I see a lot of people tossing around the notion that you'll have higher-paying ad clicks if you only have one ad block. As far as I know that's true with AdSense. I'm sure a lot of you know this doesn't apply with YPN, but I made this post for any newbies who don't realize it.
YPN usually serves the same ads in the same order, presumably with the same bids, in every unit on your page. You'll get the same ads at the same cost no matter how many units you have.
This seems to be a similar trend to the AdSense thing, though, on a within-the-unit basis. It makes sense. A unit showing 3 ads will have the top 3 bidders, a unit showing 4 will have the top 4 bidders and hence a slightly lower average brought down by bidder #4, etc.
In my sample of 532 ad clicks across about 40 different niches on YPN, I've got these average results:
Wide skyscraper (5 ads/unit, 1st in code order): $0.77/click
Large rectangle (4 ads/unit, 2nd in code order): $0.86/click
Leaderboard (3 ads/unit, 3rd in code order): $1.02/click
It's not a huge sample size, but it's a pretty good indication that code order and the number of units on the page doesn't matter for YPN click values. The ads/unit have more effect than the units/page.
Don't take that to mean you should only use one a one-ad unit. I'm sure that having a higher number of ads also means more variety and a higher CTR, which probably offsets and maybe even exceeds the effect of a slightly higher average click on a unit with fewer ads. That's harder to test or quantify, though, because other factors also influence CTR.
Anyway, the bottom line: use as many units as you like with YPN. (Within their ToS, if it even sets a limit.)
YPN usually serves the same ads in the same order, presumably with the same bids, in every unit on your page. You'll get the same ads at the same cost no matter how many units you have.
This seems to be a similar trend to the AdSense thing, though, on a within-the-unit basis. It makes sense. A unit showing 3 ads will have the top 3 bidders, a unit showing 4 will have the top 4 bidders and hence a slightly lower average brought down by bidder #4, etc.
In my sample of 532 ad clicks across about 40 different niches on YPN, I've got these average results:
Wide skyscraper (5 ads/unit, 1st in code order): $0.77/click
Large rectangle (4 ads/unit, 2nd in code order): $0.86/click
Leaderboard (3 ads/unit, 3rd in code order): $1.02/click
It's not a huge sample size, but it's a pretty good indication that code order and the number of units on the page doesn't matter for YPN click values. The ads/unit have more effect than the units/page.
Don't take that to mean you should only use one a one-ad unit. I'm sure that having a higher number of ads also means more variety and a higher CTR, which probably offsets and maybe even exceeds the effect of a slightly higher average click on a unit with fewer ads. That's harder to test or quantify, though, because other factors also influence CTR.
Anyway, the bottom line: use as many units as you like with YPN. (Within their ToS, if it even sets a limit.)
