Around the end of last year I started using OpenX to take care of ad serving on a couple of my sites. The intent was that I could switch things around much more quickly to see what’s working and what’s not.
Now that it’s been a few months I decided to go and look at one of my sites and see how AdSense and Amazon Affiliate ads compared. It wasn’t even close.
Amazon, with a mix of Omakase and Category ads, came in at 0.06% click through. More importantly, none of the clicks ended in a purchase, and since Amazon doesn’t pay unless something is bought that 0.06% was effectively 0% since there was no income from them.
The CTR for AdSense was significantly better. I’ve read enough posts of people sharing their CTR and getting banned from AdSense that I’m not totally comfortable with sharing the exact number, so let’s just leave it as “significantly better.” Not the 10% that some people claim, but not absurdly low like Amazon.
Now, it’s not like my font site is doing anything near job quitting income. Heck, it’s not event much more than a cup of coffee good. But since half of my ad slots were going to Amazon hopefully the switch to just AdSense will improve it to maybe dinner out good.
Other side though is that I do have another site that Amazon is doing better, so it all goes back to the “test for yourself” theory.
Sure was nice having OpenX already running though. I just logged in and unlinked the Amazon ads from the zone they were in and the switch should be done.
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