Forum Moderators: martinibuster
The EPC drop started near the end of last month; thought it could be end-of-month budget issues, but alas, apparently not. No immediate pick up in the first days of the new month.
Saw something of an upswing after Arbit Crackdown 1.0; in fact, about a 25% increase in EPC. That continued until now, when it seems to be back to normal, if not lower.
Perhaps we're all ready for a new round of tighter smart pricing?!
Oh well, I'm off to read my August Adsense Optimization Email. If anything can crank up the EPC, that must be it! :/
p/g
How do I decide which day represents a trend?
In the context of the eCPM Trends threads, it would appear that the current day is the trend. On September 1 I imagine there will already be a September 2007 eCPM Trends thread.
How about for every low ecpm thread started there has to be an equal and opposite corresponding high ecpm thread started, and a corresponding regular ecpm thread. That way I'll be able to post in all three depending on day of the month.
"Jeff*, my boy, you know, I've been thinking,... hmmm, maybe we've been too generous with our community of small adsense publishers, after all, don't you think we are the ones adding the real value to the Internet? I'm sure you agree with me Jeff, don't you? and by the way... I would like a little knob on my screen called 'sharing', so that I can move it up or down as much as I need results on our bottom line
Well, if Eric Schmidt is doing that, he's not that smart after all. It only takes a few bad months for publishers to conclude AdSense sucks and start actively looking for alternatives. Some might say that there aren't any, but I disagree - I think if publishers are mad enough, they'll find ways to switch their inventories to other networks, directly sold ads and may be even affiliate programs.
Losing inventory, especially quality inventory, would be the last thing Google would want in this situation, because it'll start a 'feedback loop' process they might not be able to stop...
I think if publishers are mad enough, they'll find ways to switch their inventories to other networks, directly sold ads and may be even affiliate programs.
First, many successful AdSense publishers are already using other types of ads and affiliate programs.
Second, if angry low-earning publishers desert AdSense for other networks like YPN, how is that bad for Google? Its competitors get stuck with the overhead and hassle of dealing with angry low-earning publishers, while the quality and profitability of the AdSense network improve for Google and its advertisers.
When a top site in it's niche changes ad partners, the effects are not isolated to the Google and the site itself, but Google also loses ad revenue from advertisers that move to the competing ad platform.
I've recently smart priced AdSense to sub-prime ad status and upgraded YPN to prime ad status due to declining average earnings per click. My account is worth thousands a month. Small potatoes for Google maybe but it is encouraging to see my ad revenues rise and to see old Google advertisers sign up to advertise on my site with Yahoo.
It only takes a small crack to bring down a mighty dam.
...see old Google advertisers sign up to advertise on my site with Yahoo.
They're probably on both networks.
Or it could be due to the #$%@ web server that's been timing out all day long! Time to find a better web host. *sigh* I hate computers.
Most of these guys don't even seem to realize there's an ad market outside the United States.
That doesn't seem to bother publishers like those cited in the Quigo article or myself for that matter.
But for what it is worth, they do know there is a ad market outside of the US. They've obviously have concluded that it is more profitable to focus on US traffic, at least for the time being. After all, the US has the largest and most powerful economy in the world. What is it now, about 34% of the world's GDP?
To say that ad networks are second or third tier rate because they focus on US traffic is a bit presumptuious. Even Google places a premium on US traffic.
If the mighty dam is cracking--and we have no evidence that it is--there's little reason to believe that any of second- and third-tier dams are ready to take its place.
LOL, no doubt! I always hear that YPN is such a great replacement, but if that's the case then:
A. Why do I always get less then 3% CTR?
B. Why do they only serve ads to USA visitors
C. Anyone remember that YPN network was severely crippled for many days recently?
sniff, sniff, I can smell the 2nd tierness oozing from YPN
I always hear that YPN is such a great replacement, but if that's the case then:A. Why do I always get less then 3% CTR?
I *wish* my AdSense ads generated a stable 3% CTR click-through. Or even 2%.
Recently I had a site that I forgot about that had YPN on it, and had no clicks in many months (almost a year) I switched the ads to adsense and immediately began getting at least a couple clicks a day, the difference: adsense displayed targeted ads to global visitors and YPN displayed unrelated ads to USA visitors.
Actually he is smart, he is doing two things:
1) He is clearly dividing his adsense publishers using the well known and simple pareto principle. He is saying, the 80% is what matters, the 20% sucks.
2) He believes (and again, he is right) that the smaller publishers don't have many chances to find alternatives to adsense. They are stuck with adsense. The big publishers do have alternatives.
So these are the reasons why Google is skewing revenues towards the guys that really matter and putting small publishers against the wall.
This is smart... really smart.
The fact that the % is skewed towards larger publishers has already been established here (although personally, I still think that Google should have the decency to set the minimum level at 50% for everybody, big or small, otherwise it's just plain evil - whatever, this is my personal opinion). The issue is that whether or not Google decided to play with the "knob" for short-term gains.
The issue is that whether or not Google decided to play with the "knob" for short-term gains.
If your revenues are down, you tend to believe that, because the more obvious and credible possibilities (lack of demand, smart pricing, being on advertisers' block lists) are unappealing.
If your revenues are up, such twiddling looks less likely, because it's hard to reconcile "Google is playing with the 'knob' for short-term gains" with "My eCPM and earnings are climbing."
Fact is, there will be winners and losers every month. The same thing happens in the stock market, the commodities market, the foreign-exchange market, or any other volatile marketplace. If you're looking for predictability, relying on an auction-based advertising network is a foolish thing to do.
After all, the US has the largest and most powerful economy in the world. What is it now, about 34% of the world's GDP?
Nearer 20% and reducing all the time and that's according to official US statistics.
USA GDP (purchasing power parity): $13.13 trillion (2006 est.)
World Total GDP (purchasing power parity): $65.95 trillion (2006 est.)
And which country has more US Dollars in cash than any other?
Not the USA :-)
[edited by: HuskyPup at 3:37 pm (utc) on Aug. 7, 2007]
[smh.com.au...]
"The story is they've blown it on expense ... Operating expenses were much higher than everyone was expecting," said Jeffrey Lindsay, analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, adding that "these guys have been spending like drunken sailors."
There is nothing such as free lunch, and there is a big chunk of small adsense publishers that are paying it... including the Chateau Petrus
1) If Google's spending were being subsidized by "small AdSense publishers," we'd be seeing a lot more complaints here, and we wouldn't be seeing reports that some members are earning higher revenues. (Unless, of course, you believe that everyone here who's reporting higher revenues is an anonymous representative of THE NEW YORK TIMES or THE WASHINGTON POST.)
2) If Google's corporate spending were being subsidized by "small AdSense publishers," the overall percentage paid out to AdSense partners would be declining (and that isn't the case, as you can see from reading the quarterly earnings reports).
Two other points:
- Small AdSense publishers could be earning lower percentages than larger publishers, and that wouldn't be unreasonable, since account overhead (as a percentage of revenue) is likely to be higher for small publishers than for larger ones. Also, bigger revenue contributors receive bigger percentages in most commission-based compensation schemes, so why shouldn't that be true with AdSense?
- If some publishers genuinely feel that they're being treated worse than other publishers are (e.g., through "smart pricing" or a reduced payout percentage), then those publishers might find it useful to figure out what they're doing wrong. Fact is, some Web sites just don't deliver traffic that's valuable to Google and its advertisers, and quality traffic is more important than ever now that advertisers have placement reports and unlimited blocking filters. (The disparity between the haves and the have-nots will become even greater when site-targeted contextual ads become available.)
That article states that "the gains were offset by a rise in costs for adding staff."
That can hardly be compared to spending their earnings like drunken sailors... unless the additional staff they hired were hookers.
Actually I think adding staff is a great investment back into the company.
I was having a terribly eCPM the first few days of August, but the last fey days have been pretty normal. For those that complained about low eCPM this month, has yours risen the last few days as well?
More or less.
I think the slump in eCPM was due to all those people glued to their TV sets, waiting for Barry Bonds to hit that homer. Now that it's over with, they can get back to clicking on our ads. Whew! glad that's over with.
My eCPM is down 50%!
I effectively got a 50% pay cut as of the last two days in July and all of August, so far, as well.
The WORST thing is i had my highest CTR ever right when earnings dropped. So im sending more traffic and getting paid less.
All smart pricing does is make it dirt cheap for advertisers to get traffic from OUR sites!
I'm pissed. But what can you do? They control the game. This has pushed me over the edge and now i am going to place a lot LESS ad units on my websites.
It's hard to be paid less for doing the same job! Google is pissing off a lot of publishers.
So its not everyone thats down. The gap between the sites that send good targeted converting traffic and the ones that dont keeps getting larger. It isnt the "large publishers" getting more and the small ones like me getting less.
Remember that apart from the algos getting better at determining traffic quality the advertisers can now filter an unlimited number of sites that show low conversions on their new reports or simply because they dont like the look of them. The time to stop blending ads or putting your ads in the viewers face (hot spots) is probably now and I have started to do this.
So the split between the sites that do well and those that dont will likely continue to increase.
[edited by: Genuine1 at 12:14 pm (utc) on Aug. 9, 2007]
Its up from 20.xx 5 year average to 30+ quite a bit!
AdSense hasn't been around for 5 years...maybe you mean 4?
EPC has been up for me (higher than the last few months)...but it's always a game of ups/downs.
Is that not five years? Maybe I cant count! Nope I cant! Thats four isnt it! Oops. Well whatever...
I dont think the last couple of months changes are the normal ups and downs you mention but are caused by the advertisers new referal reports. They are madly filtering the lower quality sites/mfas etc. And those that dont convert. The rest are getting the money and higher bids too. And most of them have not even noticed this new filter yet... Have a read of the adwords forums all over the net.
This is another reason some are seeing a lack of quality advertisers at the moment and a rash of mfas instead. The advertisers are there on some sites but maybe they filtered "your" site!
And its not going to change I think... The gap between the sites that earn well for the advertisers and those that dont will continue to widen.
[edited by: Genuine1 at 9:11 am (utc) on Aug. 10, 2007]
Is that not five years? Maybe I cant count! Nope I cant! Thats four isnt it! Oops. Well whatever...
I knew coming from you it was an honest mistake...hehe
Well I can say my EPC is up by 30-35%. I will have to read up on the changes as I usually don't read the My EPC is up/down threads.
Back to more general thoughts on "eCPM trends":
New content and changing referral patterns can have an impact on your AdSense statistics. For example, if you've got a 300-page travel site about Manhattan and you add 50 pages about Washington Heights (which isn't a big tourist area), you're going to water down your average numbers. And if Google starts sending you a ton of Washington Heights traffic (or less traffic on your pages about Midtown), that will bring down your average AdSense EPC and--quite possibly--your average AdSense CTR.
One way to spread out your risk is to not to rely exclusively on AdSense. On that Manhattan travel site, for example, a CPM display ad will pay the same rate per impression on a Washington Heights page as it does on a Midtown page.
One way to spread out your risk is to not to rely exclusively on AdSense. On that Manhattan travel site, for example, a CPM display ad will pay the same rate per impression on a Washington Heights page as it does on a Midtown page.
Does anybody have any tips on direct selling? Like, what do you do - just publish your CPM rates on the site? Do you necessarily need demographics to go with that, etc? Also, do "direct" (CPM) advertisers expect to log in to some sort of interface to see their impressions or can everything be done via I/O by email followed up with an email report?
