AdSense Update Moved Me to Take Action

Response to Oct 20th Upheaval

[incrediBILL]

I've been a massive AdSense supporter and cheerleader for years now but whatever happened on the Oct 20th update was all it took to shake my faith in the system. My site didn't go completely down in flames like I've read that has happened to others, it's still making respectable money, but something changed somewhere on the 20th that put a major dent in my earnings. Worse yet, the lack of response to my support email sent several days ago wasn't helping my mood any so I took action.

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]

[zett]

Wouldn't that have had an effect on most or all publishers?

Not necessarily. If you have been implementing Adsense in its intended way (i.e. not blended, only natural traffic sources) then you might not notice a change, or just very little.

[Hobbs]

Adsense in its intended way (i.e. not blended ..

Not according to Google zett.

Very interesting times indeed, I don't recall any more active period in the AdSense program since it started.

[iwannano1]

Google does recommend blending and that too with 300x250 block in middle of content, I had implemented on few site and it worked like a charm.

[Content_ed]

Well, finally heard back from Yahoo on their publishers program, sort of.

They sent us an advertisement for their sponsored search marketing program in the mail.

What a bunch of jerks.

[farmboy]

Following on the subject of this thread, has anyone, other than me, recently changed all or part of your monetization plans / business model for an upcoming site?

FarmBoy

[OnlyToday]

My ads are not blended, they are in fact placed exactly the same on every page in a way that makes it obvious to anyone paying attention that they are indeed ads. Yet from 10/17 through 11/09 there was a consistent attenuation of eCPM. I do think though that many clicks are probably those shallow people not paying close attention who tend to click on the first link they see. Fortunately I believe, those shallow people do often convert with real money.

Since 11/09 to date BTW, eCPM has been holding near pre-glitch levels, CTR seems just a bit low but earnings seem ok, which is what counts to me.

[Content_ed]

Today is our first "normal" day in months, which means it's probably just a fluke:-)

[sutrostyle]

Today our ecpm is 30% of the normal!

Our Google product referrals now yield higher (but still miserable) ecpm than adsense ads.

Since product referrals pay per action/conversion, it means that whatever new smart pricing was used on our account since Oct 20, it unfairly punishes us.

[Content_ed]

Finally heard back from Yahoo, essentially the bed bug letter - "We're still in Beta, etc..." They probably looked at out front page and our HTML 1.1 wasn't pretty enough for them:-)

[coosblues]

I must say I've seen some improvement with my Google account, but after a very poor beginning of the month I realized that it was time to diversify more than I have in the past. I'm now running three ad networks and have really noticed quite a difference in my earnings. YPN does not target well but I've found if you can afford to leave the pages running YPN alone until they get crawled again you'll get much better ads. Ad targeting seems to be almost utterly useless. I made one big change with Google in my account and if the rise continues I'll share my observations with you. The third network has very enticing ads, but they don't pay much per click but as I continue to optimize my ads and their placement I should just about break even by month's end.

[potentialgeek]

Finally heard back from Yahoo, essentially the bed bug letter - "We're still in Beta, etc..."

YPN has always been in Beta! lol!

p/g

[sutrostyle]

We replaced Adsense with a mix of rightmedia and referrals. Adsense is now in 10% of the pages, down from 100%. This currently makes more money than Adsense in 100% of pages after Oct 20 "glitch".

[apauto]

IncrediBILL, I tried to send you a stickymail, but your box is full.

I just wanted to ask you a question... thanks :)