Forum Moderators: martinibuster
It looks terrible. Any ideas how to get it to show four ads?
(I have opted out of CPM and "advertise on this site".)
My CTR dropped slightly as well, but like a lot of people my EPC went UP, which is what you'd expect if Google are showing significantly fewer ads. You might need to look elsewhere to figure out why your EPC dropped so much.
I have a newer AdWords account targeted for "low paying" clicks. For the previous few months I was getting few impressions/clicks. Suddenly, after Christmas, it's like someone threw a switch. For January I have already doubled December's clicks in 5 days and the AdSense CONTENT network has already 6 times the number of clicks for December (remember, these are low-paying clicks).
My websites are for an industry that traditionally "gets busy" after the Christmas holidays. Organic search doubles-to-triples for my sites. So now I'm wondering if many of the big bidders for my industry left the advertising arena expecting the higher free traffic from the search engines. This would cause my low bids to suddenly start showing and getting clicked. It could also reduce EPC for my publishing side (which has occurred).
For my industry, and many in general, any change following the Christmas holidays may easily be tangled in the mire of increased or decreased business activity - maybe a bad time for Google to have instituted this change?
The "We know best" attitude problem that Google have. Please drop the attitude and start treating us as the partners we are. No websites = no search engines = no Google. You should remember that without us webmasters, nearly all of your management would be asking "Do you want fries with that?" 4000 times a day, as opposed to wearing a shiny suit and driving a company BMW.
ABSOLUTELY 100% CORRECT. This is roughly what I've been saying since the bourbon update trashed my business plans. I only wish that in 2006, more webmasters would resolve to treat Google (and Y and MSN) as the leech they are, rather than as some demi-god.
Webmasters built the web, the search engines are cannibalizing the efforts of millions for their own profits.
On the issue of missing ads from blocks, it's occuring in other sizes as well. I just saw 2 ads in a 120 x 600 block. Do I really want all this blank space? Not really. Was I asked? No. Am I sick and tired of being treated like dirt instead of as a partner. You bet. Am I dumping AdSense. YES. After being crushed by the bourbon update, and now this, it's a matter of "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."
Sorry, Google, you cannot be trusted.
It seems like it is a case of accept a diminishing return, or get sweet f.a. (Some choice!)
There is no practical way to "push back" against most systems, where one has no power. It is hard for people to vote with their feet while their bellies are empty.
I have complained frequently and loudly to Google and I'm in a different camp - the one that says, either pay me something worthwhile, not the pittance you usually shell out to small publishers, or I will not use your system and I'll work to find alternatives (I have some already).
The more people who just "take it" from Google, the more they are enabled to run roughshod over webmasters. Stand up, email a rep, and don't be shy. I've blasted Google in my emails and directed them to this thread. I've told them they can kick me out. Time and again.
Google needs to begin limiting the number of publishers. They need specific guidelines to eliminate the spammers, MFAs, scrapers, domainers and push that money to US, the honest publishers.
Why do you think they've cut down on the number of ad units in blocks? Could it be that there's not enough inventory to fill what's out there? If they had some policies that limited the scum from Adsense, this problem would not happen. AdSense is a poisoned pool and Google is the reason for that.
We need to demand accountability and transparency from them. They are screwing with OUR sites, not theirs. Pay us our due or find some other business.
I'll step down from the soap box for now, but I will not go away.
email Google and COMPLAIN. It's the only way they'll understand. I went through this with ebay and it worked on occasion, but especially when they were wrong.
I swear, they can make your stats do whatever they want, and that's what we get for signing blind agreements. If they want to pay you more, they will. Less, no problem. It's all under their control.
My advice: if you're not happy, complain. If nothing changes, complain some more. Always seems to work for me.
Such as, if you have a site and it's running 3 adblocks (which they encouraged) and now they see the problems it's caused, they can't really go back and say, "Ok, you all can only show 1 adblock on your pages at a time now."
All the adspace not serving ads on an MFA would really make their sites look bad now.
Today is even more amusing. CTR is way up, but eCPM is back in the toilet. Average per click is absurd. I am making almost as much with untargeted banners from another service. For all their vaunted technology, AdSense is, in my opinion, no big breakthrough, except for Google, that is.
I maintain my position that Google has gotten rich and powerful on the backs of hundreds of thousands of individual webmasters.
