Need advice on something I've seen in adsense account

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   Susana Sposted 12 years ago

   I was just looking at my adsense account info and saw something that never caught my eye before. It says I can choose between
   
   "show ads based on user interest and demographic categories"
   
   or
   
   "don't show ads based on user interest etc.."
   
   Does anyone recommend a particular setting?

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      Aficionadaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I haven't earned enough here yet for my comment to carry any real weight, but my first guess is that as a business decision the first option would be better.  The ads would target the interests the user has already shown - but the ads they see may not relate to the Hub at all (not that that's a problem).
      
      However, that option would also mean that some ads might be shown on a Hub that would go against that Hubber's ethics - meat on a vegan's Hubs; religious ads on an atheist's Hubs; partisan political ads on an independent's Hubs. 
      
      That is a possibility to consider and to weigh: which is more important?  The revenue or the principles?

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      1. 93

         Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks aficionada For me it's not about principles but about money
         
         What I'm asking myself is would people be more likely to click an ad relevant to the page content or an ad that stalks them around the internet based on their previous browsing history? I don't know the answer.....yet

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2. 79

   cre8tiveposted 12 years ago

   Just from giving it a quick read my take is that if you leave it on the default i.e. show ads based on demographics etc the idea is the ads shown should be more targeted to the person looking.
   
   However that is just a guess, so could be completely wrong

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   1. 93

      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, that's right. But I'm wondering whether one option has better CTR than the other

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   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   The 'interest' ads are based on the users browser history as detected by trackers.  The other type match your page.  I have no real idea what works best but I prefer ads that match my page so they blend in.

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4. 93

   Susana Sposted 12 years ago

   Calling sunforged from the internet ether........

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5. 73

   sunforgedposted 12 years ago

   I like interest based.
   
   It works on me. When I see the right ads enough times, I usually fold.
   
   Never saw any hard data that suggests one works better than the other though and my own tests weren't very thorough.
   
   My ctr has gone up in recent months since the switch - but i have changed other factors also.
   
   I saw a Nielsen study once that said that most people searching a topic will look at a great number of pages that are returned in search  for an average of 8 seconds before deciding on something to read. You might expect that the topics are interrelated and that the interest based ads will probably often be very related anyway (by the time they land and stick on your page)

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6. 93

   Susana Sposted 12 years ago

   Thanks sunforged It helps a lot to hear others people's experiences. I'm a bit scared to test it myself in case my earnings go down dramatically.
   
   I get what you mean about related searches and the ads being on topic anyway.
   
   Personally, I don't like it when ads follow me around, so I've just turned it off for my own browsing....
   
   Hmmm, will have to give it some more thought and see if I can find any stats out there.

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   shazwellynposted 12 years ago

   I dont know if I am right or whether anyone else has noticed, but ads are now tailor made to individual browsing.  Therefore, if you have searched for 'back pain', when you visit webpages, there will be ads targeted directly to your specific term, whther you hit on an unrelated topic or not.
   
   This is individual targeting.

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      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Shaz There is an element of choice - you can turn off interest based ads for your own browsing if you want to, so instead of ads following you around the net you just see ads based on the page content.
      
      As a publisher there is also the choice to display ads based on interests ie: previous browsing history of the searcher, or content generated ads based on the page content.
      
      Having done a little research on it, it seems google changed everyone's default to interest based ads for both searchers and publishers a while back. But there is a choice in the adsense account to switch back to displaying content generated ads.
      
      From what I've read about other people's experiments with it, CTR is generally better with interest based ads on more general content and on content which doesn't have much advertiser competition, and content specific ads are better for CTR on niche topics that are highly focused.
      
      I haven't made a change to the publisher settings yet, but I am planning on testing it for my own content to see which delivers the best CTR. I'm going to do it after Christmas

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         shazwellynposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Im not sure this is a very good change that google have administered.  People have the ability to turn it off, but this is useless if they dont know.  It seems that this information may as well be the vaults of the council offices, somewhere at the other side of the universe.
         
         We tag and use keywords in our hubs to optimize, for the ads to follow our readers wherever they go.  What use is that?  No wonder I have seen seo gurus not bothering with the tag system too much!
         
         Still rant over... living and learning!

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   Pandoras Boxposted 12 years ago

   Too bad we can't choose on a per hub basis then.

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      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah it is too bad - it would be nice to have the chance to test it on a few hubs rather than my whole adsense account.

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9. 69

   lrohnerposted 12 years ago

   I'm not a fan of interest-based ads, but I'm sure they work or the Google gods wouldn't have implemented them.
   
   That said, if I did choose to run them, there are several times throughout the year when I would turn them off -- Christmas being one of them. If you like to camp, fish and watch sports, that will probably be reflected in the sites that you visit and Google will pick up on it and serve up relevant ads.
   
   BUT...think of all of the transient interests you have around the holidays as you buy gifts for other people. (Sweater for Mom at Nordstrom's - check. Swiss Army knife for grandpa at the sporting goods store - check. Kitchen gadgets to bake Christmas cookies at Williams-Sonoma - check.)
   
   I think at certain holidays like Christmas, Valentine's Day, Father's Day and Mother's Day, you can really lose out with interest-based ads and do a disservice to your customers.

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      Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's what my instinct tells me too. Did you ever test it or did you revert to content generated ads straight after they changed it?
      
      I know the only way I'm going to find out for sure is to give it a go, but I'm relying so much on my adsense earnings I'm scared to!
      
      I'm going to go look in my analytics account and see if I can see much difference for before and after.

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    katescottukposted 12 years ago

    I earn a decent amount from adsense ads and in my opinion you really need to leave the default settings on...
    
    If you have a well optimized and keyword targeted page containing adsense that pays out the maximum payout, it would make absolutely no sense (economically) to show ad impressions that were not inline with the page. Showing ads that are based on your viewers surfing history would be folly (they may only pay 1 or 2 cents, while your targeted ad may pay ou 1 or 2 dollars if you have done your research correctly).

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       Pandoras Boxposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       That's a good point. We've targeted certain keywords for certain reasons, and we SEO'd to get the right people on our pages.
       
       We KNOW they're interested in our topics, or they wouldn't be on our pages in the first place. Who cares what they were interested in yesterday?
       
       Browser-interest based ads are not the ones I targeted, nor are they focused on the audience I targeted.
       
       I think you got it backwards though. The default settings are browser interest based. You need to reset to the content based setting.
       
       And I think so do I.

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          katescottukposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Hi, your right I have it the wrong way around... I was typing and reading and doin other things all at the same time! So much for 'multi-tasking'....
          
          Just to clarify - YOU DO NOT WANT BROWSER INTEREST BASED ADS
          
          thanks for pointing this out.

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             Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             I think it's seems intuitive that interest based ads would produce less money for the publisher with targeted content, but have you tested it? If you have, I would love to see your results
             
             From what I've read some people are reporting better eCPM by opting for interest based ads, some the other way round. In fact the results I've read about vary so much from publisher to publisher it makes it extremely hard to come to a conclusion.

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    Pandoras Boxposted 12 years ago

    What Google says:
    
    Please keep in mind that by opting out, you'll decrease the number of ads competing to appear on your website, which may decrease your potential earnings.
    
    Something to think about.

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       Susana Sposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Yeah, I read it.....that's why it's a risk

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    Susana Sposted 12 years ago

    When I was doing my research the other day I actually came across a hub on the topic. It's here.

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    GetInTheKnowposted 12 years ago

    A few things that those "based on interest" ads do not take into consideration is all the people who utilize that computer. A public computer may show a wider variety of unrelated ads or a home computer used by several family members may display ads of interest to say a child in the home or some other person who used that computer.
    
    Just as an example - I had to look something up about a ring and within the same time frame a health related question I had- a one time thing for both things. Then on certain sites I visit who use interest based ads all I could see for the longest times were ads related to jewelry, health with a few scattered video ads that were probably related to something one of my kids searched.
    
    Needless to say none of the ads were appealing which is sad because on a few of those occasions I was "shopping" and the articles I ended up on were informational and not product articles.
    
    Really boils down to personal preference. Either way you choose could affect your earnings in one way or another.
    
    Personally I know that if someone ends up on my health article that the person there at the computer is interested in health if they land on a product article they are interested in related products - I want them to see ads for things that obviously interest them as they landed on an article about it - not for something their kids searched last weekend.  Just my two-cents

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