Google Adsense Ads Removed

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For years, or even decades I have had Google Adsense on my site, and I have been paid several times over the years. In recent years though Google Adsense has flooded my site with ads, but has not flooded me with revenue so yesterday I removed the ads.

For a while we had to tell Google Adsense where we wanted ads, and how we wanted them to be displayed. With time they gave us the option "Let google place the ads automatically" out of practicality, but Google placed ads so aggressively that legitimate sites looked like spam sites. I felt that way about my own blog.

Initially I thought, "If I blog daily, and generate traffic, I might get revenue from ads again" but in a period of months I get three or four francs. When you consider the impact that these ads have on user experience (UX), it isn’t worthwhile. People browse to the site, see multiple ads and think "This is a spam site, I’m bouncing" and it’s reflected in the metrics that Google Analytics collects from our site.

Within this context, it’s a shame that Google doesn’t test ad placement, and bounce rate. If it did it would probably find that its own aggressive ad placement is affecting site, and blog, stickiness.

Ad Alternatives

Google Adsense and Amazon Associates were interesting opportunities a decade ago, when the web was still young. These days, with ad blockers, and higher barriers to entry for Amazon Associates, it makes sense to think of alternatives.

Buy Me a Coffee

Including Buy me A Coffee is quick and easy via the WordPress Plugin, and it’s less invasive than Google Adsense ads. People contribute if they want to.

Patreon

Podcasts and YouTube channels like to use Patreons to get monthly contributions for their content, instead of relying on ads on YouTube and in podcasts. Some podcasters, such as the BBC have automated ad injection in podcasts, so if you’re listening to an English podcast, and you get loud, french ads, in Switzerland, it is deeply upsetting, to the point that I abandon podcast series that I like. Ads need to be part of the flow, and, when you’re out on a walk, pleasant.

With ad injection by a number of podcast RSS feeds, the ads are so loud and obnoxious that podcasts, that I loved, are abandoned and I unsubscribe.

Sponsors and Direct Ads

For years now, I have thought that direct advertising, and sponsors, would be more effective than Google Adsense and other forms of monetisation. As they’re direct, you can control how integrated ads are, to the look of the site. If they’re domain relevant, then they contribute to the site, rather than detract from it.

And Finally

For years it has puzzled me that Google does not follow its own best practices advise, when it comes to automated ad placement via their wordpress plugin. Google has direct access to data about how ad placement affects bounce rate, and yet they continue.

Now to see if the bounce rate declines.