Falling CTR & ECPM

Just since 04/15/09

[J_Evans]

This may be too small of a sample but the last two weeks my ctr & ecpm has fallen drastically. I hasve lazy and have not been working on my site so nothing has really been changed to cause this that I know of. I have the "interest" based ads activated but if they are working I do not believe that it would have a big effect as most of my visitors are "new". Does anyone have any ideas or things that I might check that could have caused this downturn? Thank you

[frakilk]

Yes I'm see the exact same thing. It started a few days earlier for me but it's a royal pain. I have had interest based ads deactivated.

[IanCP]

Been going on for about 12 months for me [and others I know].

[J_Evans]

Could this be the interest based ads and should I deactivate? How do I do that again? Thanks

[Jaideemaak]

What I saw was a very high, unbroken, unexpected run from 6th to 15th April. For 10 consecutive days eCPM, and especially CTR, were much higher than normal. I don't now why. And then on the 16th everything returned to normal.

When I look at my stats it looks as if everything fell on the 16th, but all that actually happened was that on the 16th everything went back to how it had been prior to the 6th.

What makes the figures look strange is the out-of-the-blue, and unaccounted for, good run that I had for 10 days. If Google was testing interest based ads for 10 days, and that was the result, I can't wait for them to switch it back on again.

Of course, AdSense is completely random. Some days clickers arrive and sometimes they don't. Some ads pay well but others don't.

It might just have been pure coincidence that for those 10 days lots of clickers arrived who subsequently clicked on lots of high paying ads.

However, for everything to have been so consistent for a fixed period of time, and then for everything to revert to how it was before, seems to be too much of a coincidence.

I have interest based ads activated.

[Scurramunga]

Been going on for about 12 months for me [and others I know].

Started around December in my case.

[londrum]

What I saw was a very high, unbroken, unexpected run from 6th to 15th April. For 10 consecutive days eCPM, and especially CTR, were much higher than normal.

that might be just due to the easter break. i had a similar jump. but then everyone went back to work and things returned to normal.

[Jaideemaak]

You could be right londrum but my earnings normally go down during holidays and weekends; and up when people are at work surfing the Internet! My busiest days are always Mondays. That good run earlier this month is still a mystery.

[Christopher H]

Things went downhill from December for me but have been very steadily climbing. Last month was showing a good growth trend but April has been very poor all things considered.

[m0thman]

It's a wee bit glumph for me today as well. Completely nubewit!

[signor_john]

I've had a 2.9% increase in CTR and a 14.4% increase in eCPM for the last two weeks, compared to the first two weeks of the month. (Sample size is in the seven-figure range for the month as a whole.)

There are so many factors involved in AdSense EPC, CTR, eCPM, and earnings that anecdotal evidence probably doesn't have much--if any--universal applicability.

[maximillianos]

Could also be tightening ad budgets... It seems like every day I read news stories about internet advertising rates dropping, companies earning less... etc.

It was only a matter of time before it caught up to us all.

[webmustermember]

well, hold that thought, let hope for the best and expect the worst. :)

I'm wondering, is there any google experts here in this forum?

[sunhapol]

Same here .. my income fell drastically from April 15 ....

[petra]

same here, by approximately 30% (since the 15th) even though traffic is steady. Today is absolutely miserable!

[netchicken1]

I have remained very silent, even to myself, but I have seen my income rise by a 1/4 to 1/3 since about April 11.

I suspect its the interest based adverts.

I get high traffic, but usually low ecpm, I imagine with the adverts now following the browser, that the adverts average ecpm has increased. CTR has remain pretty constant, its like the quality of my adverts has increased.

I keep waiting for it to go down to 'normal' but it seems to be stuck at a new level.

[HuskyPup]

by approximately 30%

Yep, the last two days have been my worst week days of the year...utterly abysmal, there is something seriously fubard and today's is even worse, down by 50% so far.

AdSense is seriously close to being removed altogether, earnings are now 25% of 2006 and declining every day...pointless for me.

[Jaideemaak]

netchicken1, I too saw a similar rise for several consecutive days (10, in fact) and thought I was 'stuck' at the new level. But then, just as quickly as everything increased, it all went back to normal on 16th April.

Perhaps it is interest-based ads, and perhaps Google are tesing at the moment - turning it on and off for various accounts?

During that time, both my eCPM and CTR were significantly higher than usual. It will be interesting to see if your earnings remain at the new high level, or whether they revert.

[security56]

Interesting mines took the big dive on the April 16 too, ummm o well it must have being something we done like some seems to argue all the time. It's very coincidental that on the same date many have experience the dive :)

[WolfLover]

Mine went down on April 23rd. Same amount of traffic, but CTR a little lower and ECPM a lot lower.

Sometimes in my niche the end of the month is not as good as I assume that advertisers are running out of money, but a little sooner this time. I don't know, my assumption only.

[HowYesNo]

- Started around December in my case.

yeah in my case too

[azlinda]

Started October 2008 for me.

[ember]

April 1, 2009 for me and has not recovered.