Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Anyone else seeing this?
CPC and CPM have been a bit restless recently, compared to all-time data.
I am wondering about two reasons.
This is not only the end of the month where advertisers usually run out of budget. But also the end of the first quarter.
So there is budget problems. In my opinion things should improve starting Monday.
Those of you who have been running adsense for a long time, check the last Friday and Saturday of last year's March. And See if you notice a significant drop?
Report here please.
Thank you
[edited by: Hobbs at 12:43 pm (utc) on Mar. 29, 2008]
FarmBoy
At this point you should celebrate that things can never get worse for you (barring Murphy's law), after humanity's splitting the atom, Google has managed to split the cent, this is a great moment in the history of Homo sapiens (sapeins that dress well).
But you probably know all about delayed reporting and CPM..
check the last Friday and Saturday of last year's March. And See if you notice a significant drop?
Nope, in fact the last couple of weeks have traditionally been some of my highest earning! Compared to two years ago this week's average earnings are 40%, yep a drop of 60% and it's all mainly in the CTR levels which have halved however my EPC is within its normal range.
I don't know what happened last weekend however in my sector there has been an horrendous SERPs shake up and the current results are absolutely appalling, for all intents and purposes totally useless and irrelevant for anyone searching for my products with ebay garbage littering the results.
Not at all impressive with both Yahoo! and Live results looking far cleaner and relevant.
Martinibuster: is this the impact I was talking about?
Or didn't you notice that some sites did NOT see earnings drop?
I'm no lover of Google. But I do find your assumptions self-defeating.
If you assume that every change in earnings you experience is due to Google increasing or decreasing your share of what advertisers pay, then you are also assuming that the cause is beyond your control, and you may never figure out what you COULD do to increase earnings, dampen swings, or otherwise improve your situation with AdSense....
No, J, they're just giving bonuses to sites like mine.
Or didn't you notice that some sites did NOT see earnings drop?I'm no lover of Google. But I do find your assumptions self-defeating.
If you assume that every change in earnings you experience is due to Google increasing or decreasing your share of what advertisers pay, then you are also assuming that the cause is beyond your control, and you may never figure out what you COULD do to increase earnings, dampen swings, or otherwise improve your situation with AdSense....
"If you assume that every change in earnings you experience is due to Google increasing or decreasing your share of what advertisers pay"
Note sure if this post was for me, because I do not use AdSense. We do direct ad sales. I'm just noticing the majority here is reporting lower earnings blah blah blah.
Your eCPM from GOOG is up? I'm happy for you! How was your March 08 AdSense eCPM compare to March 07,06,05,04 or 03? Is the same ad unit producing higher CPM revenues year over year? Or you just have more traffic, more page views etc? Or you have just started and you are not able to compare huh?
[edited by: Januuski at 3:38 am (utc) on Mar. 30, 2008]
On support forums, unhappy people always outnumber happy people.
on support forums....
Is this a support forum? Hmmmm, I did not know. Can someone fix the AdSense for those reporting lower earnings?
EFV so your earning are up? Great! is it only because you have more pages, more traffic so your overall earning are up even though the earnings from every ad/page view are down? Or your revenue from the same ad unit is up?
Those are two different things!
Lets say that last Feb 07 I made $1,000 from adsense. This year I have 2x higher traffic/page views/clicks but if AdSense will pay 40% less compare to last year does it mean that I'm making more just because I earned $1,2000 from AdSense? Or am I losing money by not making $2,000 because GOOG is paying me 40% less?
Just want to make sure that we are on the same page.
Earnings are up, too--but not as dramatically as EPC is up, since CTR is running slightly lower than it was before I moved my AdSense ad units to a less visible location and the U.S. dollar dropped another 30-odd cents against the euro. (As I mentioned earlier, about half my audience is affected directly by the value of the dollar.)
I'm sorry that I assumed that you were an AdSense user when you aren't--you certainly talk like you are.
So you're basing your statements on the people posting about their earnings, not on your own experiences.
May I remind you of the story of the visually disabled men and the elephant? The one standing next to its head felt its ear flapping back and forth and said, "This animal has wings!" The one standing in front of it said, "This animal is a snake!" The one standing by its side said, "This isn't an animal--it's a wall!" And the man standing behind the elephant got dumped on and couldn't do much of anything but complain of his misfortune.
Now, if another blind man were standing some distance away, trying to make sense of what they were saying, he might listen to the man behind the elephant, because he was the loudest. Or he might listen to all of them, and realize that the elephant was a large and complex entity, and that he would have to come up with an understanding of it that would take into account everything he had heard.
Discussions here often remind me of that story. This one certainly does.
J, I've been in AdSense since 2003. I'm not going to answer your other questions --but I do know the answer to them. If you're assuming I'm a newbie because I've only been a member for a few months, keep in mind that people start new user names sometimes.I'm sorry that I assumed that you were an AdSense user when you aren't--you certainly talk like you are.
So you're basing your statements on the people posting about their earnings, not on your own experiences.
May I remind you of the story of the visually disabled men and the elephant? The one standing next to its head felt its ear flapping back and forth and said, "This animal has wings!" The one standing in front of it said, "This animal is a snake!" The one standing by its side said, "This isn't an animal--it's a wall!" And the man standing behind the elephant got dumped on and couldn't do much of anything but complain of his misfortune.
Now, if another blind man were standing some distance away, trying to make sense of what they were saying, he might listen to the man behind the elephant, because he was the loudest. Or he might listen to all of them, and realize that the elephant was a large and complex entity, and that he would have to come up with an understanding of it that would take into account everything he had heard.
Discussions here often remind me of that story. This one certainly does.
well, well, well.
OK here is the deal. I still have AdSense account. I have one since the very beginning. Currently the ads are only displayed on one very old website that I have not touched in years. Just to keep the account open. I'm not even sure what the earnings are at this moment as I have not logged in a very long time. I just keep receiving check from Google every months. Nothing big, maybe $200-300.
I was testing AdSense on our main website since 2003 but the results were always very poor. At one point I pulled the AdSense completely. At that moment we were assigned official AdSense advisor. They tried to help but the results were still unreasonably poor.
At this moment we do sell ads and ppc links directly and we are working with many agencies representing national brands such as AT&T etc. Unused inventory is sold through TribalFusion and BlueLitium which lately is not really happening as we were sold 100% since February and even had to turn away some advertisers.
Please note that I'm talking about professional websites. Nothing amateurish similar to Europeforvisitors. I have 6 full time employees and bunch of part timers. I cannot be doing business with Google by placing adsense ad on our websites without having control over what is being displayed and how much will those advertisers pay or what our commission will be.
It is maybe an OK business model for small sites or bloggers where you have no other way how to generate revenue but definitely not a way of doing business with us.
Basically AdSense is: "We will place whatever ads we want on your website and we will pay you whatever amount we want. Just don't ask why we did this or that.".
Are you kidding me?!
Anyway, I still read posts on this website as I want to stay in picture and even though I may sound as a stupid basher I just want to share my experience with others.
My advise is: improve your website including design, usability and of course the content. Everything else will come. These days even large agencies are looking for high quality niche or regional websites.
Please note that I'm talking about professional websites. Nothing amateurish similar to Europeforvisitors.
If you want to call a site that's been ranked "Best of the Web" by FORBES and THE WASHINGTON POST amateurish, that's your privilege. But how do you explain the fact that big-media sites like NYTimes.com use AdSense? Are they amateurish? Maybe you're assuming that any site is "amateurish" if it isn't involved in direct sales?
If AdSense hasn't worked for you, it could be for any number of reasons: e.g., your topic, your type of traffic, what users are looking for when they visit your site or sites, or the way you've implemented AdSense on your pages.
Also, don't confuse the use of AdSense with an "AdSense business model." AdSense is merely one possible revenue stream. If it works for you, use it (preferably in combination with other sources of revenue). If it doesn't work for your affiliate site, take the code off your pages (as you told us you were doing in this thread [webmasterworld.com] from 2005).
If you want to call a site that's been ranked "Best of the Web" by FORBES and THE WASHINGTON POST amateurish, that's your privilege. But how do you explain the fact that big-media sites like NYTimes.com use AdSense? Are they amateurish?
1.amateurish
Yes, you have some great unique content but your HTML code, design, usability is very poor therefore I used the term "amateurish". The overall experience is "amateurish" but in your case it the "average Joe experience" and that is what you are selling to your readers.
2.big media
please do not compare your site and your adsense account with the big boys. they have negotiated deals where the rules are set. They know what commission they are getting paid for every click or CPM. Similar to MySpace where Google has agreed to pay XYZ amount and it is not secret that Google is losing money on that deal.
Dont take it personally I just wanted to distinguish the difference between professionals and amateurs. Or do you make living of your website? Do you have any employees? Is that your only income? Probably not.
My business expectations may be way different than what some (maybe retired) blogger is expecting from AdSense.
In that story, I see you as the blind man who is sitting in a lawn chair some distance away from the elephant, not really interested in it, but occasionally condescending to comment on all the activity he hears coming from the people around it.
In that story, I see you as the blind man who is sitting in a lawn chair some distance away from the elephant, not really interested in it, but occasionally condescending to comment on all the activity he hears coming from the people around it.
Maybe I'm some distance away but definitely watching the elephant show to unfold with my eyes wide open and certainly interested in what is going on. Maybe one day, AdSense will have tools in place that will allow me to give it another shot.
Dont take it personally I just wanted to distinguish the difference between professionals and amateurs. Or do you make living of your website?
As a matter of fact, I make a very good living from my Web site, which is one of the few mom-and-pop sites represented by the firm that sells my display ads.
And what you call the "average Joe" approach might be better termed the "personal branding" approach that has been successful since the days of Karl Baedeker [en.wikipedia.org], if not earlier.
Getting back on topic, I'd point out that content and audience quality--not HTML coding, SEO, and other skills--are what determine value to advertisers. In another thread, you mentioned CJ affiliate sales and buying PPC ads. Is it possible that AdSense is simply isn't a great fit for sites that buy traffic and flip it to Commission Junction merchants? Whatever the case, the fact remains that some AdSense publishers are seeing big increases in EPC. What's the common factor (if any) among those who are seeing increases, and what's the common factor (if any) among those whose earnings per click are headed in the opposite direction?
Please note that I'm talking about professional websites. Nothing amateurish similar to Europeforvisitors.
Come on now, this is beneath the usual discussion level on WW. I think being insulting of a regular poster's site like this is out of bounds - especially considering he is one of the few people here who isn't anonymous with his site or name.
FarmBoy
AdSense is simply isn't a great fit for sites that buy traffic and flip it to Commission Junction merchants?
what?
Commission junction? flipping traffic?
what?
are you mistaken me with someone else?
OK one more time.
I do advertise with AdWords. AdWords is less than 1% of my traffic. I do not have CJ account. I used to have one but closed the account more than 3 years ago.
I have 5 revenue streams from my websites.
1. Businesses are paying to be listed
2. Businesses are paying PPC fees for links
3. Branding/Banner ads fees
4. Commission for leads generated for our partners
5. In addition we do sell few products related to our niche.
