These are some of reasons why your EPC is declining

month after month.

[FromRocky]

I, as a publisher and advertiser, have known how both AdSense and Adwords work. These are my thoughts. Hope these can help.

1. Advertisers have become more skillful in how to design an ad for content sites and made less mistakes. Some advertisers claimed that they could design a top ad shown in content sites at a minimum EPC. Thus, the first position ad in your sites isn't always translated to the highest EPC.

2. Smart pricing. This is from AdWords' help center:

Content clicks aren't priced the same as search clicks. Google's new smart pricing automatically adjusts the cost of a content click, which boosts advertiser ROI on content. ...We reduce the price you pay for that click.

3. The content of your web page will be matched to ads that feature the most appropriate keywords overall. These keywords overall may show the ad at lower EPC comparing to the specific individual keywords you designed for.

On Google's content network, ads are not triggered by specific individual keywords as they are on search sites.

[MikeNoLastName]

>>Some advertisers claimed that they could design a top ad shown in content sites at a minimum EPC. Thus, the first position ad in your sites isn't always translated to the highest EPC.

I've always suspected this, based on the apparent quality of some of the sites of the showing ads, but if you can substantiate this, it would open a whole new can of worms. I DO have faith that such ads don't survive long unless they generate sufficiently higher CTR to exceed the CPM of the other competing ads. In which case, it's a benefit earnings wise (i.e. who cares that they are only paying 1/2 as much if they create 3 times the CTR thus more earnings?). If this is so howerver, then it MIGHT be advantageous to filter low-paying traffic sucking ads if you can properly identify them. I've experimented with filtering these apparent sites on pages which suddenly started getting significantly lower EPC. At first the EPC climbed back up significantly, but after a while (when I'd reached nearly 200 filtered URLs) it was almost like G imposed a penalty and dropped the EPC by 1/2 until I unfiltered the majority. In the long run it appears I got better EPC in the end, though because during the time the ads were filtered GAd tried some NEW ads, based on different keywords, which were more on target and has mostly stuck with them since!

My other suspicion/question is:
If the bids are say: 1.00, .99, .98, .70, .50, .05 and you filter the .98 one, does the .99 ad get the spot at only .71 instead of .99 which it would have otherwise. Along the same example, does filtering ALL of them but the 1.00 bid, give the 1.00 ad the spot for .05? In other words, does filtering an ad from SHOWING, ALSO elinminate it's bid for the term with respect to "smart pricing"? I suspect without very specific cross-checking from the adwords side, we'll never know.

[FromRocky]

To filter out the lowest paid ads in your AdSense is a kind of "hit and miss" since you don't know which ad pays the lowest. If you base on the ad position or the estimation of bid value you're not entirely correct.

The reasons;
1. The bid system for content placement is different from the search query.
Content ---> an overall view of keyword group
Search ---> individual keyword

2. Ad position is based on Max. CPC x CTR
Content
Max. CPC for---> Default Max. CTR for ad-group
CTR ----> Google search and partners, not from content
Search
Max CPC ----> Individual Max. CTR
CTR ----> Google search and partners

3. Actual Cost. This is what you get.
Content ---> based on the ad-rank from the next below but constrained by the Max. CPC of the keyword from Ad Group that is most relevant to the concepts presented on the your page.
Search ----> based on the ad-rank from the next below but constrained by the Max. CPC of the searched keyword.

My conclusion is the algo for the actual cost calculation for content sites is more complication than the search query. Even though, the ad-ranking for search query is already hard to understand. The Max. CPC, which the ad is based on, is completely different from the actual cost you get. For example: The default Max. CPC for the group is $1 but the Max. CPC of the keyword relevant to your page is $0.25. $1.00 will be used to place the ad (->at high ad position) in your page but $0.25 (-> low value) is the max. price you will get. This hasn't been taken the smart pricing into account.

[jdvjdv]

No offence to the knowledgeable posters here but isn't this practice of filtering sites purely for profit means somewhat unethical?

Google provide you with the ability to filter your competitors out in good faith, yet this use of that system is surely one of the many reasons Google are apparantly becoming happier to close accounts. Just a thought.

[jetteroheller]

[ No offence to the knowledgeable posters here but isn't this practice of filtering sites purely for profit means somewhat unethical? ]

Shure not! In the opposit, it's a service for my visitors.

Italians for sale
Used and new Italians. Bid!

And all this scraper sites trying to buy my visitors and sell them for more.

And all this MLM Multi level marketing sites trying to persuade people, that a pyramied scheme is a valuable future business. 20 sites with the same photo of a yacht, You will earn in 3 years joining the MLM.

I filter everything what is an annoyance for my visitors.

I invest time in this service
I save time for my visitors now wasting their time for scraper and MLM sites
More valuable ads appear, my CTR increases.

[bumpski]

Just competitors? Maybe a few others like:

Baby Fawn For Sale
Low Priced Baby Fawn
Huge Selection! (aff)
----.com

I don't think I want this showing, I'm guessing some visitors don't like it.

[jdvjdv]

Edit: realised you are not the original poster.

Thanks for the reply, but your concern for your visitors is not the same motivation as the OPs (that of being rid of low-profit ads). :)