Forum Moderators: martinibuster
For example, a click on an ad for digital cameras on a web page about photography tips may be worth less than a click on the same ad appearing next to a review of digital cameras.
[edited by: markus007 at 8:08 pm (utc) on April 1, 2004]
All 3 sites are in niche categories and I have been with Adsense for about 9 months now. I can definitely say that the new pricing structure is decreasing significant amount of revenues.
I just hope that the lost revenues represents the amount saved by each advertiser, rather than just additional $$ gone directly in Google's pocket.
I feel if the advertisers are benefiting from this program, then more and more advertisers will actually sign up for Content sites, and even increase their budget if they are seeing more quality clicks (I am not saying that they already weren't).
Lets wait for a month and see the results, but yes, it would be definitely better for all publishers if Google reverts back to the old revenue structure.
Are there any Happy Stories from Adwords advertisers?
besides the point, my conclusion has been reached. AdSense is becoming an affiliate program.
It's always been an affiliate program, in the sense that publishers have been paid only when Google has made a sale (i.e., a click that the advertiser has paid for).
In any case, labels don't matter. The bottom line is what counts. For some publishers, AdSense may become more attractive; for others, it won't.
I don't plan on drawing any firm conclusions until more time has gone by. On April 1, I saw no changes in EPC or revenues; on April 2, EPC and revenues were down by a third; today, April 3, I'm seeing EPC and revenues that are within 10% of my March averages, even though ad targeting is screwed up on some pages. It's too early to tell what the long-term trend will be...or even what the 7-day trend will be!
It doesn't matter. Google killed the market driven bid system without notice. They say they have replaced it with a secret computer formula.
The CPM banner/pop under combo I was running this time last year would produce twice the revenue I'll bring in today with Adsense, so I'll have to switch back soon rather than continue to subsidise Google. Then I'll start contacting the Adwords advertisers who used to show up on my site about selling them space myself.
Find a page on your site that serves an ad, that other pages on your site don't. Setup a channel for that page. Create an AdWords campaign with the exact same terms and words as the unique ad that appears. Edit campaign settings to only show the ad on content network.
Next see how much you're getting charged for that content click, and then check your channel and see how much you're getting paid. Report to us! :)
Are there any Happy Stories from Adwords advertisers?
maybe we should post this on the Adwords Forum?...
I think Google was a little too optimistic about publishers dependence on Adsense. When publishers can make more with banner/pop under combination than they can with adsense... well we know what those publishers will do.
Anyone who is making more with the recent changes, let me ask you this: Do you think the extra money you are making is coming out of Googles pocket? Do you think the advertisers are paying more?
If you don't, then that leaves the publishers posting on this board that are being hurt by these changes. What do you think will happen when the guys hurt by these changes leave the adsense program? Who is going to provide the bargin to the advertisers then? Google? Or you?
Google dropped that "feature" after numerous complaints on this very forum, so maybe there's hope ;-)
Google killed the market driven bid system without notice.
The system was flawed, and it had to be fixed. It just doesn't make sense to have a "one bid fits all" approach for media that range from SERPs to editorial pages to parked-domain pages to Google's new gmail.
Whether Google chose the best solution is open to question; I personally think advertisers would be better off if they could control where their ads appeared instead of relying on an algorithm to determine the value of leads from different sources. Still, the fundamental concept of "different rates for different advertising venues" is sound.
The CPM banner/pop under combo I was running this time last year would produce twice the revenue I'll bring in today with Adsense, so I'll have to switch back soon rather than continue to subsidise Google.
To each his own. I wouldn't dream of using popunders for any reason; unobtrusive contextual text ads are less annoying than popunders and can be genuinely useful to the reader. (OTOH, I might juggle my layout by moving affiliate links higher and placing the "Ads by Google" box below the fold if AdSense ads became less valuable than they've been in the past.)
Also, on an editorially diverse site like mine, AdSense monetizes pages about subtopics that don't generate direct or even indirect affiliate sales.
Then I'll start contacting the Adwords advertisers who used to show up on my site about selling them space myself.
That may be practical if you have vast quantities of traffic on just a handful of topics. It isn't practical if you've got a site about baked goods with just 10 pages about doughnuts and you're hoping to land a doughnut advertiser.
I wonder how many webmasters this will drive back to MarketBanker? Pud should pay Adsense a finders fee.
If you don't, then that leaves the publishers posting on this board that are being hurt by these changes. What do you think will happen when the guys hurt by these changes leave the adsense program?
Not much, because the publishers who stay will be those who are generating the most revenues and profits for Google.
