Forum Moderators: martinibuster
and no, this is not one of the normal "my earnings declined" threads . . . something happened and on-site advertiser targeting has changed.
i'm surprised nobody has posted about this yet.
They're giving an intentional discount to large site targeters, at publisher's expense, to encourage future advertising despite the relatively low click thru. Believe me or don't.
There was a thread that mentioned someone receiving a response (to a question regarding revenue drops) from Adsense (Italy) stating this.
Wouldn't it be nice if ASA could either deny or confirm this and possibly advise if the extent of the "discount" is confined to specific groups of publishers or specific countries.
See my prior post. They're giving an intentional discount to large site targeters, at publisher's expense, to encourage future advertising despite the relatively low click thru. Believe me or don't.
I'm a little skeptical, if only because my site-targeted EPC has been higher than the contextual EPC on several major channels this month. In any case, I'm seeing a definite upward trend for site-targeted CPM ads, so publishers who ask Google to block site-targeted ads on their sites may be hurting themselves (or maybe not, but there's no way to know if the ads are turned off).
[webmasterworld.com...]
I strongly believe that it is not only the advertisers who should be allowed to set min max clicks but publishers too.
My earnings have been more eratic lately than normal. Not all downward, but much wider swings than normal even though my serp positions and traffic have been fairly stable.
I do not think opting out of CPM will help too much because now they are testing CPC site targetting.
Can you opt-out of this just like with site targeted ads too?
Could be "just" site targeting, instead of 2974392 random-sites advertizers target only a few hand-picked sites. If you own espn.com or somethine like that good for you, but if your site only have millions of visitors too bad ("Low impressions. Sites with a very low number of daily impressions may not be available for site targeting").
Google AdWords Will Test CPC Site Targeting From March
[webmasterworld.com...]
But if they are signed up as CPC, they could be killing my earnings because their product is only marginally related to my site, and people are just seeing the same single ad over and over and over again.
<added> Just checked my stats, and the sites targeted ads are only a small percent today according to the reports. But when I look at my site, it looks like the big block ads are a third of the ads.
So do the new site targeted CPC ads show up in out reports as site or content ads? The help info on site ads just refers to CPM.
[edited by: Jane_Doe at 6:36 pm (utc) on Mar. 15, 2007]
"But if they are signed up as CPC, they could be killing my earnings because their product is only marginally related to my site"
The way I understand it, is if, because of their low CTR, they would not show up much on your site if they switched, unless they were paying significantly higher per CT because their avg, CPM would be below that of the more clicked ads. However this might be an issue for low trafficked pages since it takes a while for Adsense to determine a CPM and in the meantime low CTR ads could use up a lot of impressions before they are determined to have low CPM.
I don't think this affects us personally, as our targeted CPM is still significantly higher, but I found this in the G FAQ:
"Thanks to advertiser and publisher feedback, we have recently halved the minimum CPM required for site-targeting campaigns. [clipped] US$0.25, or the local currency equivalent, is now the lowest max CPM that advertisers can set."
25 cents for 1000 impressions?! Where's the door?
[edited by: MikeNoLastName at 3:36 am (utc) on Mar. 16, 2007]
I have noticed a 30% decrease in EPC since Feb. 28th. I just thought it was a low period or that Smart Pricing has hit my site. Looks like this is effecting all advertisers.
From what I have seen on my stats, everything is the same as Feb. except for the EPC. All the advertisers are the same on my main pages, my CTR is the same and my impressions are the same.
Very strange....
Looks like this is effecting all advertisers
Nope, not all, over the last 2-3 months I have seen the opposite, as have a few others on this forum, my average eCPM end of last year (2006) was around $29 to $35 ish, so far this year the last 3 months have all been over $45 some good days of $70
It is almost obvious that a lot of formerly high paying advertisers are trying out the new site targeted PPC, and likely will be back very soon amongst the content targeted advertisers once they realize site-targeting just isn't bringing them any more action at a cheaper cost. I give it another week, tops!
Sounds like wishful thinking to me. Why would advertisers pay more for run-of-network traffic than for specific audiences? That just doesn't make sense.
I suspect, but do not know for sure, that they were site wide CPC ads.
I suspect, but do not know for sure, that they were site wide CPC ads.
Site-targeted CPM ads are "site-wide," but the new site-targeted CPC ads are contextual.
What are earnings coming down dramatically?
so people, what do we conclude from all this?
That some earnings for some people have fallen, others have gone up, and others are about the same.
My earnings have fallen pathetically, 50 percen, traffic is the same. Large website. Can't find why
Yesterday I think they implemented a new algo..
New eCPM drop for me ;(
Let's keep some perspective, please. Your eCPM dropped one day and that means maybe Google changed the algo?
It was a Friday before St. Patricks day and in many offices in the states some people were out getting sloshed, and the rest are on their way home early, as many office workers tend to do on Fridays. Now add to that mix the fact there was a huge storm in the US Northeast and you have a lot of people not at the office on a Friday that is the eve of a traditional holiday excuse for partying.
Remember what I said a couple days ago, about the lowest day? Well I repeat that for Friday.
See the above post. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just want to introduce a little reality.
My earnings have fallen pathetically, 50 percen,
Fwiw, I see one of my sites' ecpm cut by a third from time to time, but another one is up by a similar amount making it all a wash. If the one that was cut was my only website I think I would be worried as well, and speculating something changed. However, having more tha one site I can see patterns that are more attributable to factors outside an algo change.
If I only had one site I still wouldn't be worried about a 30% drop in my ecpm, or even a 50% drop because my AdSense earnings bounce around all the time. If yours haven't been doing that before, welcome to the club?
Here's the important part:
I don't know how you're measuring what your baseline for earning should be, but I suggest aggregating an entire year and seeing what your average over a course of a year is, and using that as a baseline. If you want to be more accurate, divide last year into quarters and determine the average earnings quarterly.
The innacurate thing to do, which will drive you crazy, is to have a figure in your mind that has no root at all in real statistical averages. Don't pick a figure based on a historical high you remember.
But one site IS ALL MANY people have. Maybe it just hasn't reached YOUR other sites yet! he-heh, just wait until it does...
"I don't know how you're measuring what your baseline for earning should be, but I suggest aggregating an entire year and seeing what your average over a course of a year is, and using that as a baseline."
Um... We've got well over TWO (2) years and THIS is STILL up there with the top five worst weeks over the last TWO (2) YEARS!
Remember what I said a couple days ago, about the lowest day? Well I repeat that for Friday.
Martini: "See the above post. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just want to introduce a little reality."
With all due respect.. Regarding a St Patty's holiday weekend... In our Business, this SHOULD be one of OUR top 10 BEST weekends of the year.
[edited by: MikeNoLastName at 9:39 am (utc) on Mar. 18, 2007]
