18,000 impressions/day with 0.79% CTR - Does this sound right

[nparkin0]

Hi all,

Does this sound right and do you think this could be improved upon?

Yesterday - The site got 18,317 impressions, 145 clicks, 0.79% CTR and $12.78 in earnings

In the last 30 days - The site got 728,227 impressions, 5728 clicks, 0.79% CTR and $278.52 in earning for content ads. The site also got 10,359 queries, 121 clicks, 1.17%CTR and $3.17 in earning for ads for search last month.

For the amount of traffic and CTR and earning seem very low. Am I right or am I expecting too much?

Thanks.

Nick.

[draggar]

I've always noticed about a 1% (maybe a little lower) click rate with AdSense but I'm no expert in ad placement and I never did anything misleading (posting ad links in articles as part of the article etc..).

[nparkin0]

Hmm...you'd think that with so many impressions that the CTR would be higher. I think what is needed is a professional that knows what they are doing to maximise the true potential of the traffic.

[Acro]

Depends on the content, the placement of the ads and other parameters such as quality of traffic.

[south]

Originally Posted by nparkin0

Hi all,

Does this sound right and do you think this could be improved upon?


Nick.

Definitely sounds low to me. But then again, adsense has been in the crapper for at least the last few months for me as well. However, it does seem to be a very low percentage. It also depends on the type of traffic, type of site, traffic sources, etc.

[Arragon]

hmm, well did you try tweak the ads placement to get a better CTR?

[jinglepoint]

I have always been told, or I have read and seen that the optimal (average) CTR is around 3-4%. I don't think having a higher CTR is a crime. But if you have a CTR less than 1%, I think, you should work on ad placement.

What kind of traffic are you getting? Is the traffic, solely from technical resources? Usually traffic from stumbleupon or other technical social bookmarking sites is not the kind that gives you clicks.

So, if most of your traffic is referred... and that too from technical arenas, then I should say, you are doing ok. (Even then you might have to optimize placement)

I don't think I have read a rule that says I must not point out my website as an example....and so am advising you to take a look at the post that talks of ad placement tips on explainstuff(.)com- the link below.

Ad placement is not a theory.....every site, will have some hot spots, ad placement in my opinion must change with the template or theme used. Every template has its own hot spots.

The current placement seems to be working atleast for explainstuff.
Good luck!


Edit: Btw search engine traffic is the best. More reasearch to be done on less clicks, if you are already getting majority of traffic from SE.

[copper]

CTR depend on too many factors.
What kind of site, traffic source, ad placement, ad colors...

One of my site get about 7% CTR during past 3 years.
So, it's fairly consistent.

One of my other site get little less than 2%.

[DomainMagnate]

if it's a content site, the ctr is terrible, rearrange your ads

[biggedon]

Hi

"impressions" totals are not just visitor numbers


it can included "hover over" images and/or the links in a page.

[texeyes]

Yea it all depends on quality of traffic, type of site, position of ad placement, and how well ads mesh with site (ad content/colors/font). Do the ads showing up relate to your content? Is it US traffic? Do you have google analytics set up for the site? It would help to see where they are coming from, what keywords they use, and determine what they are looking for.
I would be glad to help you for free. Shoot me over your site and I will give you a few tips.

[ecomindia]

Website Category - Information website has higher CTR then Blog, FOrum, Classifieds etc website (User Posting website)

Website Content - Content published on the website. Is it end-user based ? Is it copyright? The quality of the published content.

Website SEO - Keywords (spl. Targetted) are optimized and rightly placed

Website Technology & Design - Yes, this is also considered (not confirmed anywhere)

Website Traffic Source - The source from which the traffic is been generated.

Website Traffic - No. of Visitors visiting the site and the hits (see the ratio)

Visitor Bounce Rate - See the % of visitors who enters and exits the site in 1 click

Visitors Activity Time Average - Avg. time visitor remains on the site

Affiliates & Exchange Links & banners - Relevancy , Usage and Quality matters

Placing of Ad campaigns - Not Everywhere , Not Everything@ Correct Placing of right sized Ads
...... and many more...

[DMarkel]

WIth search traffic I can get as high as 15 - 17% ctr. If you are getting your traffic from organic search then I would suspect your placement or blending needs some work.

I always have the 336 block aligned left and placed right at the start of the page content. Blend it in exactly with the background and use the standard link color for the title and your content font color for the text and url.

Pm me a link if you want and I can take a look.

[loudbeats.com]

that's low.. but it definitely depends on the keywords & quality of traffic!!