Article: AdSense average PPC up 15% ?

[farmboy]

[businessweek.com...]

Google contends the apparent flattening of paid clicks is purposeful. It has reduced the clickable area around ads to eliminate accidental clicks that don't represent serious visitors or buyers. As a result, analysts say, the average price per click on search words that advertisers bid on rose 15% in the fourth quarter.

[potentialgeek]

"As a result, analysts say..."

This is a crock. Here's what happened (for those who weren't paying attention).

Recently a report claim was published by some flaky company that thought Google's numbers were going down.

Google, on the defensive, responded by saying it had reduced the clickable area around Adsense ad links.

Analysts--who are not publishers, didn't consult publishers, and who do not have access to Google's data about the number of invalid clicks due to clicks near ad links--concluded (putting two and two together) the drop came from the miniscule change.

Now BusinessWeek gets the whole thing watered down further.

This is all getting as silly as a parlor game.

p/g

Memo to BW: try asking publishers before publishing. A little old-fashioned research.

[purplecape]

So the analysts just made up the number they cite: " the average price per click on search words that advertisers bid on rose 15% in the fourth quarter."

Is that what you are saying?

Personally, I think it's credible, because the average amount I've received per click has dramatically increased over the past six months.

Since it's one of the rules of this forum that it's OK to generalize from personal experience to the experience of all AdSense publishers, I conclude that those analysts actually know what they are talking about, at least in this instance.

[RonS]

Since CPCs and such are against G's ToS, I'm going to be quite vague in this post.

"Rose 15%" from what, the previous quarter? Is it fair to compare 3Q07 to the holiday inflated 4Q07? In my case the increase was not as good, but it *was* real.

However in my case the CPC fell much more year-over-year 4Q06 to 4Q07 than it went up from Q3 to Q4 07.

In G's defense, my CPC did fall off a bit from 3Q06 to 4Q06 so maybe they *have* stemmed the tide! That would be a good thing.

[wyweb]

Rose 15% after having fallen 70% over a 4 year period. I guess I should be happy for that though...

[MyNewPC]

Recently a report claim was published by some flaky company that thought Google's numbers were going down.

Flaky company? comScore is the most recognized name in its field. Does it make them perfect? No, but I doubt you have any support for your contention that they are "flaky."

[Lame_Wolf]

Strange, cos mine has gone down 15-20% since November, although I get more clicks.

[Paris]

The comparison is year-over-year, not quarter-over-quarter. So it would be comparing Q1 in 2007 to Q1 in 2008.

And as for the 15% remark, it is likely based on Google's own sites, which advertisers are probably more secure in bidding up than the AdSense campaign bids. Either way, we'll know more come April 17. That's the day when Google reports.

[RonS]

Why do you assume year over year? I see nothing in that article that suggests the comparison is either year over year or quarter to quarter, and where does that 1Q08 vs. 1Q07 assertion come from? I know I'm getting old, but I didn't think my business journal article reading skills had grown so antiquated. ;)

Did you see the analysis elsewhere?

[cgiscripts4u]

the quote says the price per click advertisers bid on, not price per click paid to publishers.