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#1 06/16/2006 1:16 pm
- Marc_Brazeau
- Cuttlefish. Just browsing.
- From: Portland, OR
- Registered: 02/04/2006
- Posts: 15
Why not put the Google Ads at the Top of the TOP 100 pages?
I've been quite clear that I think that the Google Ads at the top of lenses are a disaster and short sighted even if they bring in more immediate revenue.
However, Heath pointed out the data has shown that they have increased revenue sharply in some cases tripling revenue. They have to be taken seriously.
If they can have that kind of impact, then why aren't they where the most eyeballs are on
Squidoo - the TOP 100 pages. That's prime real estate and the vagaries of the ads can't do as much damage to the storytelling aspect of the page that it appears on.
Taking a look at the ads where they currently are in the margin of the TOP 100 pages we see that the generic lists - MOST EMAIL, LENSRANK, MOST PROFITABLE, etc. scramble ADSENSE's brains. However, on the TOP 100 by Topic, they work pretty well and since the list are general lists the ads are a better fit than they tend to be on Lenses.
I'd love to see Squidoo succeed and make money. I most likely won't build anymore lenses until the Google Ads move from the top of the lenses. Moving them to the top of the TOP 100 pages may help us hit the revenue goals that the administration wants to see.
Thoughts?
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#2 06/16/2006 2:01 pm
- squidoo_engineer
- Squid Staff / Forum Mod
- From: Boulder
- Registered: 10/17/2005
- Posts: 2179
Re: Why not put the Google Ads at the Top of the TOP 100 pages?
While I don't think it's likely that we'll ever be able to get focused results from the Google ads on the Top 100 pages, we are working on some major enhancements to the Topics pages (much needed, by the way), which will give us the ability to add other targeted affiliate advertising. For example, for the movies topic, we may add a link to sign up at Netflix.
We are also discussing the possibility of a "more ads/less ads" option for lenses, which would impact PayRank, the scale we use to determine how to distribute Google AdSense earnings. However, I do not want to open yet another thread related to the ad placement, so please do not comment in this thread about this :-)
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#3 06/16/2006 3:30 pm
- Marc_Brazeau
- Cuttlefish. Just browsing.
- From: Portland, OR
- Registered: 02/04/2006
- Posts: 15
Re: Why not put the Google Ads at the Top of the TOP 100 pages?
squidoo_engineer wrote:
While I don't think it's likely that we'll ever be able to get focused results from the Google ads on the Top 100 pages,
What are you talking about? The ads for the top lenses by lense rank are very focused. They focus on Jeffry related products.
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#4 06/16/2006 4:04 pm
- relache
- Indubitably tentacular
- From: Seattle, WA
- Registered: 04/10/2006
- Posts: 2391
Re: Why not put the Google Ads at the Top of the TOP 100 pages?
I redid the keywords on a dozen of my lens to see how that effected the Google ads on those pages. For most lenses, the sacrifice in searchability brought ads that were much more complimentary.
I think if we could indicate the most important words, it would work more effectively. Right now, Google seems to grab the first five in the alphabetical list and that very obviously doesn't do the job well at all.
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#5 06/16/2006 4:31 pm
- squidoo_engineer
- Squid Staff / Forum Mod
- From: Boulder
- Registered: 10/17/2005
- Posts: 2179
Re: Why not put the Google Ads at the Top of the TOP 100 pages?
We're working on that Rachel. You'll see an improvement there very soon.
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#6 06/16/2006 8:08 pm
- relache
- Indubitably tentacular
- From: Seattle, WA
- Registered: 04/10/2006
- Posts: 2391
Re: Why not put the Google Ads at the Top of the TOP 100 pages?
Nice to hear that, Gil.
Looks like you got baby-sitting duty on the forums while Heath is away... brave man.... :-)
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#7 06/19/2006 8:43 am
- heathrow
- Lensmaster in Chief
- From: Irvington, NY
- Registered: 10/17/2005
- Posts: 979
Re: Why not put the Google Ads at the Top of the TOP 100 pages?
While we may not place ads on the top 100 index-level pages, ads should be visible on every lens listed on those pages. If not, there may be a Google pull-in error. Sometimes, ads don't get pulled in. That should be the exception rather than the rule, and there are definitely ads placed on every lens. Whether Google populates them isn't something we can control in every instance.
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