Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Since I didn't get a timely response from support, I decided to try other ad networks and YPN isn't doing too bad. The CTR isn't great because the ad targeting blows but the payout per click appears to be high enough for the few days I've tried it so it's all averaging out in the end.
I'm going to start some expanded A/B testing later today for the 2 networks and see which will pay out the best, but it's really sad that it's come to this.
Did Google crank up smart pricing, chase off advertisers with quality score nonsense (while letting domain parks litter the ads!), or did they just take a bigger pay cut out of the ad sales?
Don't know, don't care, but I'd call it not-so-smart-pricing as they just lost 50% of my pages and maybe 100% based on the results of my testing.
[edited by: incrediBILL at 5:47 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2007]
I have it on good authority that the Google/publisher revenue split has not changed
I didn't think that it had, but it's good fodder to toss out there ;)
The upside is I've been procrastinating to check the competition just because AdSense had been so good nothing else could compare and that appears to no longer be the case.
C'est la vie!
I've been really pleased with google up to now, but I just wish they'd come clean and explain what has happened. i.e. is this something we can expect to continue, a temporary blip etc...? Things like this are going to change the way many of us operate should they be long term.
I have it on good authority
Could you elaborate?
Could you elaborate?
I'm checking. If I can get permission, I will.
I'm checking. If I can get permission, I will.
sweet! I've been starving, living off the meager scraps of info G feels inclined to toss to the dogs.
Definitely something happened on Oct 20-21
The one positive thing about all of this is we're all agreed on when it happened, some on the 19th however all of us definitely around the same date.
I've reintegrated my two core sites, core site 2 has come back very strongly today and doing what it has never done before, out perform core site 1 which is still wallowing in the mire with a 50% reduction in CTR therefore eCPM, HOWEVER its EPC is back to normal levels.
They really did make a mess of things whatever it is they did!
And I have still had no response from them in 6 days either.
Because I'm seeing that on several accounts, all with a rich range of sites on them, I am inclined to believe that something did change around that date. In my case, it seems to have resulted in a small increase, so small that some may consider it statistically insignificant.
Hope you find what you're looking for, Bill.
Hope you find what you're looking for, Bill.
I had what I was looking for, now I'm looking for something close, but thanks for the sentiment.
I was never a greedy publisher chasing mesothelioma but I also know what my traffic is worth and I've been pushing direct advertising much harder lately and if push comes to shove, all the contextual ads will get the boot as that's prime real estate on my site.
That real estate has value and when the revenue drops below that value whatever isn't working gets the boot, just like banner ad networks and affiliates got the boot when they didn't pay due to ad blockers.
If AdSense rebounds I might toss YPN, but the total void in tech support response since this happened is making me think I've got room for 2 players now.
[edited by: incrediBILL at 7:06 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2007]
Oh at least you guys have YPN option, publisher outside USA have no other option. Hope G will fix this soon.
Oh at least you guys have YPN option
Not a great option as YPN looks like it needs some serious work on the targeting but it's better than a kick in the head.
We asked our rep if we had been smartpriced and was flat out told NO.
As our rep said, "your stats look great from advertisers side of the metrics and I can see no smartpricing taking place".
So if our revenue was cut in half across our network of sites, and it was on each and every site and it all occured at once this removes the whole ups and downs in the system theory. No way thousands of clicks a day across thousands of verts on 6 authority sites all dropped by the exact same percentage.
That is simply impossible...
1. Our rep says we are not smartpriced.
2. It is impossible that over 4000 clicks a day across thousands of areas all dropped at once by the exact same percent in epc.
3. Nothing has changed with traffic or sources or anything.
The only conclusion one can reach is Google decided to change the revenue share which our rep cannot disclose.
Sadly like you we started moving inventory over to Yahoo which is not so great for targetting but as you have seen can be great with EPC so it is what it is.
I have a handicapped son and made a great post a few years back about how they have enabled us to take care of him in ways I could have not otherwise but I can sadly say things are changing over there at the plex and the love is fading fast.
BS alert!
[edited by: Scurramunga at 9:07 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2007]
there needs to be more competition in the contextual ad marketplace.
November 6, next Tuesday, might be the day when everything changes when Facebook is rumored to release their SocialAds ad network.
If they combine contextual (on-page) information to FB users info that is stored in a cookie, we could see ad targeting on level never seen before.
However, if they target the users based only on data on the cookie, I wouldn't expect too much from the network.
[valleywag.com...]
So if our revenue was cut in half across our network of sites, and it was on each and every site and it all occured at once this removes the whole ups and downs in the system theory. No way thousands of clicks a day across thousands of verts on 6 authority sites all dropped by the exact same percentage.
I always considered the "google gives itself a payrise" theory as pure conspiricy theory. Now it's beginning to look almost plausible with every new day.
I always considered the "google gives itself a payrise" theory as pure conspiricy theory. Now it's beginning to look almost plausible with every new day.
So did I, until we lost about a third of our revenue with no better explanation. But once you start to think about it, you have to ask yourself from a capitalist standpoint, why should they pay us more than they have to? And if you were running Adsense and came to that conclusion, what better way to roll it out than with A/B testing? I don't think they'd give a hoot about keeping us in the dark, but if they announced, "We'll be taking a bigger share of the revenue now" they wouldn't get very good data because people would act with their hearts rather than their heads. This way (if it is the way) they find out what works for both parties, without the mice having a Google Maps view of the maze. That's no a conspiracy, it's a business decisiion.
BTW, I finally got around to looking at October 2005, and it was within a tenth of a point for eCPM as October 2006.
1) Something significant happened concerning a negative revenue push to some publishers on approximately October 19-20.
2) Google suggests that the simultaneous channel reporting problem had no impact on aggregate revenue reporting, but some publishers remain suspect.
3) This change has impacted, at minimum, a noticeable minority of publishers.
4) Many of the publishers impacted are of a significant size such that their sole source of revenue is from website publishing.
I suspect that it might be possible for Google to make some sort of statement concerning the nature of what is happening to these publishers without disclosing any business secrets or threatening their competitive position. For example, has their been a significant shift in the supply demand curve for contextual ads because of the worsening economic situation in the US? If this is happening, they will eventually have to release this information to the investment community at any rate.
One of the best lessons that I learned in my forty years in business prior to my retirement is that a lack of visibility with both customers and employees can have unfortunate consequences. They begin making decisions in a vacuum, and many of the decisions taken are not really desired by either party.
I really do not want to come down too hard on Google; because on a macro level, I have been very happy with how I have been treated by them. I just think that, in this instance, a little bit of visibility and open communication would be useful and to Google's ultimate benefit.
Bill:
You must be nuts to contact them and expect a reply given the flood of open tickets they have right now, I can't believe you actually got pissed they did not respond.
Did Google crank up smart pricing, chase off advertisers with quality score nonsense (while letting domain parks litter the ads!), or did they just take a bigger pay cut out of the ad sales?
With Googzila's share price at $700+ the hunger just gets greater and greater.
Not only they are taking a much bigger cut now...they do so with a smile. Pulling down their ads and replacing by other networks is the only way to send a loud and clear message.
There was something else in the email that truly frosted me over.
<frosted rant>
I won't go into specific details at this time because it wasn't about my site or the Oct 20th changes. What I will say though is the comment made me think about little Google Serfdoms, passing the buck and kicking it back to the customer to do the passing and follow through. What that says to me is that either I got someone lazy or inexperienced answering my email or there is now an inter-departmental power grab going on and neither are good for the long term health of AdSense.
The correct answer for good customer service is always "I'll look into that for you and get back to you with an answer" and not punting back to the customer to do your damn job for you.
</frosted rant>
[edited by: incrediBILL at 11:21 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2007]
I just checked referals lists for our niche, some of our large advertisers moved completely to PPA campaings recenty and are not even doing site advertising anymore. Our niche usually goes up this time of year, but I can see a lot of people are switching over.
