I was taking $1600-$2000 a month on Google Ads with only one ad per page, but my CTR was less than 0.02%! Thats just 2 clicks per 5,000 impressions and a horrible conversion rate. Sure, you can rationalize it that the money is good but it's really a huge waste of resources - it's like the SPAM mentality, send out 10 million emails and if only 0.001% click its a money maker; but its hugely ineffective. Anything less than 2% really is a waste of space and can probably be better utilized with a little effort.
My rant doesn't suggest that people shouldn't have ads in an effort to make money; it's how they place their ads.
One in the header, one in the footer, one is a sidebar and at least one embedded in the posts themsevles (as if putting them in between posts isn't annoying enough, some even put them actually inside posts to make them appear as part of an actual post).
One ad per page I can live with; three or more and it's unlikely there is anything of value on the site that would keep me looking any further.
|