Why You Should Not Join Google Ad Exchange Program with Adsense

Google Ad Exchange is also known as DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX). Please note that this article is not about serving direct Ads using Google DoubleClick For Publishers (DFP), but about joining third party advertiser or Ad Exchanger resellers.

What is the difference between Google Adsense and Double Click Ad Exchange

• Ad Exchange let you serve 5 Ad banners each page, but Adsense is limited to 3 Ad Banners.
• Ad Exchange Ads pay you for impressions, but Adsense is CPC based Ad network.
• You may set minimum eCPM rate under Ad Exchange Program, but Google Adsense doesn’t let you do so.
• Ad Exchange comes with more control options compared to Google Adsense.
• Visit this page to see full comparison.

After reading the comparison you must be thinking that Google Double Click Ad Exchange Program should be better than Adsense. However, it’s not the case, and here is why.

Why bloggers should not serve Ad Exchange Ads with Google Adsense?

If your blog is well ranked, and most of the traffic to your website is driven by Search Engines, like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc., then never join third party ad networks that are partnered with Google.

More Ads don’t mean more revenue

If you are thinking that Ad exchange let you serve 5 Ad banners, so you can serve 3 banners from Adsense and 2 banners from Ad Exchange, and it will generate more revenue. Well, this is not going to happen. Too many ads on a page leaves bad impression on visitors, and they may stop visiting your website or will be forced to use Ad blocker. Here is another reason why it can’t help.

Very bad impact on Adsense revenue

If you are among those who use Ad Exchange as well as Adsense on the same page, you must have noticed that many times same ads appear twice or even three times on a page. When visitor clicks on Adsense banner, it may generate as much revenue as Ad Exchange Ads won’t give you even for 5000 impression. Such ads are impression based, and they don’t really pay for click. If the same ads are appearing on multiple banners, visitors may click on Ad Exchange banner, and you will get almost no benefit.

Pathetic eCPM Rates

You may receive emails from Advertisers or Ad Exchange Resellers who assure that this program will help you boost the revenue up to 100%, but it actually decreases the revenue more than 100%. How much do they pay? The eCPM rate they provide never goes above $1. Usually it remains between $0.30 to $0.80. So if you are serving 2 banners on the page, and you receive 5000 visitors each day on average, you will earn around $2.00 to $3.00. Adsense may pay you more than that amount for a single click (depends on the keyword). Real Time Bidding, Premium Advertisers, More Banners, those all are just terms to win new Publishers. You are not allowed to set own eCPM rate, and you almost get no control except seeing the impression count and earning. Some of the ad networks may set minimum eCPM rate on their bidding page, but it decreases the fill rate like anything. Most of the time, there will not be any ads to serve if you set higher eCPM rate.

Stop Sharing Clicks

If you don’t want to remove such ads from your website. You can try moving them to the bottom of the page, and then check the difference. When the users stop clicking on Ad Exchange banners and start clicking on Adsense banners, the revenue will boost in a positive way.

Who Should Join Double Click Ad Exchange Resellers or CPM Based Ad Networks

• If your website doesn’t receive organic traffic, you won’t earn much from Google Adsense. CPC rate that you will get from Social Media and Direct Traffic is much lower. If you are running such blogs, you should join them to boost revenue.
• If you have been banned by Adsense, or you didn’t get approval, you can join such Ad Network. Adsense approval has nothing to do with Double Click Ad Exchange Program.

Exceptions

Direct Ads

If you have received direct advertiser, you can get much better offer as far as CPM rate is concerned. So you can serve ads via Google DoubleClick For Publisher (DFP), you don’t need to ask or inform anyone. You can do it on your own, but make sure, there should not be more than 5 Ad banners each page including Adsense and DoubleClick (maximum 3 Adsense banners).

BuySellAds and PublicityClerks

BuySellAds and PublicityClerks both are CPM based ad network, but they let your set your own eCPM rate. You can also use Backfill ad tags. For example; Set eCPM rate as $2 for an Ad banner, and put Adsense Code as backfill. When they don’t have an advertise who can pay that much for banner, Adsense Ads will be served.