macavity - 9:55 am on Jan 25, 2006 (gmt 0)

Hi everyone,

I've noticed a slow but steady decline in the eCPM associated with my account over the past 12 months. Compared to January last year traffic is up four-fold but eCPM is down by about 50% (can I say that without breaking the TOS as long as I don't mention specifics figures?)

I'm a fairly regular reader of this forum and I know that a lot of people have seen the same thing (traffic up, eCPM down) but there are also those who see the reverse, or no change at all. I appreciate there are some things out of our control such as the number of advertisers and the amount they're willing to bid at any one time, but leaving that out of the equation are there steps we can take to give us the best chance of at least maintaining a good eCPM?

So far, I've tried the following:

- Removed underperforming ads
- Reduced the number of ads per page
- Experimented with different colour schemes to maximise CTR

Unfortunately I've met with little success. Are there other steps I can/should take? For example:

- Does traffic from the AdWords content (rather than search) network have the potential to negatively impact AdSense eCPM due to a lower conversion rate, or are content related clicks one of those figures not factored in to the AdSense eCPM?
- Is there any point in contacting Google to ask if smartpricing is in effect (I'm guessing they're unlikely to give an answer to that, at least not a specific one as far as individual sites within an account are concerned)?

Perhaps we could develop a list of actions to take for anyone in the same boat, any suggestions gratefully received! If there's already such a list and I've missed it please forgive me and point me in the right direction ;-)

Kind regards,

Mac