Forum Moderators: martinibuster
EPC as normal
Page impressions normal
Traffic logs normal
Was this just a one-off day for me or did anyone else see such a day?
Please, no postings saying "don't judge by one day alone" etc. since I need to comprehend whether any new ad targeting etc. is affecting my sites.
... but in the last hour my EPC has done a 180 - now getting unbelievably high EPC, CTR still exceptional.
Earnings were about 3X normal for a total of $2.97!
I've been seeing CPM ads everywhere on my sites(big writing that takes up the whole ad block), and units made for 4 ads that contain only 1 or 2, some have 3, some still have 4.
Too many changes at once on Google's end for me to be able to figure out exactly what is going on. I've been also making alot of my own site changes(before I knew they were going to start theirs), so now I'm just blindly muddling through Adsense and taking what I get at the end of the day.
One of my ad blocks is suddenly doing terrible(past few days or so) while the others are doing better, but I have no idea whether I should experiment with removing that ad block. How do you experiment if you don't have any constants to work with?
As an AdWords advertiser I can tell you that a lot of ads are being put on "inactive" with just a couple of days of results and needing an increase in minimum bid to get reactivated.
I have a feeling that they will need a week or so to sort the new system out - both G & the advertisers.
I would assume that things should level out by next week.
I actually had one of my best days this month on Thursday. I had 1 click for over $1.5 it was my first click :)
In my case, EPC was 20% of normal for the first several hours of the day. I would say that warrants a little bit of "freaking out" on my end.
CPC - is about the same in my niche.
Initially I was too disappointed but now I would just wait let's say till middle of next week when everything should settle down.
But initial conclusion - from ADWORDS side - you can bid lower on lower and less competiteve KW - thus
sites like mine aimed on a low paying KW would be in a great loss after all those f@#$ changes. If Your site is aimed on High paying KW - You should gain as well as thousands scraper sites.
The minimum bid is changing by hour not by day. It's crazy.
Why is it everytime someone sees a 1 day change they freak out?
Insofar as I am concerned my sites have always been extremely predictable with very steady earnings week in, week out, month in, month out...I have never seen such a dramatic turnround from one day to the next with EPC.
I know now that I shall have my worst ever day in 2005 because, unless Google does a huge click dump with a massively increased EPC, there is no possibility of me getting to 33% of my month's average day's earnings.
That's plainly ridiculous but what is also worrying are the fewer clicks and the resultant lower CTR which has dropped by 24%. I am not even seeing any new advertisers which I would have thought such a radical change may bring about.
This is a very silly time for Google to meddle about when Yahoo seems to be nearly ready to offer their service to the rest of us. Publishers need clarity and deserve more consistency than this rollercoaster cum merry-go-round...now there's an interesting concept:-)
It's 22.00 here and I always have a pre-set figure in mind just before I go out for a beer...I'm over 60% down on that figure which I usually reach with ease...oh dear:-(
Better stay in and drink the free tequila given to me by grateful people for repairing their systems:-))
Earnings are without doubt the worst day this year HOWEVER the EPC stats have recovered slightly during the day, however nowhere near to pre GDZ level.
It simply AMAZES me that G decrees to change something so basic without CONSULTATION.
Do they really believe that the Yahoo guys do not read this forum?...Yeah...well, it does make one wonder:-)
CTR rarely fluxes for us and never this greatly, has something large changed with G that would be causing this?
not to be rude, but do you expect a 'good day' all the time? surely you have to expect ups and downs?
Ups and downs I can handle so long as they are within my usual statistical parameters.
What becomes a major cause for concern is when Adsense is clearly reporting violently outside of those parameters, whether it be up or down, and this is evidenced when my statsitics are clearly displaying absolutely normal days and Adsense tries to tell me that I've had xx% fewer page impressions.
These threads generally start for a specific reason and the reason for this thread is that Adsense introduced a new system without informing the publishers about what they were doing and the possible effects it may have over the following days.
It's very irresponsible of Adsense to do this since rock solid sites such as my own vary little. For instance the difference between my best and worst days in a month is very rarely more than 100%. This may seem a lot to some however when one's taffic is maybe only 60% at the weekends compared to a weekday then the difference is much less.
This is how I can make these comparisions and ask the questions, I try to analyse what is happening and query as to why something may possibly be out of kilter. The question most consider is "Is it me or Adsense, have they done something I don't know about?"
Having learnt that there was an Adwords situation I decided to leave our main account and web sites alone to let the new situation filter through for a couple of days and see what the new results were like before making any site alterations.
I can now report that my account came back to normal on Saturday with Friday's figures looking a joke to be honest but that is what I have to accept. To give you an idea of what I mean Friday had 20% more page impressions, 10% more clicks however 20% LESS earnings than Saturday. The CTR was normal however the eCPM was 30% less and EPC 25.6% less therefore these are the kind of statistics which raise red flags for me.
As I said that is for our main account and web sites. We have another account which only has one site's reports and this one is still out of kilter however that specific account always seems to have Adsense upgrade and changes occur a couple of days after the main account therefore I am assuming come Monday that should be back to normal.
I hope that explains the situation for you.
Adsense introduced a new system without informing the publishers about what they were doing and the possible effects it may have over the following days.
They may not have known the possible effects. Some things are learned only through experience in the real world (which is also why SERPs sometimes behave unexpectedly during updates).
It's very irresponsible of Adsense to do this since rock solid sites such as my own vary little.
What if your earnings had gone up as a result of the latest AdSense changes? Would you still be complaining? (I suspect that you'd be grateful for the changes.)
Sometimes, change is good. Sometimes, it isn't. And sometimes, it's too early to tell.
Having learnt that there was an Adwords situation I decided to leave our main account and web sites alone to let the new situation filter through for a couple of days and see what the new results were like before making any site alterations.
That's the reasonable thing to do. If we all rushed out and edited our sites, Google would find it that much harder to measure the results (whether positive or negative) of the recent changes.
TWo other things to keep in mind:
1) Google also has a stake in whatever's happening. The people at Google don't want lower EPC, CTR, ePC, or total earnings any more than we do.
2) Ups and downs are inevitable, regardless of the causes. I can live with blips and dips as long as the trend is positive over the long haul.
They may not have known the possible effects.
I totally agree and this is why Adsense should keep us all better informed since the only thing they seem to achieve is creating threads such as this one querying what is occurring.
What if your earnings had gone up as a result of the latest AdSense changes?
In actual fact indications would suggest that the earnings are going up slightly now that the "new" system is settling down however it was the dramatic immediate effects of what had happened which raised my flags as to what was going on plus some very, very strange conflicting statistics.
1) Google also has a stake in whatever's happening.
I totally agree which is why I am usually prepared to give the benefit of the doubt once I know that something has been changed/improved.
I had to change all my sites last month since my EPC was dropping like a stone simply through displaying too many ad units whereas until that time the ad units had all performed extremely well.
2) Ups and downs are inevitable, regardless of the causes. I can live with blips and dips as long as the trend is positive over the long haul.
Once again I must agree however I just cannot help but wonder why Google cannot/will not have better communications with both its adverstisers and publishers and forewarn us of any major changes?
It does not have to be weeks in advance, just a couple of days is fine so that we are aware of a possible hiccough in the statistics which Google provides for us.
The Adsense program is fantastic for what I and many other publishers require, a little more TLC and information provided would prevent many questioning threads even commencing, after all, ASA & AWA keep us up to speed with any possible downtime etc.
After AdWords introduced the new system I had to increase the bid for almost 50% of my keywords to keep them active. In the following days many of those became inactive again and required a further increase. Now there are several that increased from $0.05 to $0.20 in just a few days. The AdSense publisher that happens to receive a click on one of my ads will be very happy with it :(
But now after some days playing with the new system, I got a feeling how to increase the quality of a keyword. This can be by adding some specific words (like "red widget" instead of "widget") or changing the text and title of the associated ads. I have now been able to reduce many bids to the range $0.02 to $0.04, which is lower than the minimum in the previous system.
I guess many advertisers go through the same process. First increasing their bids to keep their keywords active, but then taking some closer look at their keywords and ads to optimize them and decrease bids again.
Based on my playing in AdWords the last few days, this might cause a decrease of AdSense earnings in the comming period, when advertisers get smarter and learn to identify the holes in the system.
Thursday was also at me 20% lower CTR than monthly average.
Was also a unusual low traffic day, compareable to a Sunday.
I honestly don't think that it's a "hole" in the system if advertisers are forced to make ad copy match their keywords carefully and avoid dumping in a dictionary and using {keyword} to generate those "buy new and used dead popes" ads we all love.
I think that making brute-force approaches more expensive is exactly what their AdSense publishers have been asking them to do, even if they didn't realise it! Price hikes are one form of market forces...
Rgds
Damon
(I'd post a graph but I don't think it's allowed and Jen has not responded to my email about this point yet!)
Rgds
Damon
I am hoping--and in some cases already seeing--that those bulk advertisers with general ads will fall out, and those with really targeted ads will stay.
It's almost as though those few crazy days had never existed, totally normal for us however we shall know better by beer time at 22.00 UK time...yay, only 6 hours to go:-)
I usually get a huge surge of clicks just around midnight UTC, often from the US; 22:00 BST is a little early for my users it seems...
Rgds
Damon
I'm seeing fewer ads within a 468 x 60; typically, I see 1 - 2 ads instead of four. Conclusively, I’m showing more ad impressions during each day and fewer public service ads. As you can guess, I have a lower CTR, however my eCPM is about the same. Overall, my earnings are about the same as before the changes.
Effectively, I believe that advertisers are getting more exclusivity for their ads by showing fewer ads per ad unit. This could be a win – win for everybody as advertisers are realizing less competition within a ad unit, and publishers as seeing fewer public service ads.
