Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Out of interest I keyed in some key words, which would have been relevant to my old site. Was amazed that some of the bidders were the actual companies that used to advertise on my site and it told me how much the max bid was. Granted this was for overture but I can’t see them bidding much more (or less) on Adsense. The figures they were talking about was about 5 times what I was earning (20% revenue share)
What is the publisher share of ad sense clicks.
Google doesn't share this information.
With people wanting to know the highest paying keyword and checking advertiser bid amounts to see where the high bids are, I can almost see their reasoning
For publishers, the goal for getting information on revenue share and highest paying keywords is for revenue maximization. They want to be where the action is -- and the fattest wallets.
For Google, devulging these info would mean more tools for publishers to game the system.
Same thing, two different perspectives -- and people would always want to know, or at least try to know :o)
This is why overture can release this information---simply because they don't run an adsense-type network. If they ever decided to, you can bet that the overture bid tools page would disappear, or only be accessible to advertisers who can log in to see it.
For publishers, the goal for getting information on revenue share and highest paying keywords is for revenue maximization. They want to be where the action is -- and the fattest wallets.
I'm well aware of why publishers want information on the highest paying keywords and revenue share :)
I understand why folks would want the information, and I can also understand why Google AS wouldn't want to give out that info.
like keyword repetition, eh?
Lets say your revenue dips here and there but you still basically have the same impressions and click throughs. What actually happened? Did google just decid to give everyone less that day to make thier books look better profit wise or did the business market just bid less that one day for thier adwords?
Lets say they did $500,000,0000 in revenue from adwords and decided to keep 80% of the revenue versus 60% for one month.
$500,000,000 X 20% (difference in revenue they are keeping) = $100,000,000 dollars for the year or $8,333,333 more profit for them each month.
Or $8,333,333 less paid out to the publishers which are needed to pump the ads out.
It's like book publishing: Even if you know the royalty rate, how do you know that the sales and returns figures on your royalty statement are correct?
If you're genuinely worried about being cheated, your best bet is to give up on ad or affiliate networks and rely on direct sales instead.
Without publishers they don't have a place to display thier ads other than thier search engine. I'm not knocking google at all but we have all seen how corporate greed has ruined a lot of people.
Or
Lets say you are a true content publisher not some scammer trying to target expensive keywords. You work to increase your readership to get more revenue. If you increase your readership by 5% per month but goodle sort of lowers thier payout by 5% a month as time goes on, you have no growth for your effort. While in the meantime Google is just keeping more profit for themselves.
I'm not knocking google at all, this is just thinking out loud seeing people seem to ask how much do you make with google adsense.
It can be a matter of deciding of who to prioritize: a banner ad network that tells you that the payout is 60-40 but only earns $10 a month versus Google where you are kept in the dark as to the payout but earns you $10,000 a month.
If you are not comfortable with the idea that G is not revealing their payout, then you are free to remove your code from your site. If it is something you can live with, then stick with the program.
Note that revealing payouts will not necessarily stop a company from reducing the payouts. All banner ad networks have done it and it caused great uproar among their member publishers.
Well if you knew that you got 40% of the bid click all the time you would have something to hold them to.
A lot of people seem to have the idea that Google is using a straight percentage split (a la the traditional banner networks), but that seems unlikely for two reasons:
1) A straight percentage split or even a simple formula would make life easier for future competitors. The more complex the formula, the harder it will be for an AdSense competitor to cherry-pick publishers in profitable categories by offering a better payout.
2) Having a complex (and changeable) compensation formula makes it easier for Google to reward certain types of sites, discourage certain types of behavior, be more competive in certain categories, etc.
Finally, it's important to remember that--unlike affiliate programs and banner networks--Google isn't selling a "commission" or "revenue share" concept. Its sales message is "Earn more income from your site." If your effective CPM (a.k.a revenue per 1,000 impressions) is better than you'd get with an alternative, then it makes sense to stick with AdSense. If not, you should go with the alternative that pays better.
"If you are not comfortable with the idea that G is not revealing their payout, then you are free to remove your code from your site. If it is something you can live with, then stick with the program."
Tonywyn2, posts like the ones above never come from people whose traffic, clicks, and impressions are going up while their epc is going down. Unfortunately, they can't empathize with your position if they haven't been in it. A basic fact of life. Having been in this boat, I know fully what you mean. I think a better answer than the smug "like it or lump it" crap is to say: add more content and diversify into other, yet related, content areas. This should insulate you a bit and expand revenue.
I was just thinking out loud and playing devils advocate. Really i dont care to know exactly what each person earns, but i would like to know on average what is earned across the board. It would give publishers an incentive to give better content. Wouldn't you work a little harder if you know sort of what the payout may be? or at least could be based on statistics?
Is it like out of 1000 adsense users 1 earns $10,000 month while 20 earn $500 a month and the rest earn less than $50 a month?
Even an answer such as... I invest 10 hours a week and make $100 a week... or i invest 60 hours a week and i'm makeing $20 a week. Wouldn't you hate to waste time on something that over all you have a small chance of real profit? I see how one can target a higher paying keyword topic but if 500 other adsense addicts are is it really worth it. Just basic thinking outloud questions.
I'm goal orientated. If you never set goals you usually never get anywhere.
Tonywyn2, posts like the ones above never come from people whose traffic, clicks, and impressions are going up while their epc is going down. Unfortunately, they can't empathize with your position if they haven't been in it.
Ownerrim, Tonywyn2 and I weren't discussing who's hurting and who isn't; we were discussing the fact that Google doesn't disclose its payout formula.
Again: Whether an AdSense publisher's earnings are going up or down, the correct metric for gauging AdSense performance (or any other type of advertising performance) is CPM (or ECPM, or RPM, or whatever else one might choose to call it). And if an ad network's performance isn't up to snuff, it makes good business sense for the publisher to seek better-paying alternatives. That's just common sense.
I think a better answer than the smug "like it or lump it" crap is to say: add more content and diversify into other, yet related, content areas. This should insulate you a bit and expand revenue.
This is exactly our strategy. Our sites run across a gamut of topics from venture capital financing to ecommerce to branding to small business to management. Our ad impressions may be going up and we may be experiencing swings in EPC, but our metrics are never in the toilet.
It's not about smugness, ownerrim. It's about making the poster see the various factors that he may use to be able to make an intelligent decision whether to continue using a program like Adsense. How important is the fact that G does not reveal the payouts? Is that something he can live with? Or is that something that tremendously prohibits him from maximizing the program in his site?
I think everyone here agrees that transparency is good, but if the program creator decided not to provide these information for whatever reason, then we as users of the program have the choice whether to continue with it with blinders on or to deem it unacceptable. I may not be too happy with the lack of transparency, but I respect G's decision and will not lay awake at night thinking if the payout is decreasing or not. Like about anything in life, unfortunately, there are compromises to be made.
