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]

[IanCP]

Well for what it's worth I tried to make some sense out of all this and became more perplexed than ever.

I compared figures for this month, including an incomplete today, against the all time averages for this year. That's a huge number of impressions.

Imps EPC EPM

4/1 107.00% 121.85% 110.53%
4/2 083.81% 107.56% 104.40%
4/3 066.15% 088.90% 084.60%
4/4 074.05% 093.97% 076.94%
4/5 101.92% 085.73% 073.59%
4/6 068.54% 112.03% 127.42% [incomplete day]

Ian

[BwanaZulia]

Ok... a few more thoughts.

April is down in terms of Impressions, CTR, and average daily earnings.

The month is just starting so we shall see. I am not going to call this a failure, a problem or anything else till I see an entire month that I can compare to the last 6 months.

BZ

[arubicus]

rohitj - surfer67 was meaning to say msn dumping overerture and entering the game

[Loony]

Augggghh... Due to a good new chunk of content, impressions today are well on their way to tripling that of any previous day, but CTR is near its lowest. Could be due to ad placement in the new format I have, but geez, that stings. Guess I'll wait and see.

[icedowl]

I've hit a new high for impressions today but nothing else has changed.

[Loony]

I've hit a new high for impressions today but nothing else has changed.

Meaning your CTR and earnings are "normal" - they've gone up in sync with your impressions? 'Spose I will be doing some rearranging tomorrow.

[icedowl]

Nope. Wouldn't say the CTR & EPC are normal at all. They're still depressed. :(

But the earnings are higher as a result.

[mdurrant]

Here's my reply from google

Thank you for providing us with this feedback. We appreciate your concern
about decreased revenue. Our recent enhancements to advertiser pricing and
to our targeting will affect publishers in different ways and at different
times. While your earnings per click may decrease, your clickthrough rate
may also increase due to the increased relevancy of the ads on your pages.
In addition, although you are currently seeing reduced revenue, these
changes are intended to increase the long-term revenue potential of the
AdSense program by driving increased advertiser participation in the
Google content network.

Your AdSense reports will give you a good idea of the effect of these
changes over time.

Basically, they are saying "Chill out, your revenue might go up over time" or they are playing damage control and holding us off while they decide what to do next.

[EasyMoney]

I got the exact same reply to my email. I recieved it yesterday. Another poster summarized his reply which seemed to be exactly the same as well. This is obviously a form letter anyone who complains gets.

[karatekid]

GOOGLESPEAK: Thank you for providing us with this feedback.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Dear Chump:

GOOGLESPEAK: We appreciate your concern about decreased revenue.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: We appreciate the revenue we've taken from the traffic your websites produce.

GOOGLESPEAK: Our recent enhancements to advertiser pricing and to our targeting will affect publishers in different ways and at different times.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: We haven't figured out how to take every last dime from everybody yet but our crack team of programmers is working 24/7 on it.

GOOGLESPEAK: While your earnings per click may decrease, your clickthrough rate may also increase due to the increased relevancy of the ads on your pages.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: We're going to count all the clicks but under report your traffic. This will make it look like you're getting a higher clickthrough rate.

GOOGLESPEAK: In addition, although you are currently seeing reduced revenue, these changes are intended to increase the long-term revenue potential of the
AdSense program by driving increased advertiser participation in the Google content network.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: We think advertisers will watch us put the screws to publishers and see it as a business opportunity. We figure most of them won't notice they're not paying any less while we pocket the difference.

GOOGLESPEAK: Your AdSense reports will give you a good idea of the effect of these changes over time.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: Read 'em and weep, baby.