AdLinks First Impressions

Today I overcame my reservations about trying AdLinks.

Observation #1 -
AdLinks are not displayed using default Opera configuration.

Observation #2 -
AdLinks are not displayed using default Safari configuration.

Observation 3 - I am having a link color - text color issue that I wrote to Google about (both on IE and Firefox).
The two colors seem to get reversed somehow.
Isn't the order -
1)Link,
2)Text(also links),
3)URL?
In the java code, the order is 1)link, 2)url, 3)text(also links).

Observation #4 -
First guess at ads - pretty good.
Second guess (refresh) - wildly poor.
I also asked Google if AdLinks targetting improves over time, like AdSense. I sure hope so.
But then, my site is about everything. How does Google serve on-target AdLinks, when the target is extremely diverse? It's like, "Pick 4"(or 5) at random, and that's what AdLinks seems to do. Or not. Missouri? What do I know about Missouri? What's on my page about Missouri? Zilch.

I read elsewhere that AdLinks are best for sites with diverse content. That may be, but certainly not on the index page. Because then you get shotgun targetting.

For instance, if you would like to see my example -
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com
(If you view "page source", you can observe the link color vs. text color reversal.)

I REALLY like the targeting of the links that appear on my sites... and I am doing nicely with adlinks. I've kept very very close records of adsense over millions of clicks and this is a clear winner on most sites that I have used it.

The reason why people like EGOl are getting a high rate of return is the following:

1) Users still don't see this as an ad yet, most people including some of us SEO guys click these links thinking they are links not ads, this was the same affect when AdSense first came out we would see 40% CTR on these ads at that point as people didn't' get the idea that they where ads.

2) Once a user clicks these links they are then on a page which the only clicks/links offered are ads. This means your almost guaranteed to get a click once they are on that page.

But be warned this system has an effect that most people don't yet fully understand, it gives the users of websites that run this advertisements the reluctancy to click a link as they fear it will simply take them to an advertisement.

I think Google failed big on this as sites that add these will see the user level and page views drop drastically as I know if I had to start checking to see if what I was clicking was an ad or a link I'd be reluctant to click anything.

If you are running pages that have a user base or you want users to come back I wouldn't use these types of ads, but if you run spammy pages and just want to make a quick buck off your traffic go for it, you'll love the results.

I agree that I am getting lots of curiosity clicks and the early adopters of these ads will enjoy that for a while. I don't know how much people will become "link shy" but I only run these on pages where I get a lot of traffic that is not super qualified and zero ads on pages that I am trying to convert people.

IMO the biggest reason that I am getting better returns on these is that the targeting is superior to adsense for some of my sites. Google is determining linktext that matches my site theme instead of the adsense ads like the one below written by a lazy SEM. (These are actual errors in the ads that I have seen on my sites - adsense and others - to be honest I have combined the errors from three or four different ads for effect - but they stink up my site even one at a time)

Dis**** cleVeland Ho tels
Low rate. free Net. U will like
800-5558843 call now

EGOl you made a good point indirectly, as one thing Google will need to do for AdWords advertiser is offer then an option to show their ads in these link pages as well as Google's new search service at http://www.google.com/sponsoredlinks as personally I don't want my ads on either both get a high CTR and one of the nice things with AdWords ads in AdSense pages is the advertisers gets to have the message / band name related to the page that is one.

I like the fact that my band name is on thousands of pages and know that many people use AdWords just for that, in fact lots of us wish we could just target users pages and not have to advertise on Google and its other search partners as AdSense ads has been one of the cheapest brand building programs ever invented.

I've been thinking about adwords for brand building... when I get my new site ready all of my adwords will direct straight to it so that exposure can begin. I made the mistake of saving my best domain and not building on it a couple years ago. Now I have great rankings on the wrong domain. lol... not complaining too much however.

For every winner, there is a loser.
Here I am.

Gazillions of impressions. ZERO clicks until yesterday. Payout worse that AdSense. I am removing the Ad Links one-by-one from my pages. Why not all at once? Keep hope alive, I guess. Maybe the targeting will suddenly improve. Maybe my CTR will increase 50 times. Maybe . . .

Ad Links are NOT working for me. There is no better way to "water down" my stats.

I have not done anything... but CTR is clearly improving. Don't know for sure but maybe google is figuring out what my visitors will click and modifying the link text.

For me they don't seem to work well either.

They don't do well on all of my sites, and I have reverted to standard adsense on some... but the adlinks are making my total yield higher than ever on certain sites. On these sites that adlinks match the keywords of my search engine traffic very closely, but the standard adsense ads match only a generic theme.

That makes all the difference. It's a matter of trying each ad unit, logging the results, then seeing what performs well for you. Each site and each theme is different as far as targeting goes. Trial and error works best.