eCPM variability

[arikgub]

I have pretty much stable CTR figures, but eCPM (or equivalently, $ per click) varies greatly. I earn 2 figures a day on average from AdSense. My average eCPM is X, but the daily eCPM varies from 0.5*X to 1.5*X. Sometimes I have 5-6 days in a row of 0.5*X earning and then the eCPM jumps to 1.5*X for the next few days.

Do you see that too? I don't know how this can be explained, it is definitely not smart pricing - the fluctuations are happening on a very short time scale.

Interestingly, I am slowly switching to Chitika now, and though the audited eCPM will be about the same or a little lower, it is so perfectly stable and predictable! Earnings per click do not vary more than +/- 1 cent a day from the average.

[humblebeginnings]

Arikgub,

I have the exact same for more than 1,5 year now. ECPM can vary from
about X to 3X from day to day. Although I have had longer periods with fairly stable ECPM it usually starts bouncing again pretty soon.

We all know there is no earnings guarantee in Adsense so live with it etcetera. But it's a bit more complicated. Many of us buy at least a part of their traffic with PPC programs like Adwords.
One of the consequences of a bouncing Adsense ECPM is that setting a price for your Adwords keywords is rather tricky.

[Pengi]

Does the variation on Earnings per Click follow a weekly cycle?

My EPC used to be very stable - barely changing from one day to the next, but perhaps drifting down ofer a month or so. However since making some changes to my site around the middle of November my EPC has been quite variable, with a spread of about 0.5X to 1.5X and following a weekly cycle (low at weekends, high mid week).

I'm guessing that some advertisers are pulling their ads or reducing their bids at the weekends.

Note that this weekly cycle in EPC is in addition to the weekly cycle I see in visitors and in CTR. So at weekends, not only do I have fewer visitors, those I do have are less likely to click on an ad, and when they do, it pays me less money. If I shut down my Ad Campaigns in response to this, I just add to the pattern for those that remain.

[MThiessen]

I have noticed lately that eCPM seems to vary throughout the day. Late at night and in the wee am hours it seems to go down. During primetime it shoots up.

I think adwords folks are targeting timeframes now, possibly targeting the days of the week on some themes, even time of the month depending on the niche.

[danimal]

>>>I have pretty much stable CTR figures, but eCPM (or equivalently, $ per click) varies greatly.<<<

so call it what it is, variable epc(?) ...you should always keep track of the epc, even if adsense doesn't tell you directly what it is.

ypn does give you the average epc numbers in your stats, it's kinda sad that google hides that number, so that people don't think about it.

adsense support will tell you to compare days of the week against each other, for whatever that is worth.

[arikgub]

No, I can't see any recognizable weekly or daily pattern. It looks more like a random walk fluctuations.