Why Google Image Ads Suck

I've been running Google image ads on my blog since the middle of march.  Not by choice mind you, but this Dodge ad has been appearing on my blog fairly regularly since then.

So this morning, I decided to check my Adsense reports to see what impact these image ads have had on my ad performance.  Here's the data.

It's not looking good. 

My click thrus have never been much to talk about, but they've been dropping pretty steadily since mid March. 

Is this related to the damn Dodge ad?  Who knows, but that's the best conclusion I can come to.

Do I really care? 

Well I give all my adsense revenue to the Grameen Foundation which in turn uses it to help fund the phone ladies program in Uganda.  I don't like the idea that the phone ladies are getting less money because of some stupid Dodge ad that doesn't appeal to my readers and gets no click thru.

I have just changed my Adsense settings to stop running image ads.  We'll see if that has any impact and report back later.

UPDATE:  I changed my Google Adsense settings to text ads only right after I posted this on Saturday morning.  36 hours later the graphical ads are still running.  Maybe it takes a while for this setting change to kick in. But that seems strange.

Comments

[Oliver Thylmann]

Mine seem to be staying steady, but the placement is different.. I think people are starting to learn to block out the placements of google ads on the right. They are getting used to it. It at least needs to be taken into account.

[Brooke]

I agree with Oliver. I've grown to mentally 'block out' ads. Anything that flashes or moves and/or looks like the typical google ads list.

[Dave Morgan]

I suspect that the problem is related to the lack of a frequency cap on the delivery of the Dodge ad. The ad has has not changed in weeks. This, in spite of the fact that most of your audience likely visits regularly and has seen the same ad over and over and over again. The ad, which isn't terribly creative anyway, has long since faded into the background for them. You would probably see the same result if your text ads were managed in a similar way and your audience was presented with the exact same ads for weeks at a time. If the Dodge ad was capped to a three or five times per browser frequency, and was part of a normal rotation schedule with other graphical ads, I am sure that your results would be better.

[John]

Fred,

I'm sure you don't need to stiff the Ugandan women because of Google. You must have the money to make up for the lost revenue.

[Charlie O'Donnell]

How can you tell Fred's crack analyst didn't do that chart? It still says "chart title" at the top. :) This is why people over 40 shouldn't be allowed to play with Excel.

[fred]

hey charlie, i got the trend line in there didn't i?

[Thomas Hawk]

Fred, am I incorrect or are you once again purposely violating Google's TOS? When they revised the TOS to allow people to disclose money made I thought they still kept click through data strictly confidential?

If you are kudos to you. The whole Adsense thing needs to be opened up for us all to see and analyze. I'd particularly like to know what the Google/blogger split is and have people comment on whether it is fair and/or "not evil."

Why Google Image Ads Suck -- VC Fred Wilson Publishes His Adsense Click Through Data

[Sam Davis]

Is it just your ctr down, or also your revenue? I've been considering running AdSense on my site, but I'm wondering how you're actually paid for the "impression" ads. I.e., do you get some fraction of what Dodge pays to just have the ads run, or do you only get paid when there's a click?

[Scott Johnson]

I'm still seeing the Dodge ad.

[Toivo Lainevool]

It's hard to blame image ads for a drop in your AdSense CTR. I find CTR varies a lot even if I don't change my ad settings at all. It lookslike your CTR has been dropping slowly for a while, have you been serving more and more image ads as the CTR dropped? It would be interesting if you post again after a running without image ads for a while to see of you CTR does go up again.

If your interested in sharing your AdSense earnings, or to see what other earn go to AdMoolah.com.

[wil]

Could this be down to more people looking at your website through RSS? I, for one, never knew you were running ads because I read your blog through Bloglines.

[Random Dude]

You must get your ads code at Google Adsense than update it here. Than it'll stop showing image ads instantly.

[heba]

also image ads with me sucks
i tried to change it to txt but i think
the problem with the placement
at header and right corner

[Gary King]

I was just about to try image ads but I think after this and a few other comments maybe a bit more research is needed before I plunge in!