Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Do other people find Google's practice of not telling you the percentage shady?
Anybody have a guess?2% to 65% depending on factors X, Y and Z
We have the opportunity to run banners instead and get a 50/50 cut.The basis for making a decision is if you can make more money and that will only be found by trial and error. After all, 50% of a smaller pool could easily be less money than 10% of a bigger pool.
Do other people find Google's practice of not telling you the percentage shady?Not really, why would you? Not transparent, but as long as the relationship works for you, you should approach this as just business. It is all about maximizing the revenue for the ad space.
Do other people find Google's practice of not telling you the percentage shady?
Not really, why would you? Not transparent, but as long as the relationship works for you, you should approach this as just business. It is all about maximizing the revenue for the ad space.
I'd be prepared to take a cut in earnings in exchange for more openness, since that would equate to a higher degree of trust and more confidence in the future.
Approaching it as business, how many people would be prepared to enter into a business relationship where the other "partner" not only a) makes the rules and b) can change the rules at any time but also c) doesn't even tell you what the rules are!
I put up with AdSense's lack of transparency simply because the scheme pays so much better than anything else. If a competitor to Adsense existed that I thought would offer me a little less money but far greater transparency then I'd seriously consider switching.
Approaching it as business, how many people would be prepared to enter into a business relationship where the other "partner" not only a) makes the rules and b) can change the rules at any time but also c) doesn't even tell you how the rules are enforced
Well, there is you, there is me and a few thousand other publishers.
P.S: I edited c) because I disagreed with it, but you are 100% right on a) and b)
I'd be prepared to take a cut in earnings in exchange for more openness...
Not me. Little more information is not worth any cut in earnings.
The revenue split has absolutely no bearing on my decision to use or not use Adsense. What matters is the bottomline amount I can earn with Adsense verses other programs -- and the revenue split doesn't provide me with one useful piece of information to determine this bottomline number.
It's a no-brainer: I'll rather stick with Adsense even if I do not know how much I get for every click if I can still get soooooo much more compared to other revenue sources with a higher percentage cut. As said above, it's the bottomline that matters; not percentage cut.
Do other people find Google's practice of not telling you the percentage shady?
No, because Google markets the network with phrases like "Discover your site's full revenue potential," "Earn more money from your content pages," and "Make money when visitors click on ads associated with your site." Google then provides you with detailed financial data (effective CPM and revenues) to help you determine whether it's fulfilling those promises.
The obsession with percentages that we often see on this board says more about Webmaster World members and their preconceptions than it does about Google. Many of the WW members using AdSense come from e-commerce or affiliate backgrounds, which means they're used to thinking in terms of "my customers" and "my commissions" instead of "my revenues from ad space."
Mind you, I'd love to know what Google's payout formula is, just because I'm curious. But Google is under no obligation to share that information with me, because AdSense advertisers aren't my advertisers: They're Google's. Advertisers aren't paying me for space on my pages; Google is.
Their lack of reporting is making me look bad to my boss, who wants to go with the other media supplier, since it is trackable. But I can't tell him whether it is a good idea or not.
Their lack of reporting is making me look bad to my boss
What lack of reporting are you referring to?
If you run an A/B test with Adsense in the same spot for 2 weeks and the other banner company for 2 weeeks, compare the 2 earnings (Adsense gives you the earnings stats, CPM stats, etc).
That should be enough for your boss to clearly see which is the better option.
Most bosses care about the bottom line, and ig google can increase his earnings, and deliver a higher CPM, why wouldn't he go for it?
