Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
Being on SSL prior to starting adsense, mine climbs every month... so SSL and adsense shouldn't be an issue.
Adsense CTR cut in half after switching to SSL
- Thread starter dethfire
- Start date
Do not switch to SSL if you make your money from selling ads.
90% of all ads are not served using SSL. Even AdSense does not deliver all ads via SSL. This results in a "Secure Connection" warning shown to your users.
Currently the placement of externally delivered ads and SSL is not compatible with each other. Unfortunatelly.
90% of all ads are not served using SSL. Even AdSense does not deliver all ads via SSL. This results in a "Secure Connection" warning shown to your users.
Currently the placement of externally delivered ads and SSL is not compatible with each other. Unfortunatelly.
Brent W
Well-known member
I'd love to know where your 90% comes from. Further, SSL and adsense are completely fine. They will only show ads which can be served over an SSL connection. Since the author of this post is only using adsense currently, the Secure Connection warning you mentioned is not an issue. I am running SSL and adsense on 6 sites with no issues at all here.
We are running SSL and AdSense at one very small site only and experience non-ssl ad pictures delivered by AdSense very frequently. Some browsers then display a huge "Insecure Website" warnung to all users.
We'll not upgrade our other sites to SSL and do not recommend to use SSL with ad sponsored web sites at all.
Using AdSense and SSL is possible without problems only if you set your AdSense ads to be text only.
We'll not upgrade our other sites to SSL and do not recommend to use SSL with ad sponsored web sites at all.
Using AdSense and SSL is possible without problems only if you set your AdSense ads to be text only.
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FredC
Well-known member
That would explain it since i do not use rich media.. And actually have much better success with text ads only.. Although i serve both text and image..
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
Yer... I serve text and image, which includes flash, but not video ads... I have zero issue with adsense delivery across my SSL sites.
Relevancy is a whole different issue though with forums, as there are many factors at play. You're more likely to have relevant ads show if only one ad is on the page, thus allowing Google to match a singlular to its defined page meaning. The next issue is what the pages meaning really is to Google. What a thread starts out as, and how many times the thread keywords really get used in the discussion, how off-topic the discussion gets... and the list goes on and on.
You also have remarketing at work... in that regardless of what Googles page relevance is, if a person has visited somewhere and done x, a remarketing cookie is added, then that is what they see versus relevant content ads, or even general.
Relevancy is a whole different issue though with forums, as there are many factors at play. You're more likely to have relevant ads show if only one ad is on the page, thus allowing Google to match a singlular to its defined page meaning. The next issue is what the pages meaning really is to Google. What a thread starts out as, and how many times the thread keywords really get used in the discussion, how off-topic the discussion gets... and the list goes on and on.
You also have remarketing at work... in that regardless of what Googles page relevance is, if a person has visited somewhere and done x, a remarketing cookie is added, then that is what they see versus relevant content ads, or even general.
DeltaHF
Well-known member
Moving to SSL has been absolutely devastating for my AdSense revenue. Like @dethfire, I've seen a 50% drop in both earnings and RPM/CPM, despite an increase in traffic due to a special event which affected my site. When traffic levels return to normal, I could be losing 60% or more.
See for yourself: I moved the site to HTTPS on Feb. 26. Green is revenue, blue-green is RPM:
My website is my livelihood, so this is an extremely serious problem. I was expecting a drop, but nothing like this worst-case scenario. The benefits of SSL/SPDY are great, but absolutely proceed with caution if it is something you are considering. This mistake will cost me thousands and may force me to make some difficult decisions if CPMs continue to stay low.
See for yourself: I moved the site to HTTPS on Feb. 26. Green is revenue, blue-green is RPM:
My website is my livelihood, so this is an extremely serious problem. I was expecting a drop, but nothing like this worst-case scenario. The benefits of SSL/SPDY are great, but absolutely proceed with caution if it is something you are considering. This mistake will cost me thousands and may force me to make some difficult decisions if CPMs continue to stay low.
Mike, did you actually see revenues and CPMs return to pre-SSL levels? I would be very interested in more data and information about your experience. @dethfire, I see you are still running SSL, what has happened since your last post?
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
Like???
CTXMedia
Well-known member
From Google's own help pages (my bold): https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/10528?hl=en
If it's affecting your income badly - why not simply switch back to non-SSL?
..
If it's affecting your income badly - why not simply switch back to non-SSL?
..
digitalpoint
Well-known member
It really is dumb that Google can't fix the issue. Google is the one serving the ads, not the advertiser, so there really is no technical reason an HTTPS site couldn't show an ad that directed the user to a non-SSL site.
From: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/10528?hl=en
The ads themselves (which is the "content" on the HTTPS site) are served by Google, and there's no reason they couldn't all be "SSL compliant". HTTPS sites do not need the destination of outbound links to be HTTPS.
From: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/10528?hl=en
Google said:
The ads themselves (which is the "content" on the HTTPS site) are served by Google, and there's no reason they couldn't all be "SSL compliant". HTTPS sites do not need the destination of outbound links to be HTTPS.
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
Yer... I just had this same discussion with Sodahead, testing out their ad network poll system. They won't host the ads on a correctly certified SSL domain to serve them, which could be served then to http or https without issue. Instead... they stick their head in the sand as though its all too hard.
How hard is it for these ad servers to put all their images and text ads onto a correctly secured domain and serve them to everyone that way? Not hard!
How hard is it for these ad servers to put all their images and text ads onto a correctly secured domain and serve them to everyone that way? Not hard!
DeltaHF
Well-known member
Indeed, it's not hard at all, but there's something about the online ad industry that seems to attract buffoons. You'd also think there would be more efforts to thwart malvertising that appears thanks to all these pseudo-anonymous RTB exchanges, but nobody seems to really care about increasing accountability - screw the publishers and nasty ads that drive regular people to ad blockers. 
I recall hearing about an ad network that refused to implement SSL because it would, somehow, interfere with their targeting and tracking capabilities, but I don't really believe that.
