Wondering which of your split test (A/B) ads will perform better in the long run, or how they will perform? Got some initial click data? Check out this great tool: Split Tester, free and simple to use.

Instead of adding code to your pages for each ad network, swapping code every couple of days, and attempting to determine which ad network you make the most money with, why not let someone else do it for you? Try one of these three services as they are free.

Recently three advertising optimization networks have appeared and each one received funding as investors seem to believe these are valuable services: YieldBuild $6 Million, Pubmatic $7 Million and Rubicon Project $27 Million.

I was first made aware of PubMatic and wrote about Pubmatic here.

Each service will run multiple ad networks, rotate them, and optimize them for your site. The goal is to obtain the greatest eCPM for you. An eCPM is an effective CPM, the amount you receive per 1,000 advertisements. Some ads may be sold on a CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) or CPL (Cost per Lead), these will yield an effective CPM as more ads are run.

The following are free services and I suggest you try them all to determine who can optimize best for you and your site.

• Pubmatic
• Rubicon Project
• YieldBuild

Making money with Google AdSense can be an excellent source of income for your site. I tested a generic site using Google AdSense and a niche site to determine which is more profitable.

The benefits of implementing Google AdSense is the fact that it is:

• easy to sign up,
• does not require a minimum amount of traffic
  to your site,
• you can place multiple advertising units on the same page, and
• you can begin earning quickly and effortlessly.

Many factors can determine how much you earn, such as:

• placement of the ads on your site and pages,
• average revenue per click, and
• relevance of the advertisement to your content and to your visitor

The average revenue per click depends on two main items, your content and the associated ads. If your site is focused on life insurance and another site is focused on cellular phones, then the ads placed on the sites will reflect life insurance and cellular phones respectively. Google matches your content with their advertisements. You can only attempt to control the type ads on a page with the content on the page. Therefore the ads will match your subject matter.

The average revenue per click will depend on the worth of the keywords that are being bid on by advertisers. How words obtain different prices from advertisers depends on multiple factors and is a subject for another story. Typically if those selling life insurance products and services make more per sale (assuming equal click through and conversion rates) than those selling mobile phones then the site with life insurance content will make more revenue per click.

Test of Generic and Niche Site Content Revenue

I created a site due to my passion for Venture Capital and those that are funded, called Venture Capital Update and implemented Google AdSense. This is a niche site focused on Venture Capital fundings, Venture Capital firms, and entrepreneurs.

This site Longest.com is more of a generic site. While the focus is on learning what does and does not work in the realm of making money online, the stories and subjects can vary greatly.

Here are the results after 2 months of running Google AdSense on both sites.

Venture Capital Update

• .68% Click Thru Rate
• $2.83 eCPM

Longest.com

• .17% Click Thru Rate
• $.36 eCPM

The implementation of Google AdSense was as close to exact on both sites as possible. The eCPM is an effective cost per thousand, meaning for every 1,000 pages the ads appeared on that is the amount earned on average. Above you can see that the click thru rate was better on the Venture Captital Update site and the earnings per page denoted by eCPM were also higher. The earnings per page are a factor of both the price bid on keywords that match your pages content as well as the click thru rate, the more that click per 1,000 pages the more revenue you will earn.

The conlusion here is twofold, the higher click thru rates denote advertisements were more targeted to the content and site visitor on the niche site of Venture Capital Update. It may also be the case that the keyword prices that were bid on related to the niche site were higher as well. As this test is not perfect, it was over a period of 2 months and the difference in revenue was large as the niche site earned much more. If you wish to optimize your Google AdSense earnings I suggest you create a niche site as I did for Venture Capital.

Click below to sign up with Google AdSense:

This test began on October 6, 2007, to determine how much revenue could be made from AdBrite full page ads. Beginning of the test and an explanation of their ad product is here.

In summary, the AdBrite full page ads are full screen ads that drive users directly to an advertiser’s website or landing page between the pages of a publisher’s website. Each user only sees one per visit so they are not annoyed with many, you can control this.

This is how they look, your site header at the top, a button to skip the ad and return to your site and the advertiser below:

Here are the results, from October 6, 2007 to November 13, 2007:

• 34,890 Zone Views
• 548 Impressions
• $1.04
  The results show that while 34,890 impressions were available, only 548 were filled with advertisements. Total revenue was $1.04 which is not bad, essentially that would create a cost per thousand (CPM) of $1.89 if all the impressions were filled. You may see a lower or higher CPM if your site is in a less or more desirable category, respectively.

  Since each user will only see 1 advertisement in a 24 hour period this is not a bad source of additional revenue as long as you have decent inventory.

  AdBrite’s reporting is amazing, you are able to see what sites and advertisements were displayed as interstitials. You are also able to see what they paid and how many impressions were shown. I suggest you try all their revenue generating products.

  Sign up here to use the Full Page ads from AdBrite.

  Sign up for AdBrite Here

Below are the AdBrite results for the increasing RSS subscriptions test with full page ads. Cost per click campaigns were run previously and results are here.

An identical splash page was created for the AdBrite test as with all the others. As all the other tests I tracked results using the ccount script, one link for subscribing to the RSS feed and one link for subscribing via email.

Results of the campaign to the splash page:

• $ .001 cost per view
• $ .88 total spend
• 881 views of the splash page

Results once on the splash page:

• 10 clicks to the Subscribe RSS Link
• 17 clicks to the Subscribe via Email Link
• Total: 27 clicks (not necessarily subscriptions, see below)

Conclusion:
Unfortunately once you are on the splash page and click the subscribe RSS link it takes you off the site to a feedburner page, the person must then add to an RSS reader and you have no way of tracking once they are off your site. The same holds true for the subscription via email, once you enter your email on the splash page and click to subscribe it pops up a window and requires that you enter the email again. This means that we do not know if the 10 and 17 resulted in subscriptions.

Essentially the 27 clicks to subscribe (assuming they were all subscriptions) cost a total of $.88. Therefore each click or subscription cost $ .03. This will be compared to the other campaign results to know if that is a good result.

Below are the AdBrite results for the increasing RSS subscriptions test with cost per click ads.

Test Marketing Buy: Use cost per click ads paying for each click on each advertisement to send the user to a splash page.

An identical splash page was created for the AdBrite test as with all the others. AdBrite was the smallest test. By tracking using the ccount script described in the above post I could track the click throughs on the two links, one for subscribing to the RSS feed and one for subscribing via email. AdBrite marketing campaign was a CPC (cost per click) campaign to send individuals to the RSS subscribe page.

Results of the campaign to the splash page:

• $ .05 per click
• $ 25 total spend
• 500 clicks to the splash page

Results once on the splash page:

• 18 clicks to the Subscribe RSS Link
• 16 clicks to the Subscribe via Email Link
• Total: 34 clicks (not necessarily subscriptions, see below)

Conclusion:
Unfortunately once you are on the splash page and click the subscribe RSS link it takes you off the site to a feedburner page, the person must then add to an RSS reader and you have no way of tracking once they are off your site. The same holds true for the subscription via email, once you enter your email on the splash page and click to subscribe it pops up a window and requires that you enter the email again. This means that we do not know if the 18 and 16 resulted in subscriptions.

Essentially the 34 clicks to subscribe (assuming they were all subscriptions) cost a total of $25. Therefore each click or subscription cost $ .74. This will be compared to the other campaign results to know if that is a good result.

In this test I wanted to increase RSS subscriptions by testing various splash pages and different traffic sources. In this case I wanted to create multiple splash pages that were all exactly the same, however each one had different link tracking code.

Test: Determine which paid marketing campaigns increased subscriptions for the cheapest cost.

To start I implemented the code from the ccount script, read why I choose it here.

Steps to test:

Step 1 : Create Multiple Identical Pages
To test I simply created one .html file that discussed the site and asked people to either click the RSS subscription button or sign up to email delivery from feedburner. I then created multiple pages that were identical.

Step 2 : Create Redirect Links to Track
The RSS subscription button link (URL) was replaced with a redirect so ccount could track the number of clicks and the email subscription had a second redirect so ccount could track email subscription separately from RSS buttons. These redirects are created within ccount, you simply put the original URL and give it a name. Ccount then provides you with a new URL you place within the html page.

Step 3 : Each Marketing Campaign is Sent to a Unique Page
I created a unique page for each marketing campaign that I ran and each page had unique tracking codes in ccount. This allows me to compare what I spent on the marketing campaign with the number of subscriptions or actions I received. By comparing for each marketing campaign I know which one was the most cost effective.

See the image below, which is a modified to fit screen shot of the ccount admin page showing two links that were replaced on one html page. Shown are the corresponding number of clicks on each of the two URLs for RSS subscription through the button and through email.

Individual test results for various campaigns and cost analysis will begin tomorrow.

We are going to attempt multiple ways to increase our RSS subscriptions and post each test along with the results.

Tests will include search engine marketing on keywords, taking the person to the site itself or a splash page attempting to convert the person to a subscriber. I will also use work posting sites to find individuals interested, run ads on traffic sites that send unique visitors, both to the site and splash pages.

Other tests will be run to determine the fastest as well as the most cost effective means of increasing subscriptions, and hopefully finding a solution for both at the same time.

AdBrite full page ads are interactive full screen ads that drive users directly to an advertiser’s website or landing page between the pages of a publisher’s website. Each user only sees one per visit so they are not annoyed with many, you can control this.

Test: The full page ad code was added today 10/6/07. We will follow the progress to determine the amount of revenue we can make.

As with all of the AdBrite products they sell the ad space for you. Here are some of the publisher, site owner, benefits:

• Easy to set up - Place a small snippet of code on your site
• Use none of your site’s digital real estate
• Customize the look and feel of your full page ad header
• Control when the full page ad will show for your viewer

The full page ads are customizable, you can change the header logo, colors, frequency of the ad shown, how the buttons on the header look and more.

This is how they look, your site header at the top, a button to skip the ad and return to your site and the advertiser below:

Sign up here to use the Full Page ads from AdBrite.

Sign up for AdBrite Here