Guide: Which CPC to use on your site

PlayerClicks · 02-01-2007, 08:33 AM

A while back (when google smart priced me) I pulled google ads and I posted some results on DP on alternate PPC programs...I'll copy that post here and then add on to it:

Okay...I have an arcade I run that gets a fairly large amount of clicks (not going to plug it here but it's over 1,500 clicks per day). Google was paying out great until recently when they dropped down to a ridiculously low rate. I confered with a few other fellow gaming sites and they make roughly twice as much per click, but it's still relatively low. (For fear of losing my Google account, I will not divudge the actual figures). Is it smart pricing? Who knows...no point in speculating. Either way I think it's crap. I know the word game, arcade, etc in my adwords account costs 3 to 4 times as much as they are paying out. I did notice that they are not filling the full inventory (only displaying 3 ads in a 4 ad block) so I have no idea what the deal is. I tried MFA filtering but it only made things worse.

Anyway...it's time to try something else. I am setting out to find the best PPC that uses text ads that are targetted.

The test bed:
My arcade has the typical 4 ad banner up top with pictures by it (divided by a bar of course

) I also list the games and intermix two single ads randomly in the listings. In order to not violate TOS and to keep the test fair I am running all ads by the same advertiser every twenty minutes.

The test:
I started the test last night at 9PM. Right now I am alternating Bidvertiser, Adbrite, and Google.
I will post the results tonight at the end of the 24 hour run.

I also have an account with Clicksor, Adengage, and bidclix. I plan on testing them out next.

So...sit back and enjoy the war. If you have a particular company you would like me to apply to and test out please post them. To keep the test clean please make sure they do text ads with targetting...even if it is manually targetted that's fine.

----------

Getting a cold so I'm posting the results a few hours early so I can hit the sack. I will have to say I am quite suprised

SmartStats shows 2184 Unique Visitors, 901 Return visitors, and 7678 page views

Google:
1047 impressions
461 clicks
(Baseline for pay)

Adbrite:
1872 Impressions
224 clicks
Made 93% of google's total

Bidvertiser:
1215 Impressions
54 clicks
Made 25% of google's total

Funny...I expected adbrite and bidvertiser to shave impressions but they don't. You can most certainly expect they are shaving clicks heavily though

. Ad's are placed next to pictures so people aren't even reading the ad. Adbrite ads aren't even blended that well and got more clicks then Bidvertiser. Bidvertiser blends in better than google adsense does. To say the least I am dissappointed. Adbrite is paying twice as much as Google CPC and Bidvertiser is paying almost 3 times as much. Yet Bidvertiser was horriffic....and I had heard such good things about them.

So there you have it. Adbrite held up well and bidvertiser bit the dust....badly too I might add

.

Just put bidclix in the rotation so stay tuned tomorrow.

------------

Unfortunately I do not have a YPN account. I wish I did. Got a reply back saying they weren't taking anyone else until public....

That being said it brings me to the nightly results:

Google:
Impressions: 1236
Clicks: 426
Payout (baseline)

Adbrite:
Impressions:1971
Clicks: 306
Payout: 80% of Googles

BidClix:
Impressions:3915
Clicks:172
Payout: 81% of Googles

So...we have a new contender! Bidclix ousted Adbrite for the number 2 spot. Let me also mention that the BidClix interface is completely awesome. It shows an IP address for every single click as well as the payout. They also allow you to set the minimum click price which is something I have always wanted. Hands down this is the finest interface I have ever used for PPC. They don't seem to have a very large inventory for gaming, but I plan on sticking with them...I really hope they do well in the future. Note tha I could probably improve payout by altering the minimum click so RoN ads get avoided.

So....the next round has started. This time it's AdEngage. For those of you that have never checked them out they have contextual ads with pictures next to them!!! They also have the most intensive ad designer I have ever seen.

Stay tuned for tomorrows update....If anyone would like me to test another company please post. Unless YPN magically approves my account tomorrow I think AdEngage will be the last tester.

-------------

K...the test is over for now. Here is todays results:

Google:
Impressions: 1411
Clicks: 500
Payout (baseline)

BidClix:
Impressions:4252
Clicks: 192
Payout: 73% of Googles

AdEngage:
Impressions:3915
Clicks:163
Payout: 52% of Googles

Again I love bid clicks...I can tell how much was international traffic and what was US. I also wonder how payout would improve is someone chose to advertise on your site. These folks are definitely going to be my alternate for google ads when they can't serve

AdEnage didn't perform but here's why....rather than just display text and use my pictures I chose to try out thier picture ads. Using just thier text ads with my pictures would have been a much fairer comparison. Interesting note though...when I tried running ads on my arcade with no pictures I lterally got almost no clicks. AdEngage had excellent clicks considering I was not tricking the clickers in any way.
Adengage has an excellent integration interface but their earnings layout could use some improvement. They only show earnings and clicks...no other stats. They update fast but could really use more info here.

Another note on AdEnage...on my arcade I normally put a text ads above and below my games and usually get a really pathetic click rate. I changed over to AdEngage ads and now my income on those pages have over doubled!! I truly believe on pages that aren't arcades with trick pictures, that these ads are going to take over.

So in conclusion....you can't beat google...but bidclix makes a great back up and I am using adengage on my game pages. I have another search engine site and I plan on running adengage ads along with bidclix since google won't allow you to play with other.

PlayerClicks · 02-01-2007, 08:41 AM

Okay that was several months ago. I was using google again until recently when they posted that pictures were a definite no, no. I have other good content sites with Adsense ads so I am going to pull Google for no for fear of losing the account. Also, I emailed BidCLix and they definitely will not allow pictures next to ads or having the ads blended into the games...that stinks as I really liked them.

Currently I use Adengage and I can't say enough about them. They use pictures in thier ads so that is not an issue. They pay out and have great customer support. They are different from a regular advertiser though.

If you want to do really well with AdEngage I suggest using picture ads, setting your rotation at 16 ads in the pool (not 16 on your site), then set your ad price cheap...like $3 a week. This will put you at less then .01CPC and your site will make the AdEngage front page. People will buy up all 16 spots in your pool immediately. Then you raise your price to make it around .02CPC and you be good.

What that accomplishes is it gives some real stats on your site and you also get a good repurchase rating. I also find that your site gets more display on AdEngage if it has active buyers.

I hope this guide helps out. If you do find it helpful please PM me for a referrer code before you sign up.

Thanks,
JT
Player Clicks - Banner Exchange

02-01-2007, 08:33 AM	#1 (permalink)
PlayerClicks Contributing Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 45	Guide: Which CPC to use on your site A while back (when google smart priced me) I pulled google ads and I posted some results on DP on alternate PPC programs...I'll copy that post here and then add on to it: Okay...I have an arcade I run that gets a fairly large amount of clicks (not going to plug it here but it's over 1,500 clicks per day). Google was paying out great until recently when they dropped down to a ridiculously low rate. I confered with a few other fellow gaming sites and they make roughly twice as much per click, but it's still relatively low. (For fear of losing my Google account, I will not divudge the actual figures). Is it smart pricing? Who knows...no point in speculating. Either way I think it's crap. I know the word game, arcade, etc in my adwords account costs 3 to 4 times as much as they are paying out. I did notice that they are not filling the full inventory (only displaying 3 ads in a 4 ad block) so I have no idea what the deal is. I tried MFA filtering but it only made things worse. Anyway...it's time to try something else. I am setting out to find the best PPC that uses text ads that are targetted. The test bed: My arcade has the typical 4 ad banner up top with pictures by it (divided by a bar of course ) I also list the games and intermix two single ads randomly in the listings. In order to not violate TOS and to keep the test fair I am running all ads by the same advertiser every twenty minutes. The test: I started the test last night at 9PM. Right now I am alternating Bidvertiser, Adbrite, and Google. I will post the results tonight at the end of the 24 hour run. I also have an account with Clicksor, Adengage, and bidclix. I plan on testing them out next. So...sit back and enjoy the war. If you have a particular company you would like me to apply to and test out please post them. To keep the test clean please make sure they do text ads with targetting...even if it is manually targetted that's fine. ---------- Getting a cold so I'm posting the results a few hours early so I can hit the sack. I will have to say I am quite suprised SmartStats shows 2184 Unique Visitors, 901 Return visitors, and 7678 page views Google: 1047 impressions 461 clicks (Baseline for pay) Adbrite: 1872 Impressions 224 clicks Made 93% of google's total Bidvertiser: 1215 Impressions 54 clicks Made 25% of google's total Funny...I expected adbrite and bidvertiser to shave impressions but they don't. You can most certainly expect they are shaving clicks heavily though . Ad's are placed next to pictures so people aren't even reading the ad. Adbrite ads aren't even blended that well and got more clicks then Bidvertiser. Bidvertiser blends in better than google adsense does. To say the least I am dissappointed. Adbrite is paying twice as much as Google CPC and Bidvertiser is paying almost 3 times as much. Yet Bidvertiser was horriffic....and I had heard such good things about them. So there you have it. Adbrite held up well and bidvertiser bit the dust....badly too I might add . Just put bidclix in the rotation so stay tuned tomorrow. ------------ Unfortunately I do not have a YPN account. I wish I did. Got a reply back saying they weren't taking anyone else until public.... That being said it brings me to the nightly results: Google: Impressions: 1236 Clicks: 426 Payout (baseline) Adbrite: Impressions:1971 Clicks: 306 Payout: 80% of Googles BidClix: Impressions:3915 Clicks:172 Payout: 81% of Googles So...we have a new contender! Bidclix ousted Adbrite for the number 2 spot. Let me also mention that the BidClix interface is completely awesome. It shows an IP address for every single click as well as the payout. They also allow you to set the minimum click price which is something I have always wanted. Hands down this is the finest interface I have ever used for PPC. They don't seem to have a very large inventory for gaming, but I plan on sticking with them...I really hope they do well in the future. Note tha I could probably improve payout by altering the minimum click so RoN ads get avoided. So....the next round has started. This time it's AdEngage. For those of you that have never checked them out they have contextual ads with pictures next to them!!! They also have the most intensive ad designer I have ever seen. Stay tuned for tomorrows update....If anyone would like me to test another company please post. Unless YPN magically approves my account tomorrow I think AdEngage will be the last tester. ------------- K...the test is over for now. Here is todays results: Google: Impressions: 1411 Clicks: 500 Payout (baseline) BidClix: Impressions:4252 Clicks: 192 Payout: 73% of Googles AdEngage: Impressions:3915 Clicks:163 Payout: 52% of Googles Again I love bid clicks...I can tell how much was international traffic and what was US. I also wonder how payout would improve is someone chose to advertise on your site. These folks are definitely going to be my alternate for google ads when they can't serve AdEnage didn't perform but here's why....rather than just display text and use my pictures I chose to try out thier picture ads. Using just thier text ads with my pictures would have been a much fairer comparison. Interesting note though...when I tried running ads on my arcade with no pictures I lterally got almost no clicks. AdEngage had excellent clicks considering I was not tricking the clickers in any way. Adengage has an excellent integration interface but their earnings layout could use some improvement. They only show earnings and clicks...no other stats. They update fast but could really use more info here. Another note on AdEnage...on my arcade I normally put a text ads above and below my games and usually get a really pathetic click rate. I changed over to AdEngage ads and now my income on those pages have over doubled!! I truly believe on pages that aren't arcades with trick pictures, that these ads are going to take over. So in conclusion....you can't beat google...but bidclix makes a great back up and I am using adengage on my game pages. I have another search engine site and I plan on running adengage ads along with bidclix since google won't allow you to play with other.

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02-01-2007, 08:41 AM	#2 (permalink)
PlayerClicks Contributing Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 45	Okay that was several months ago. I was using google again until recently when they posted that pictures were a definite no, no. I have other good content sites with Adsense ads so I am going to pull Google for no for fear of losing the account. Also, I emailed BidCLix and they definitely will not allow pictures next to ads or having the ads blended into the games...that stinks as I really liked them. Currently I use Adengage and I can't say enough about them. They use pictures in thier ads so that is not an issue. They pay out and have great customer support. They are different from a regular advertiser though. If you want to do really well with AdEngage I suggest using picture ads, setting your rotation at 16 ads in the pool (not 16 on your site), then set your ad price cheap...like $3 a week. This will put you at less then .01CPC and your site will make the AdEngage front page. People will buy up all 16 spots in your pool immediately. Then you raise your price to make it around .02CPC and you be good. What that accomplishes is it gives some real stats on your site and you also get a good repurchase rating. I also find that your site gets more display on AdEngage if it has active buyers. I hope this guide helps out. If you do find it helpful please PM me for a referrer code before you sign up. Thanks, JT Player Clicks - Banner Exchange