CPC are 3x lower?

the past 3 weeks

[lyonchik24]

Hello,
is it just me or is it something many are experiencing?
The average cost per click in the end of december/beginning of january was 3 times lower than in November. Is this something we should expect each Christmas time or is something that doesn't fall under holidays category and rather odd than normal? Just wanted to know your opinions and experiences. Thank you.

[europeforvisitors]

So many factors influence earnings per click and clickthrough rate that it's impossible to generalize. For every publisher who's convinced that Google has cut its payouts, that advertisers are abandoning content ads, or that "ad fatigue" has set in and readers are ignoring AdSense ads, there's another publisher who can provide his own anecdotal evidence to the contrary. My advice is to wait six months (or, better yet, 12 months) before drawing any conclusions about revenue trends for your site or the AdSense program in general.

[lyonchik24]

Yeah, why not a couple of years then? :)
just seen a radical decrease in CPC and was curious if anyone else has that.

[europeforvisitors]

Well, a 12-month cycle is typical for a lot of businesses. That's certainly true with my topic: Every year my traffic and revenues jump after Christmas, grow steadily well into the summer, then taper off gradually until the holidays. So it wouldn't make sense to worry about short-term trends, because I know from experience that the 12-month trend and the 12-month average are what count.

As for whether some publishers have experienced a big drop in EPC, sure. Look back through recent threads on this forum, and you'll see posts that say so. But you'll also see posts that say the opposite. Without knowing exactly what kinds of sites your fellow publishers have, it's hard to compare experiences. (And you'll seldom know what kinds of sites other publishers have because most older members don't include their URLs in their profiles and newer members can't.)

[lyonchik24]

Yeah, I was quick in posting this thread without checking the older ones and found some info there. Thank you. I think you're right about the 12-month cycle, so I should wait. I started with the google adsense only in august, so there was an increase in the earnings and now this sudden drop, so i am not too sure what to attribute it to. Ok, I'll just chill and wait patiently :) Thanx again.

[paul12345]

I see a CPC variation of a low of "x" to a high of 2.5 times "x".

Usually around the middle of the month there will be a week where I am amazed at the amount of money Adsense advertisers are spending. I always assume its some new advertiser who is learning an expensive lesson, or else a regular advertiser who alots so much spending per month and their spending has just started up again.

What I can tell you is that my Adsense monthly income (over the last 5 months) has never varied by more than 10%. Things always seem to even out.

While yes, in the back of my mind I live in fear of CPC rates crashing and also the dreaded "fraudulents clicks" email from Adsense, for the most part I try to remember to relax. Right now Adsense is the only game like this in town and I don't have any control over the cards they're dealing me. All I can do is take the money they offer me.