Forum Moderators: martinibuster
But I still can't really understand what makes the eCPM flux widely from day to day. My eCPM changes anywhere from 15-68% per day. Even a 10% difference in eCPM at the same level of traffic results in a $100+ difference in earning.
I have a very high eCPM (way higher than what I have seen said here) for a 10-year old site with around 5,000+ pages. I'm not talking of single page eCPM but site-wide eCPM.
Is there anything I can do to control the eCPM fluctuations?
It's the number of page views, EPC and CTR that make up eCPM.
The variance in eCPM comes from changes in the number of page views, EPC and CTR.
Unless you can control those three factors, you can't control eCPM.
EPC is the one a publisher can't control much. That's something the advertiser and Google controls. You might be able to attract higher paying ads by writing better or different content, or even by just using different words to say the same thing. Probably not easy to sort out though.
Page views can be controlled easier. That number can be made to go up or down just by on site changes. Off site actions can also draw more traffic and thus page views of course. Getting on topic traffic is the key to this though.
That brings us to CTR. That's a function of having content that attracts ads that are not only on target but are also well enough written to get the interest of your visitors and convince them to click through.
So ...
Write good content.
Get on topic traffic.
and then....
Do what ever you can to get advertisers to actually write effective ads :)
That last one may be the toughest, and might also be the most important for for publishers using AdSense perspective, especially considering Smart Pricing.
We've been carefully tracking the type of content that brings in the most money, and we're focused on producing those types of content. We run a multi-topic site catering to a specific type of audiences, and we're very focused on our analytics.
It is just frustrating to think that you cannot control the variables in play with Adsense. I would love to have a situation where if eCPM falls down today, then you need to do X tomorrow -- except you don't really know what that X is that could bring the eCPM back up.
For my sites, the more traffic I get the lower the eCPM goes. It's frustrating because one would hope to get more traffic, but when the eCPM keeps going down on that traffic, why bother?
My two cents!
the more traffic I get the lower the eCPM goes
That's because you are getting the wrong traffic, and/or traffic from the wrong source(s). When that happens you have a couple of options.
1: Write or build some new content that better matches what the traffic is looking for (see your logs to check what brought them to your site). This is probably the easiest and most effect solution.
2: Modify your existing content so it attracts more targeted traffic and/or less poorly targeted traffic.
3: Hunt down which of your current traffic sources is sending the most accurately targeted traffic and either try to increase traffic from those sources or find new and similar traffic sources and try to develop a traffic flow from the new sources.
Even without creating the advanced segment, just look at the Adsense section to see the sources of traffic that are are the most responsive to your ads -- where you get the best click through, most revenues.
In our case, for example, the best audience most responsive to Adsense ads come from Yahoo Answers. So we strive to participate more on this site as their traffic give us the most in terms of Adsense revenues. We don't bother with Stumbleupon traffic, for example, because their traffic never clicks on the ads
On July 30, eCPM increased by 40% that brought an additional $200 to the average daily revenue. It sure is nice when those advertisers are present.
Creating content that gets the most revenue is more of a long-term solution. I'm just looking for what can I do today to keep my eCPM in that extra 40% level.
I guess Adsense is just one roller coaster ride
The "why's?", the "what-fors?" and "hows?" still elude me after 11+ years.
No I'm not, never have been into affiliate marketing and never, ever intend to do so.
A grateful "thank you" from a reader of one of my tutorials means much more to me than a monthly AdSense deposit.
So what controls eCPM?
1,001 variables over which you have very little control unless you fall within my "personal definition" of MFA where you tweak on your site/s this and that every 15 minutes.
Yes, a very cynical view that "real" content should still reign supreme.
I like the suggestion above of creating segments to analyze. On top of that, I'd suggest using at least PubCenter in addition to AdSense. There are definitely segments where we see PubCenter outperforming AdSense.
On top of that, I'd suggest using at least PubCenter in addition to AdSense.
for the few publishers in this forum (namely u.s. residents) who have access to this service that is.
regarding the rest of the world, there is still no real adsense alternative - even from the big players - since all those years on the net..
there is still no real adsense alternative
Patents?
