October 2007 eCPM changes?

comment on recent CPM drop

[JamesR3]

Several have commented on a possible SmartPricing/CPM glitch/change here: [webmasterworld.com...]

ASA seems to be implying that no glitch exists. But, given that multiple people are are reporting a similar, and substantial, CPM decrease, SOMETHING is going on. How is your CPM this week as compared to last month? If down, does it vary across channels, or it is evenly down?

[HuskyPup]

Whoa.!.!.!

Too early to get excited HOWEVER my EPC has suddenly jumped 59% to within my normal EPC range...fingers crossed.

If this continues for a few more hours I'll slowly integrate some other sites to see what happens.

[Chapman]

For most people, the same is true of the day job. It can be eliminated, the compensation reduced, etc.

Well said farmboy! We've seen this type of situation occur five times in the last seven years... came out of nowhere! Some really good companies too!

Chapman-

[arpecop]

"Big Noses" of google employers vs automated system that we can trick, that's all about. I am following all the steps/hints in this forum but nothing works. An intelligent way to say "your site/s sucks"
there is enough big players made google really rich
Are you one of them? I am not - just small publisher that my sites looks ugly based on "Digg" for example
sorry for my bad english

[asinah]

October has been our best month in the past three years with Adsense and Adsense only generates 15% of our income. When our income tanked two years ago we totally changed our business model with Adsense and diversified our revenues beyond Adsense and the business operation has been very stable since then. I would never ever consider putting all our eggs in one basket and it has been a big leasson to drop from USD 20,000 to USD 4,000 a month but i am happy I went to that crisis before because i learned a lot out of it. If tomorrow I would loose the Google traffic and Adsense revenues, I can can handle it.

[HuskyPup]

Interestingly ASA has just reported the AdSense blog:

An update on channel reports
We'd like to provide you with an update on the recent channels issue -- our engineers have been working to provide publishers with their missing data, and you should see this data in your account by early next week. Thanks again for your patience!

Hmmm...now I'm seeing more EPC and only two 0.01 clicks for the day whereas they had been splattered all over the place.

Coincidence? I think not.

[surfgatinho]

If my eCPM doesn't pick up over the next few days I'm going to vote with my feet and pu some affiliate ads in instead

[vampke]

I mailed before that google without any reason whatsoever downgraded my income all of the sudden. At first they showed certain earnings, after a couple of days, much less was shown in the reports.
Today, everything seems to be back again.
I got a reply message that missed the point completely, so I'm in the dark of what happened really.
Seems to me, google could do with a bit of competition...

[nondescriptive]

Has anyone noticed anything different today? I'm resuming ad campaigns for a test run, organic traffic seems to be back to normal but it's limited data to work with. I've been checking this thread hourly (at least) to see if anyone else is seeing similar results. Any good news?

[potentialgeek]

Google: "We'd like to provide you with an update on the recent channels issue -- our engineers have been working to provide publishers with their missing data, and you should see this data in your account by early next week."

Finally!

"Missing data"? How about missing MONEY?!

p/g

P.S. "Missing data" sounds like "we have the full accurate data; it's just you that didn't see it," doesn't it? Full, revised, accurate channels and income stats coming right up?

[nondescriptive]

I sure hope you're right p/g

[HuskyPup]

Well, well, well...I hope everyone's seeing what I am today, absolutely normal figures!

So far EPC +25% - within usual annual range
So far eCPM +129% - within usual annual range
So far CTR +78% - within usual annual range

Fingers crossed & I hope your metrics are looking similarly "normal"!

[JamesR3]

Not alot of data yet today, but I am not seeing a fix. Glad HuskyPup is though.

For people that are experiencing this, how many channels are you using? I know OnlyToday deleted his channels and said that fixed the problem. I was wondering if there might be some channel complexities that have to do with the number of channels in use, split between URL channels and custom channels, etc.

[HuskyPup]

Huh?

Plop...EPC still normal however had a huge Page Impression dump but hardly any clicks, eCPM back to where I was in the USD 5-6 range instead of yearly average USD 10-12.

[arpecop]

I am getting 1 cent clicks, total dissapointment

[nrep]

I can't see that at my end HuskyPup, but I'm pleased it seems to be working for someone on here :)

edit: ah, I see it's back to the lower eCPM now.

[nondescriptive]

No change here yet, I was optimistic at first as well. Completely miserable numbers, something needs to break or I'll be picking up job applications. I'm going to delete all of my custom channels and see what happens, wish me luck, I'll let you all know.

[netmeg]

I saw something interesting last night - checked my account right before I went to bed last night, and yea, I coulda been mostly asleep (probably was) but I could swear that one of my channels reported something like $10.65 in earnings for the day - it stood out, because that particular channel doesn't usually make that much in a day. Woke up this morning, and it was down to $9.06. I've had very minor adjustments before, but not usually the same day - I often lose ten or twenty cents at the end of the month, I assume for clicks gone wrong. And it's not a lot. Just weird cause I never saw it happen like that before.

[andrewshim]

Well, well, well...I hope everyone's seeing what I am today, absolutely normal figures!
So far EPC +25% - within usual annual range
So far eCPM +129% - within usual annual range
So far CTR +78% - within usual annual range

Fingers crossed & I hope your metrics are looking similarly "normal"!

Well whaddya know... same here...
Fingers and toes crossed too... although...

I am getting 1 cent clicks, total dissapointment

I also see some 1 cent clicks... never have before...could be after midnight clicks.

[jhood]

Ad revenue tends to taper off towards the end of the month as advertisers hit their pre-set lending limits. It takes a little while for it to pick up again the next month as standing orders are renewed and new orders are placed. I have been seeing this trend in various ad networks for the last, oh, 10 years or so and I have seen nothing in the last few days that looks to be anything other than that.

Google shuffles an incredible amount of inventory versus impressions each month and they usually manage to space it all out fairly evenly, but some months work out better than others.

Back in the Dark Ages, I perched in the newsbooth at a rock 'n roll radio station, watching the derriere of the traffic director whose desk was just outside. All day long, she moved little strips of paper on a big metal rack. Each strip was a commercial and there were 31 slots on the rack. You can figure the rest out.

It's still essentially the same process played out over an infinitely larger universe but even the 'plex can't always pace it right down to the wire.

[JamesR3]

I think what jhood is essentially saying is that he is not affected. This isn't an end of the month slump -- I can easily compare the past several months, and the previous years for the same months, and see that we saw nothing like this.

[nondescriptive]

I think what jhood is essentially saying is that he is not affected.

I agree. You would really have to be on this side of the fence on this one jhood, it's not the usual bickering that comes with a slump near the end of the month. I've never seen anything like it in all my time as a publisher.

[frakilk]

I agree also, it wasn't (and still isn't) an end of the month slump.

[HuskyPup]

I agree also, it wasn't (and still isn't) an end of the month slump.

Unless, of course, for the first time in 4+ years as an AdSense publisher this were to occur? Very doubtful considering the advertisers information I am receiving.

So far EPC +25% - within usual annual range
So far eCPM +129% - within usual annual range
So far CTR +78% - within usual annual range

So, quite a few hours and several hundred clicks into the new Google day and my EPC is still holding up and within its normal range.

My eCPM has dropped which makes me wonder if we're having valid slow clicks reporting that we were plagued with for a while?

[OnlyToday]

So a few pollyanna cheerleaders see no problems, this place doesn't change and neither does Google--change is the constant.

[edited by: OnlyToday at 5:01 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2007]

[calman]

The event which happened seemed to occur between October 15-25 for the concerned publishers (October 19 specifically in my case). The changes undoubtedly impacted a minority of publishers - but a noticeable minority.

The changes in metrics were such that it certainly had nothing to do with end of the month ad inventory tinkering. The changes were very obvious to those effected.

The trend continues. My CTR today is particularly low even by the standards of the last two weeks. It may, of course, improve during the course of the day.

[arpecop]

Lowest stats ever, under a 1.00 dollar ecpm ... that means nothing more than 2 cents for click, awful ,... My adsense ackount will work for secure check post fees LOL.

[wiseapple]

Same here... We saw ECPM drop by a third in the middle of Oct. It had been steady for years. Not sure whats up.

[OnlyToday]

So if it actually is a test run by AdSense and not a glitch then the eCPM downgrade will be widened to the entire AdSense universe if too few of the publisher test group bail and find other ad partners.

In other words they want to know how many publishers they will lose if they cut pay-outs in half. If their over-all revenue goes up for the test group after the test period shake out then everyone gets hit.

You have to sympathize with their plight, revenues must increase every quarter.

[nondescriptive]

I finally got a canned message! The typical your earnings can be affected by a large number of variables one. Not that it calms me any, I'm still doing about 60 to 65% of average eCPM.

For an update on the custom channel deletion, the overall effect seems to be none whatsoever.

[JamesR3]

I deleted our custom channels. No effect. I'll post tomorrow if that changes, but a few hours are probably enough for us to tell. I doubt there is any effect unless some repricing occurs in a batch manner overnight.