Major changes to AdSense

Pricing structure and ad relevance

[markus007]

Unless adsense is sending out a april fools joke, what do people think of the changes? Every site has a unique pricing model?

For example, a click on an ad for digital cameras on a web page about photography tips may be worth less than a click on the same ad appearing next to a review of digital cameras.

[edited by: markus007 at 8:08 pm (utc) on April 1, 2004]

[bluelook]

I hope that the changes are like this:

"Ad for Digital Camera Canon"

Site1: Has the keyw "digital camera". Receive X

Site2: Has keyw "digital camera" & "Canon". Receive Y

That makes a bit more sense. Even so, this will be tricky to implement. The advertiser has to specify too much their product, with several different ads.

[Sunflux]

Well, although Thursday's numbers aren't totally finalized and it's hard to base anything on one day...

CTR: 20% lower than March avg. (31% lower than overall avg.)
EPC: 9% lower than March avg. (6% lower than overall avg.)
CPM: 26% lower than March avg. (34% lower than overall avg.)

I am now convinced that Google ran a test run of the new matching system on March 19th, as the abnormally low CTR and CPM rates recorded for that day mimic yesterday.

A 20% lower CTR does NOT indicate that their "new, improved" content targeting system is working as advertised. EPC seems fine, low but within reason. So what's the deal?

Incidentally, the earnings I recorded yesterday were the ABSOLUTE LOWEST I've seen since November, when I put Google where it is now.

[MarkHutch]

Is it possible that our sites are going into the same category as the new gmail? I sure hope not.

[valeyard]

Oh boy. Many of my pages are now showing better ads. But some of them...

My "favourite" so far is a pure information page on a natural history topic. Ads used to be on target. Today, presumably because of keywords such as "camouflage", it's showing ads for cosmetics and women's lingerie.

I wonder if adsense is now using the hypothetical "semantic algorithm" that some people believe was responsible for the Austin update fiasco? If so then it's gong to be a bumpy ride.

[awall19]

I think many people are looking at things in the wrong light. Currently online advertising is getting about 3% of ad revenue and not too far in the distance the internet is projected to have over 30% of consumer level sales.

The ad dollars will contine to rise to support the growth in ecommerce. The problem with AdSense as it was is that it does not have the same level of active engagement as search does. Many large marketers have stated that AdSense ads have had about 20-30% of the sales value of the equivalent AdWords ads. (source:
[traffick.com...]

Google eventually had to separate the bid prices to make the creation of bunk content less profitable and to protect the value of the non bunk.

In addition Google needs to keep the prices of these content ads in line with their true market value if they want the program to grow in line with the rest of the market.

If advertisers are not happy then there is no Google, and there is no AdSense. My general opinion is that Google needs me more as an advertiser than as a publisher...but maybe thats just me.

[mfishy]

My EPC is through the roof today!

We all knew that adsense was going to have to change and that the change would be geared towards advertiser ROI, not publisher. It simply does not make any sense for an advertiser to pay the same rate for a click from an ad next to a free newspaper article as that from search.

That being said, many here are giving up valuable real estate on their site for adsense and the fact that EPC fluctuates so wildly is unsettling along with the fact that Google gives NO warning to any upcoming changes. On the few sites we run adsense on, the payout we receive from other links or affiliate programs are very close to adsense. Any drop in revenue at this point and they are gone.

[justageek]

We all knew that adsense was going to have to change and that the change would be geared towards advertiser ROI, not publisher.

A few of us have said this all along :-)

When AdSense first came out it had all the markings of a pure tech solution to see if it could be done. That is the easy part. There's no magic there. The hard part was to make it work and Google is finally growing up and realizing it really is about the advertiser and not the publisher.

It's just not good enough to point to a site and say to the advertiser - see...your ad is relevant there so our matching software works...just keep paying us.

JAG

[Mario]

I suppose it had to be done from the point of view of the advertiser otherwise we would've seen a forever dwindling number of advertisers prepared to put up with the lower ROI associated with adsense.

Still it sucks to be a publisher today. Maybe in a few weeks it will have been worth it.

[Nicke]

My CTR is lower than ever on April 1 but the EPC seems to be pretty much same.

CTR is currently about the half of my usual CTR, but I know just one day isnt enought to see the long term effects on this new AdSense algo.

I hope it will be better.

[adfree]

In the course of the past couple of days I have realized a slight increase of irrelevant ads (approx. 10% up) but whenever content is met its much closer to the content theme of the particular page even if content density is somewhat imperfect (which it often is for many content areas where additional info is given).

Only time can tell if things improve from here, right now it balances.