Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I run a site that spans many different topics, so I'm not inclined to think it's related to competition. For the last couple of years, AdSense has provided fairly predictable revenue, and this is the first time I've seen such a dramatic drop. Have any of you guys seen something similar?
A good day here and there, but mostly low-paying clicks, and lower earnings (off more than 50% from the average of April 6-20, after I added new content).
It is good to see one usually smug poster complaining. Misery loves company. Welcome to the club.
Post 5th everything is like a yoyo (except traffic - increasing at a constant gentle rate)
But...earnings down a third, and some really really bad targeting.
Page impressions divided by 2 since may 5th. But, ads are still relevant to my niche.
I can say without question we have had a "adjustment" over 30 total websites covering almost uncountable verticals.
The adjustment totals out at 35% over all 30 sites, this is not a snafu with the system or to do with advertisers or the ad blocking system or the cpm system that where rolled out.
The odds that all 30 of our sites drop at once the exact same percentage can only mean one thing.
We do a fairly good amount of traffic, tens of millions of pvs a month on these well respected sites.
I think I am about to loose a bet me and my best friend made about adsenses future 2 years ago:(
[edited by: drall at 1:53 pm (utc) on May 11, 2005]
It seems mighty peculiar that my eCPM is up 75% after 6 hours today compared to the last two days, saying that though I had a similar scenario on Monday only for it to collapse in a heap and end up being some 20% down!
All other stats remain stable so what's happening?
There has been a gradual downwards pressure since the launch of adsense which was when we joined, but this has been for the most part gradual but whatever just took place was abrupt and swift.
I have seen this happen 2 or 3 times so far since we joined the program.
Reminds me of 1999 all over again but in a different format. At least this time I am glad me and my buddies caught the ride while it *was here and made some decent cash.
A word on targetting, I'm seeing the worst targetting I have ever seen on my main site. Have just added a feature about a lot of dead chickens (don't ask) and the "targetted" advert is for "atlantis Gay Vacations" -- so sad its funny...
At least this time I am glad me and my buddies caught the ride while it *was here and made some decent cash.
So, what're we going to get into next? This Internet game is crazy you know!
I am 7th generation in my family businesses and, in the general reality world, all we see are increasing demand, sales and profits. All our Internet promotional ventures have succeeded beyond our wildest expectations but the one that's giving us the most grief now?
Adsense and its wild fluctuations within a niche industry which is know for its extreme stability. I know many of the advertisers worldwide and they are still paying Adwords the same rates therefore "something" is amiss.
Let me know what we're doing drall:-))
a feature about a lot of dead chickens
LOL...surely it should have been turkeys?
First 3 hours of east coast US and eCPM down a tad over 20%.
Sure Europe's still going however why am I seeing the same trend every day?
trillianjedi - Am I the only AdSense publisher not seeing this?
Nope, but I don't want to jinx myself by speaking up...
Comparing the first 10 days of April (record month) with the 1st ten days in May, I see nothing but increases in CTR, EPC, eCPM, and daily earnings. My traffic is a little down this month from last month during the same period (although my daily earnings are still higher than last month).
edited: I want to add though that last week on Thursday was the worst day I had in a looooong time and I still don't believe the stats showing for that day.
So maybe we should stop looking at daily stats.
If some publishers are doing worse, some are about the same, and some are doing better (as you can tell if you read through the past week's discussions), then is it reasonable to conclude that Google is "increasing their share"? More likely, what we are seeing is some of the built-in chaos of the system, perhaps combined with smart pricing or advertiser strategy changes.
marketwatch link [marketwatch.com]
kz
So maybe we should stop looking at daily stats.
I'm showing a slightly better than average May 5th, a bit of a low May 9th, but a stunning May 10th (so maybe it was a "catch up" day). On the whole - yawn - May is shaping up as boringly average.
and looking at a few hours of stats is even less productive
Not if they are analysed continuously on a day to day, week to week basis.
Trends can be seen, site updates creating possible problems can be corrected rapidly.
Our figures are as near accurate as Google will allow them to be without further information and then there's that other one...gut feeling whether something's right or not:-))
And I know what it's telling me now...time for beer:-)
My bet is G is simply increasing there share to drive up profits to make that stock rise and rise and rise. They have only one place to get that btw.
Yes, and it's called "increasing advertising revenues." Google's ad revenues for 1Q 2005 were up 23% over the previous quarter and represented a 93% "year over year" increase.
Google doesn't need to squeeze more pennies out of publishers--not when it's pulling in so many more dollars from advertisers.
As for me... similar to others. May 5 is NOT the date for me. I saw another mention April 20 or so. That was when it was erratic. Latter half of April went from days being normal, to down 50-60%, to normal and back... Since around April 28 it's been pretty much down about 40-70% (no spikes back to normal). These are the per click payout. The CTR and exposures have been normal, if not continuing slight (insignificant for a single month) growth.
Anyone know of a G adsns publishers union I could complain to? While I'm putting in effort to improve quality of content, improving placement, etc... I end up having 60+% (on avg this month) of my rev taken away. #*$!?
My bet is G is simply increasing there share to drive up profits to make that stock rise and rise and rise.
Just because they don't disclose the exact percentage amount doesn't mean they manipulate it at will. I do know for a fact that some of their larger special publisher partners get a guaranteed rate in writing, probably just a little higher than what we get.
You are talking to a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
If that were the case, it wouldn't be so consistent across the different markets.
On what basis so you declare this cross market earnings drop?
time for beer:-)
You were reading my mind!
Time to work on my DhD, Doctorate of Drinkology.
Time to work on my DhD, Doctorate of Drinkology.
Is that available as an on-line course?
It would save wasting time walking to the pub...
Everytime Adsense announces a change or update, bad stuff happens to publishers.
It might be that Google took this opportunity to shave a few more points off the publisher's share.
I don't mind the Campaign Negative move. God knows advertisers whined for it enough and Google listened. But what irks me is they just don't listen to publishers. ie - dump the scraper sites.
I was a long time Adsense optimist, but now I am a reformed realist trying to keep a positive attitude. However, all I see here lately is a lot of negative talk about AdSense coming from people who aren't newbies.
Most of it justified.
In my gut, I feel what most others are afraid of but not talking about. That it's the beginning of the end. Google keeps chipping away and chipping away and chipping away at publisher earnings.
Online advertising was supposed to grow by 20 percent this year, yet my EPC is down about 60 percent from last year on the same sites that have more advertisers.
Every month I've watched more advertisers come onto my sites, increase space demand, yet my EPC keeps dropping?
In the back of my mind, this one idea keeps playing itself over and over again and is becoming louder and louder....
This would be a good time to sell my websites to suckers for 9 months earnings and get out of AS altogether.
It's like selling all of your stock during the first week of October 1929, instead of in the last week of that month.
However, all I see here lately is a lot of negative talk about AdSense coming from people who aren't newbies.
I, too, had noticed that and was wondering who else had.
You have made some very honest observations Freedom, I just hope that the Googleplex is reading these threads since they're certainly making it very easy for us to try Yahoo/MSN/whomsoever when they offer a rival program.
I just hope that the Googleplex is reading these threads since they're certainly making it very easy for us to try Yahoo/MSN/whomsoever when they offer a rival program.
Amen. I actually look forward to the day that other ad networks provide something competitive with AdSense. Then maybe publishers will be worth something to them again. I, like others, have been around since nearly the beginning (July, 2003 for me)... it's truly sad how we went from being listened to and taken care of, to tossed aside and beaten down. Whether or not Google is directly responsible for this feeling is irrelevent. They keep us in the dark, and so I make it their responsibility to manage our feelings about the program.
Oh, and I pulled up my EPC in a pretty graph by week. It dropped 10% (from my norm) per week 14 to week 17 (of the year). This week is down further, but only 3% more of the original norm (ie. down 6.6% from last week).
*sigh* Where is the competition when you need them?
How about a different take on the situation? Google has changed something in its publishing of stats, perhaps now including clicks that are disallowed as revenue. Like many others here we are seeing a dramatically reduced epc, however CTR is up.
As we have noted over the past few months EPM remains constant with a totally inverse relationship betwen epc and ctr. The massive increase in CTR has not resulted in a revenue increase...leading many here to see it as a reduced epc. Perhaps finally a true reporting of clicks is now occurring?
Just some thoughts on a cool Wednesday afternoon.
I agree with Visi
"Like many others here we are seeing a dramatically reduced epc, however CTR is up."
I saw this in early April, my action was to reduce my advertising, now my profit margins have shot up.
The problem for other publishers is my main ad spend was on AdWords.
My spend on Adwords has gone from £X,XXX to £XXX per month.
If other publishers/advertisers did this it would cause a serious problem.
dregs33
