Forum Moderators: martinibuster
But I've seen and averaged 20 cents a click at one point.
Are advertisers paying less all the sudden, or is Google scraping more off the top?
Anyone else experiencing similar, this month?
I haven't been in the program long enough to know if this is normal cyclical behavior. My fingers are crossed that it is...
I operate dozens of sites and can see it happening across different industries. Some go up, some go down.
If you are looking at your revenue on daily basis, sure it's a lot of up and down.
It's better to observe your revenue in it's daily average, then compare your each day revenue to this average.
You will see that it's not a lot of up and down.
However, I've made several big changes in the past year: I started running display ads in September, 2005, I've made my affiliate partners more visible in the last 9 or 10 months, and--just as important--I've added a significant amount of content on topics that aren't especially "commercial." So, of the 30% drop in average AdSense EPC, a good chunk is probably the result of my doing and not anything Google or advertisers may have done. (It's hard to compare one year's harvest to the next when the crops and conditions aren't the same.)
These print companies are fighting to get back some of the advertising dollars lost to Adwords, so they paint a scarey picture about PPC.
Quite plausible.
Fear is a great motivator, just ask GWB.
Feels odd.
Mike
Turbo
Looks llike it started at the beginning of this month. Weird, I havent seen this kind of extended drop before. Am hoping it is a drop in advertiser competition, and not smart pricing - can't see how I would be smart priced now.
When I write Google support all I get is the typical canned reply about possibly changing the ad colors and ad locations, etc. However, that has already been done extensively over time so I realize it's something well beyond my control.
It is not due to traffic as my traffic is actually up nicely (about 25% better) vs the yearly average, a similar percentage compared to the income decline. If you add them together it equals roughly a distressing 50%.
Extremely worried about this ongoing and quite obvious trend over the past 3 weeks.
The good news is that my traffic is up about 40% so earnings are much the same.
And having said that, earnings seem to be picking up again in the last few days.
Extremely worried about this ongoing and quite obvious trend over the past 3 weeks.
Three weeks' worth of earnings aren't a trend; they're a blip (regardless of whether they're up or down).
That isn't to say that there may not be an overall trend in the making (though it wouldn't necessarily affect every publisher). Several major newspaper companies have reported declines in third-quarter ad sales, and Yahoo's financial and auto ad revenues have been dropping. On the other hand, I know of one vertical ad network that's seeing excellent growth, so where things are headed probably depends on where you're sitting.
Earnings way down here since mid-september.
I am now at 20% of my august earnings.
How do your EPC and eCPM compare to those numbers for the same period (mid-September to mid-October) last year, assuming that your content and traffic sources are similar?
Wasn't there supposed to be some kind of change in AdWords as of October 1? That people were being charged for use of the AdWords API? I don't know what that is, exactly, and what kind of effect that it could have, but October certainly has been down for me compared to September, earnings down 20%, mainly due to EPC but CTR a bit too.
It's the blind leading the blind here, but my understanding is that the Google API enables either ad submission or purchase of keywords automated and in bulk. I think the arbitrage crowd use it a lot to their
advantage, so the idea is to charge 'em for the privelege. Problem is that it's only a token charge that isn't going to put them off, so don't hold out any hopes for it.
maybe youtube cuts Google's earnings lol
Could some sectors be experiencing a pre-Xmas lull before loads of dosh is thrown at the advertising with an explosive binge?
1) Get publishers to sign up
2) 70%/30% split (70 to google, 30 to the publisher)
3) Get publishers hooked on the service.
4) 80%/20% split (80 to google, 20 to the publisher)
5) 90%/10% split (90 to google, 10 to the publisher)
6) Ban people randomly and offer poor customer service to bring total paranoia to publigers.
5) 92%/8% split (92 to google, 8 to the publisher)
6) etc...
Who really knows. Everything is such a BIG SECRET.
I continually get more clicks and earn gradually less per click each month.
:-)
There are many reasons why a publisher might be seeing a declines in EPC, eCPM, CTR, and/or earnings, such as:
1) Supply and demand for the publisher's keywords, which in turn can be affected by things like seasonal factors, perceived quality of "content traffic" for the sector, what's happening in the larger economy, and what other media choices advertisers have.
2) Smart-pricing discounts for advertisers.
3) Blocking of the publisher's domain(s) by advertisers.
4) Google's method of allocating ads.
5) Google's compensation formula (which probably isn't as simple as a simple across-the-board percentage split).
6) Actions that the publisher has taken, such as changes in content, how ads are displayed, traffic acquisition, etc.
As for Google being secretive, you're right, but it's always amusing to hear complaints about Google's lack of transparency from publishers who prefer anonymity to accountability.
I did a bunch of site optimization in September which is just kicking in with a few thousand more visitors a day, and I expect that to double again by November so I'm expecting a very green christmas season. :)
I've seen clicks as low as $0.01 and some paying several dollars per click, but the average is still holding steady at around $0.20 per click.
The strange shift I've seen is my link units earnings aren't as strong as they used to be, nor is the skyscraper, but the leaderboards are earning strong.
The other trend is regional specific pages seem to be earning a LOT more than generic topics and the average payout per click is higher than the site average.
Of course there have been bumps up and bumps down..just showing the trend .
And miraculously the EPC Gods turned up for work this morning and so far have doubled my EPC from the last few day's decline...!
Are there loads of companies out there playing about and experimenting with the various AdWords functions?
I have no idea other than wonder at the huge difference in click value from what obstensibly appear to be the same advertisers.
Have your EPCs increased today?
my link units earnings aren't as strong as they used to be
EPC for link unit clicks has been very off this week. Link ads are usually my strongest earners.
my EPC from the last few day's decline
For the past couple of days, my overall EPC started off strong ($0.25-$1) rapidly withering to single digit cents as the day progresses.
Chapman
I continually get more clicks and earn gradually less per click each month.
So the quality of your traffic may be declining? You've overoptimized and gotten more clicks, but many don't convert?
Come here and b*tch about Google if you want to, but once you've had a good moan, it's time for you to do some problem solving.
I personally saw the average click value on my site decline pretty drastically in 2004, over the six months or so after Google introduced smart pricing. Down by more than a third. I experimented and made changes and the average click has gone back up, and is now as high or higher than it used to be.
Smart pricing can be turned around. If you can't do it, then maybe you should consider a different method for earning money from your site. Many sites don't do well with AdSense.
