Severely Hit by Smart Pricing

Since January to March 2007 my EPC has dropped more than 50%

[newbies]

Since January this year, my EPC has dropped more than 50% while I did not make any changes to my site and traffic remains the same. Coincidently, I noticed my site's PR dropped by one number before EPC dropping. Very sad and don't know how to bring it back.

I appreciate your suggestion.

[dollarshort]

Same here, I believe its all based on page rank, the page rank on my site fell from 5 to 4 and epc dropped more than 50%. I guess this is to lower earnings going to srcaper sites. (since no one links to scraper sites)

Steps to increase your page rank are exchanging links with other sites that have a high page rank, remove broken links and links that open a new page, also updating your content on a regular basis helps. These are the steps I am taking and begining to see good results after several months of declines.

[potentialgeek]

My PR went down from 5 to 4 but pay/click went up significantly. I also don't see a reasonable basis for PR to determine pay/click. PR is about authority. Many folks have high SERPs without very high PR. PR is a good start, but it's only one of myriad ways G has to determine value and pricing.

If people complain about lower EPC, can they kindly say which industry? I think this would be helpful. Others in the same industry, for example, can share their experience, and help you figure out if it's an industry problem.

p/g

[Scurramunga]

I don't believe that the change of PR is your problem. However a data refresh that results in a reshuffle of your top keywords/phrases could skew the quality of your traffic, in turn affecting your adsense account.

I've seen it happen to me.

[Hobbs]

EPC has dropped more than 50%

Take a number and sit on the left side till you hear your name being called.

[mzanzig]

Take a number and sit on the left side till you hear your name being called.

ROFL!

His number is 3,271,135 BTW. ;-)

[andrewshim]

Take a number and sit on the left side till you hear your name being called.

Number 3,271,135!
Calling number 3,271,135!
Hobbs!

[Hobbs]

Na,
serving 2,495,013 now
This may take long, did you bring something to read?

[mzanzig]

This may take long, did you bring something to read?

Fortunately I brought a hardcopy of www.justabouteverythingdirectory.info - you see that palette standing on the patio? Yep, that's it. And I just printed the /rubbish subdirectory.

[mainspot]

Take a number and sit on the left side till you hear your name being called.

Guess I'll be back in a few months... :)

[Hobbs]

- Calling 2,495,016

Publisher moves forward, and sideways left, asks for good ads

- And you dare choose?
No ads for you, only MFA
NEXT 2,495,017

[ronburk]

and traffic remains the same.

Amongst the lies we tell ourselves, "traffic remains the same" is king. Traffic never remains the same.

Traffic volume sometimes stays roughly the same. But these days, Google is always shuffling, so something is always changing in your traffic. If you break your traffic down by top 10 search categories, it's highly likely something changed this year already.

Of course, we track advertisers with even less precision than we track traffic. And a changeup in advertisers is the absolutely most trivial way of getting a change that makes people shriek "SmartPricing".

Of course, it's real hard to track what the same advertisers are paying over time, and that's also an easy way to see revenue lurching. My revenue lurched up last week. Smart Pricing reward? No, some lucky data sampling identified some bozo paying (me, God only knows what he paid Google) ~$3.50 per click. Eventually, he'll wise up or go broke, and my revenue will arrive at some new temporary (and lower) norm.

It's bizarre how people somehow think Google should deliver stable revenue. Publishers have suffered with wildly fluctuating advertising revenue since the Stone Age, but somehow AdSensers imagine that Google is actually paying them money, not dozens of advertisers who change their minds on a near hourly basis.

[makes a little sense]

It's bizarre how people somehow think Google should deliver stable revenue. Publishers have suffered with wildly fluctuating advertising revenue since the Stone Age, but somehow AdSensers imagine that Google is actually paying them money, not dozens of advertisers who change their minds on a near hourly basis.

Exactly. Many people are using Google as their primary source of income and that my friends, is a dangerous habit. Yes, we have some on this board who are making so much and have enough invested they are just fine, but, for the rest of us 99%, use Google as a supplement to your income, and be sure to initiate a career or a stable job elsewhere.

[Hobbs]

ronburk:

somehow AdSensers imagine that Google is actually paying them money

And in another thread you're calling it "weeping and moaning threads"
Not a constructive way to discuss publisher's reports on changes and problems.

I don't know who you're talking about, but for sure it is Google's algo that matches advertiser's ads to content, which is what is being discussed when there is bad targeting, and it is Google's smartpricing, and it is Google's choice to encourage 1 cent MFA and arbitrage ads over more useful advertisers, so please easy on eleminating Google out of the equation, and the 'it's your traffic', and the 'it's the advertisers' rhetoric, yes they are and can very well be but also among other factors like .. Google?

..

makes a little sense:
Google being the only source of income or a percentage is also irrelevant here, even if Google is 10% of a publisher's earnings, it is still worth discussing, telling publishers to diversify in this discussion is like suggesting I have more children when one of my boys is sick, but thanks for the reminder anyway.

[kool002]

"
No, some lucky data sampling identified
"
Ronburk,
Could you elaborate? how can I find which advertiser paid what.

[rocker]

- And you dare choose?
No ads for you, only MFA
NEXT 2,495,017

No ads or soup for you, Hobbs :)