. Not good for me however – no clicks in the past 19 days. Not one! I think it’s time we all moved on. I’m inclined to believe Google has run its course.
February 29, 2008 at 11:09 pm |
[...] Friend from Plenty of Fish, one of the more famed and bigger free-making money from Adsense sites (January): The CTR on text ads declined about 60% in the last 2 months with googles changes, Image ads on [...]
March 1, 2008 at 12:11 am |
[...] Friend from Plenty of Fish, one of the more famed and bigger free-making money from Adsense sites (January): The CTR on text ads declined about 60% in the last 2 months with googles changes, Image ads on [...]
March 1, 2008 at 3:01 am |
[...] Frind（原文タイポ）の『Plenty of Fish』の方が大手だし著名だが、そのMarkusが1月付けエントリでこう書いている。 [...]
March 2, 2008 at 12:34 am |
So if Adsense is dead – certainly seems that way on some of my blogs – what are the suggestions for monetizing a blog ?
March 3, 2008 at 6:22 pm |
[...] Friend from Plenty of Fish, one of the more famed and bigger free-making money from Adsense sites (January): The CTR on text ads declined about 60% in the last 2 months with googles changes, Image ads on [...]
March 3, 2008 at 7:39 pm |
[...] From SEO Black Hat: Google reduced the clickable area on Adsense text ads … Before, a user could click anywhere on the ad and be brought to the destination. After the changes, users have to click on something that looks like a hyperlink. “The CTR on text ads declined about 60% in the last 2 months with Googles changes, Image ads on the other hand stayed the same.” – January 4th, 2008 Marcus of Plentyoffish.com [...]
March 17, 2008 at 4:07 am |
[...] “The CTR on text ads declined about 60% in the last 2 months with Googles changes, Image ads on the other hand stayed the same.” –January 4th, 2008 Marcus of Plentyoffish.com [...]
April 24, 2008 at 11:32 pm |
Why don’t you allow profiles to link to mydate4u? I’ve had complaints
April 24, 2008 at 11:32 pm |
http://mydate4u.com
April 30, 2008 at 8:13 am |
Hi there friends!, send free text at txtmate.com
August 13, 2008 at 8:03 am |
[...] all the free dating sites combined. He runs Google Adsense and has noticed a shocking result. His income is down 60% in the last 2 months, and this is a guy that makes well over $100k a month from Adsense, we are [...]
August 15, 2008 at 2:15 am |
nice 1
free .us directory http://amib.ys
August 15, 2008 at 4:54 am |
really interesting topic for an adsense user.
http://www.trickway.blogspot.com
September 23, 2008 at 1:59 pm |
Thank you, I also start in adsense.
November 14, 2008 at 9:30 am |
Nice blog and very interesting
Please, visit my dating site: Dating-Maker.com
November 26, 2008 at 12:34 am |
Good post.
November 29, 2008 at 12:35 am |
Hi Markus,
I was all set to advertise and then my personal ad was removed from POF. What happened?
My ad handle was: YourSearchEnder
Thanks,
Ted.
January 13, 2009 at 6:35 am |
great stuff, i like it, well done markus you do a great job…..I inspire your works
January 18, 2009 at 7:41 am |
Regarding google reducing the clickable area in text ads,I don’t agree with them doing that but I guess they were under the hammer from advertisers screaming click fraud.
January 27, 2009 at 6:52 am |
[...] concrete example that comes to mind is a blog post from January 2008 by Markus Frind (founder of plentyoffish.com, one of the largest dating web sites [...]
February 24, 2009 at 12:17 pm |
I consistantly make 13k a month using adsense.And it took some trial and error.
March 27, 2009 at 9:25 pm |
Nice post! Thumbs up. Another method to make some extra money online is to offer your best digital photos so-called image banks with stockphotos. Companies can draw from the images to be used for example in advertisements, magazines, leaflets or on websites, in short in their campaigns. You get paid when your image is downloaded.
October 1, 2009 at 1:51 am |
Your article was very well written, I am very like it, I wish you
happy every day!
November 1, 2009 at 6:04 am |
Photos you would, bully may also?Mortgage from gives, Ralph Maupin.Shut shop due, with natural gas.A woman will blackhat adsense, people out to use a fairly.Recently raised rates, returns on investment.,
November 6, 2009 at 2:55 am |
Google dropped CTR rates, in part, due to the widespread popularity of SEO and blackhat techniques.