farmboy - 4:25 am on Nov 6, 2005 (gmt 0)

Hi y'all. Although I've been lurking and reading this forum for several weeks, this is my first post. I want to describe an AdSense situation and see if someone can explain.

I have a site that serves a niche profession. One page of the site has specific information pertaining to that profession. On that page I have one AdSense display, a single button.

The targeting for that one page to the single AdSense ad that appears on the page is as good as it gets. Since that page was launched about 1-1/2 years ago, I haven't changed a thing. I've always had my one ad and my text and nothing else on the page other than a link back to the home page. I have a channel devoted specifically to that one ad.

Evidently there is only one company that offers a product (actually it's a service) pertaining to the topic of that page. Over the last 1-1/2 years I've checked that page many times at different times of the day and different days of the week. I've never seen anything there other than the one company's ad. And I haven't noticed the company changing the text of their ad in any way.

Now here's where my question comes in. Sometimes I can check my stats very early in the morning and catch when 1 click has been recorded and see the amount I've earned. At other times, I can use the channel information to divide the amount by the number of clicks to determine the earning per click.

Sometimes, the amount is X, sometimes it's 7X and sometimes it's in between.

Same ad - same text on the page - same ad position on the page - yet different amounts per click. Why is that?

And if it's this SmartPricing thing, does that mean SmartPricing is based on the visitor doing the clicking, because that's the only variable in my situation?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can assist.

And by the way, since this is my first post and it's not a "I was banned from AdSense" post, do I win a prize? :)

See ya',
farmboy