Forum Moderators: martinibuster
So, if one has adsense on a site where they are getting 1.00 per click on say a 10% click through rate and they have another site getting .10 per click on say a .1% click through rate, then is that crappy performing site dragging down the value of the more efficiently performing site?
If it IS, then shouldn't one get rid of ads on the crappy performing sites ASAP.
I find it hard to believe that google would do this on a per account basis when they know most adsense publishers probably have more than one site.
I hate to think Google wouldn't make this available to publishers if it was fact. I understand the principle of not disclosing earnings percentages and whatnot, but if smart pricing is decreasing the cost of higher paying ads on quality sites due to factors that aren't even related to those particular sites, wouldn't they be making LESS money off the keywords that make them the most money?
Re the OP's questions--among the multiple discussions of this topic that have erupted since WebmasterWorld came back online, someone made a thoughtful statement that basically said that yes, there is an account-wide smart pricing factor, but there also seem to be site-wide or page-based factors.
That made sense to me. That sounds complicated, but Google is perfectly capable of creating complicated algorithms. I think the math involved in their search and AdWords/AdSense programs is beyond most of us, which is why we get frustrated in attempting to figure out how they work.
And no, I don't have ANY facts to back that up. And no one will, until a Google employee quits and goes public, risking getting sued for violating his confidentiality agreement.
Google starts smartpricing on an account basis to test it and as they make progress, then they get more specific and do it by site or by channel or whatever.
If they told publishers they were doing it and that poorer sites would hurt their better sites, then publishers would take it off their poorer sites, hence google has lost it's ability to experiment.
I am in no way criticizing google's policies and procedures, I'm just trying to understand as best I can how things work so that I can adjust.
I have sites that pay very little per click and one that pays well and does well. I don't want my hobby sites using adsense just to cover hosting to hinder my site(s) that use adsense as a REAL source of revenue.
That would simply be suicide on my part. But if it's hard to know if I'm killing myself if there is no statement about it unless I start taking ads off.
It just seems google would be losing more money than me and the other publishers by bringing this ad cost down on my better performing sites. If that makes sense.
NOBODY REALLY KNOWS FOR SURE OR HAS LEGITIMATE CONFIRMATION
I started a small site that had a CPM of something like $200 a year ago. It paid well for a month, then began to taper off to the point where it only makes a $73 CPM now.
Ergo, it wasn't converting well for the advertisers, and it was SmartPriced.
However my main sites CPM has remained unchanged in all that time - if anything, my main site's CPM is slightly up.
So... to me, the SmartPricing effected the site in question, and not my main site or the rest of the account.
But then the small site doesn't make up a fraction of the traffic of my main site. So if it does have some kind of effect on the rest of it, its so small that I don't see it.
If no advertisers setup conversion tracking - or make it too hard, they will lower their costs and the publisher will be shafted.
I don't think it necessarily is - perhaps it plays some amount.
In my example, what I deemed the "SmartPriced" website, where the CPM is now 1/2 of what it used to be, has a higher CTR than my consistant site.
On a particular site - I have made tons of changes over the last year... and either my EPC goes up or down, ctr - whatever:
It always seems to come out frightningly close to the same as it was.
The only time I really see it "reducing" my epc is when I throw more traffic at it. Specifically search engine traffic. (Which is what peeves me the most)
I feel like that's Googles way of saying "Okay, we know you're getting bigger - and you're getting way more clicks at the same CTR, so we're going to snag some of that by taking a crap on your EPC"
I'm sure it's just my own distorted view of the world through bloodshot glazed over eyes, but perception seems to become reality.
