Dramatic Drop in ECPM

[con771]

I am seeing my ecpm drop dramatically over this last month and it seems to keep declining! Anyone else seeing this?
Last month was great but this month has been very stressful

[purplecape]

I haven't seen this happen, but eCPM by itself is not a very useful measure. It's based on CTR and EPC. Which of those went down? Have you seen any changes in the ads showing on your site? Has your traffic changed in volume or source?

Maybe you've already dug into those things, but I couldn't tell if you had from your post, so I thought I'd better ask.

[HuskyPup]

My EPC is fine however I'm seeing some horrible daily earnings' fluctuations with a Thursday(!?!?!) now being my worst day of the week even though my metrics are showing a completely normal week day.

And when I write worst day, I mean up to a 25-30% drop from a Monday to Wednesday and then bouncing back again on the Friday! Absolutely bizarre and, of course, we not allowed to question the AdSense reporting are we?

[purplecape]

HP, they must be passing some of your clicks to me on Thursdays--both Thursdays so far this month were way above average for my site, with no cause that I can find.

[con771]

nope no change in traffic. From last month traffic is very stable. Last month was our best and this month is shapping to be our worst in 18 months

[zett]

And when I write worst day, I mean up to a 25-30% drop from a Monday to Wednesday and then bouncing back again on the Friday!

Thursday is easily explained as worst day (it has been for ages the worst day for me):

Monday - people come to work and explore new stuff
Tuesday - people do little less than on Mondays
Wednesday - even less activity than on Tuesdays
Thursday - people suddenly realize they have WORK to do that needs to be finished before the weekend (PANIC sets in)
Friday - phew! Work's done; now is the time to some surfing :-)
Saturday - shopping with the family, watching soccer, working in the garden
Sunday - time to do some family related surfin'

:-)

[HuskyPup]

Thursday is easily explained as worst day (it has been for ages the worst day for me):

Lol...I wish it were that easy:-)

Until recently My Monday to Thursday ranged 90-110% since the very start of AdSense, sometimes it's almost as though I'm having a steady click dump drip feed on the Friday.

purplecape - Try switching your site off this Thursday and let's see what happens? Hehehe...

[purplecape]

What, switch my site off for the best day of the week? No way!

Kind of undermines zett's theory, though. Which is too bad, because as a description of work behavior I think it is truly Dilbertian.

[BillyS]

>>Anyone else seeing this?

No, my eCPM is remarkably stable from month to month.

[Scurramunga]

Recently, I have been experiencing bad revenue days too. Traffic numbers and EPC are good, just impressions and CTR are poor.

[zett]

Sorry, guys. I wrote the message above off my hat, without really looking at the facts. The truth [for my sites] is that

Thursdays have the worst CTR of all weekdays.

It starts on Saturdays with +5.2% (compared to week average), then it drops slowly to -4.5% on Thursdays. Fridays are alomst on par, with -0.6% - that's why I assume that people on Thursdays are interested (traffic is there), but are in a hurry (they don't click).

Looking at total revenue, Saturdays are the worst days (despite the best CTR and the best EPC) - the traffic is simply missing. From a revenue perspective, Sundays and Mondays beat all other days. So those who are coming on Saturdays are interested and in a mood to click, BUT too few are coming (family activities? hobbies?), hence the bad total revenue.

My sites, guys, my sites!