Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Is this just me or is anyone else noticing this?
CTR last month = x - 34%
ecpm since implementation = y%
ecpm last month = y - 12%
However impressions are up massively, so earnings continue to rise, and as you can see in my case, the link between less clicks and ecpm is not linear.
Affiliate sales now on par with adsense - but that is very seasonal, but it does show my pages are good at "pre-selling" to the consumer, the rest is up to the advertiser to write good ad copy and have landing pages that convert for them.
Ad blindness could be a problem for sites that get lots of return visitors, forums, etc, but a lot of it comes down to which search phrases are driving traffic to your content - browsers or buyers?
Is this just me or is anyone else noticing this?
I've commented about this enough recently therefore will not repeat it however whatever happened in the third week of October has had a devastating effect on my AdSense CTR and earnings now heading towards a 60% reduction.
Each day is now setting 2007 lows and I am now at Xmas Eve/Xmas Day levels even though I am seeing absolutely normal traffic for this time of year.
During the daytime my EPC is fine however overnight it collapses to the very bottom end of its pre-Glitch average range obviously meaning that US advertisers are not paying anywhere near their previous levels.
I am now coming to the conclusion that my widgets are under severe recessionary pressure in the USA, since they are considered an expensive domestic investment/remodelling, whereas for international projects the investment time-scale and pressure has never been an issue because they are long-term expenditures and not subject to the fickle winds of base rates changes etc.
FWIW, for my specialised construction products, our retail B&M business is pedal to the metal, our international supply B&M business is also pedal to the metal however the enquiries from US businesses have declined considerably in the past two months.
To put this into context, up until just a few years ago 50% of our export sales were to the USA with the remainder distributed amongst China, Europe, Japan, Korea and Oz region and even though the value of our US level of business has increased that proportion of the business is now down to 20%.
YMWOV (Your Mileage Will Obviously Vary!)
- How clicks are activated (this changed recently).
- How clicks are counted.
- Economic conditions, whether across the board or in certain geotargeted regions (such as the U.S., where the dollar is weak and consumer confidence is down).
- What ads are being displayed (with more competition from more pages on more sites, there may not be as many compelling ads to go around).
- Other sector- or topic-specific factors (such as rapid growth in display ads and economic pressures on owners of "thin affiliate sites" and MFAs).
- Changes that I've made to my own site (i.e., making ASense less visible than display ads).
PS: I still think is not fair that big publishers still have the text are clickable lol ;)
For a refreshing change I more or less agree with EFV's points. Recently there are so many known variables along with the unknown number of unknown variables that there is lot of potential mud in the stats.
I still think is not fair that big publishers still have the text are clickable lol ;)
Yes, this is an intentional and blatant dishonesty on the part of AdSense and the big publishers. Accidental clicks can happen equally for all sized publishers.
This could in some small way work to the advantage of small publishers because perceptive advertisers will correctly see that accidental clicks are more likely with the big publishers.
Yes, this is an intentional and blatant dishonesty on the part of AdSense and the big publishers. Accidental clicks can happen equally for all sized publishers.
It may be an inconsistency, but there's nothing dishonest about it.
As for why Google hasn't yet applied the rule to top-tier premium publishers, I can think of two possible reasons:
1) Premium publishers aren't likely to be as stupid or shortsighted as the small publishers who disguise AdSense ad units as navigation bars or content and hide their real content (if they have any) below the fold;
2) Any premium publisher that was that stupid or shortsighted would quickly have its sins noticed (if only by the assigned Google account representative);
3) Top-tier premium publishers don't necessarily use standard, off-the-shelf AdSense ad code, so implementing a new way of capturing ad clicks on top-tier premium publishers' sites may not as simple (at least, not as universally simple) as it is on rank-and-file publishers' sites.
All I can say is that I shall leave AdSense on for the rest of today and see what happens Monday, if it continues in the same vein then Tuesday it will be removed completely.
Why? I have since October gone from USD X00.00+ per day average down to USD 60.00 to USD 40.00 and today so far I have earned USD 15.00.
I look at this from another angle, whilst people may not be clicking advertisers are being seen for FREE and keeping their presence aware at absolutely zero cost and, I suspect, keeping their AdWords kudos at a high level(?).
Fortunately I have enough advertisements of my own to replace AdSense, I'll just have to bring my plans forwards by the looks of it.
And those that do are not stupid or shortsighted as you mention they actually follow adsense tips to blend their ads to their website. Most likely is that google needs the big publisher more then small publishers. Do to the fact that they advertise google by having their ads in their sites, So google pampers them much more.
OnlyToday real good point eventually advertisers that do believe that it was a good idea by adsense to limit the clickable area, will most likely remove their ads from big publishers and put them in smaller publishers.
...nothing dishonest about it.Either way it is an acceptance of payment for more accidental clicks from large publishers, your convoluted obfuscation notwithstanding.
If your rationalization is correct it is an admission that the blending that they advocate is dishonest.
BTW, I don't blend my ads at all, though they are placed with the help of some AdSense guidelines.
europeforvisitors, man I was starting to actually listen to you and you come with this, not all small publisher disguise their ads
Nobody suggested that most small publishers do disguise their ads. But the fact remains that some small publishers disguise their ads in ways that encourage accidental clicks, so it makes sense for Google to take measures that prevent such clicks.
And those that do are not stupid or shortsighted as you mention they actually follow adsense tips to blend their ads to their website.
There are different degrees and types of blending. I don't think Google has ever encouraged publishers to disguise ads as navigation bars and content while putting scraped directory listings below the fold, for example.
Most likely is that google needs the big publisher more then small publishers.
Google clearly needs and wants both. AdSense didn't come to dominate the marketplace by ignoring niche or mom-and-pop publishers.
Either way it is an acceptance of payment for more accidental clicks from large publishers, your convoluted obfuscation notwithstanding.
First, you're assuming that the rules won't change for premium publishers. The jury is out on that question. We just don't know.
Second, you seem to be assuming that premium publishers are building scraper sites and other junk sites around disguised AdSense ads, a la the "Where's my bucket of money?" publishers who subsist on invalid clicks from clueless users. I doubt if that's the case, but if it is, any premium publishers who consistently send junk referrals will soon be noticed by advertisers and blocked with the Site Exclusion Tool.
The bottom line, IMHO, is that minimizing accidental clicks is a good thing for legitimate publishers, and worrying about how long it will take Google to deploy a new click-counting technique across the top tier of the AdSense network won't change that.
And yes google has made great strides by making great moves, They not stupid, but sometimes even geniuses make mistakes and pay for it, Anyways they lucky there is no true competition that's why they can get away with the way they treat their publishers.
The bottom line is most small publishers I honestly believe are honest and don't blend their ads to the point it appears as being completely site content instead of ads, and they should be treated with respect as any other publisher.
How is reducing the incidence of accidental clicks not treating small publishers (or any publishers) with respect?
Legitimate publishers should be in favor of measures that prevent or minimize accidental clicks, since those measures increase advertiser confidence and ultimately mean more ads--and more money--for legitimate publishers of every size.
Anyone else seeing a lower CTR?
Yes I am, however not terminal. I reduced the number of ad units by 20% and am seeing the same Adsense revenues. With that, I have begun to emphasize other revenue streams and am glad I did. My overall web site revenue is up, It seems I have been cheating myself by over displaying AdSense and not emphasizing my other revenue streams
Diversify folks!
[edited by: Edge at 10:50 pm (utc) on Dec. 9, 2007]
One thing I never game google, it seem you think also those that complain are those that have done wrong, in the case your assumptions are very wrong, there are legits publishers that are suffering the losses, so get it straight and open your eyes no everything is well in your google la la land. lol
The bottom line is most small publishers I honestly believe are honest and don't blend their ads to the point it appears as being completely site content instead of ads, and they should be treated with respect as any other publisher.
If you go to other bboards where adsense webmasters hang out, and where poster website links are allowed (like to the one that is huge and revenue shares), I think you'd come away with a completely different sense about people who run adsense. WW adsensers are probably part of the cream, although if we could see ww participant websites, we'd probably be shocked at the stuff.
How, simple, by allowing big publishers to have full clickable text, and not smallers legit ones that's how.
I could understand allowing bigger publishers having control of ads layouts and design.
People seem to be under the impression that premium publishers get all these perks. First of all premium pubs are not based simply on volume, but more importantly, premium publishers have different OBLIGATIONS to Google contractually (which is individually negotiated, I believe).
Really, what you are doing is comparing two completely different things, much like comparing what a car dealer gets (in terms of price, availability, service) from Ford, and what you get as an individual buyer.
Premium pubs are compensated with more freedom because they have obligations to Google, because they have differing value to Google, and because they carry different overhead to manage.
So is it about trust? Who knows. But you can't compare.
During the daytime my EPC is fine however overnight it collapses to the very bottom end of its pre-Glitch average range obviously meaning that US advertisers are not paying anywhere near their previous levels.
I see you've mentioned changes within a day a number of times, but you ARE aware that you cannot draw any conclusions since none of the stats are in synch for any given day. Since clicks, impressions, etc, are updated independently, what you actually see means nothing.
I'm really confused as to why you continue to use these "patterns" at all.
I also want to add that no one should jump to the conclusion this policy change affects them unless they know their sites and layouts depended on accidental clicks. Everyone else should sit tight and wait for real trends to reveal themselves. A few days is not a trend. Compare this December to last December. If you haven't had AdSense on your site long enough to do that why are you making so much noise?
I'm really confused as to why you continue to use these "patterns" at all.
OK, I'm now of the opinion that many people here have no comprehension of mathematics/statistics/variables/reality!
I will probably be leaving WebmasterWorld, AGAIN, simply because after more than 10,000 posts here under many different guises, this time HuskyPup, some of you are so gullible however cannot grasp what is going on!
Then sir/madam, respectfully, learn something from my posts, if not, then that is your perogative.
[edited by: HuskyPup at 3:07 am (utc) on Dec. 10, 2007]
And my argument was that big publishers should be treated as smalls one when it came to the clickable text area, but anyways coachm clarified things for me. I see their is a big difference between regular publishers and big ones. Although I still believe most publishers are legit even if there are some forums that suggest other wise.
Atomic you agreeing with EFV is not surprising after all you have the same view "they know their sites and layouts depended on accidental clicks" assuming people that are having these issues are dependent trickery to get their click.
And HuskyPup don't leave man, you one of the few people who is not afraid to speak your mind because of fear of retaliation by those who are lucky and are not having the same issues :)
Atomic, sorry for being not completely reading your post, but your agreeing EFV put me in high alert lol,
