Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I've noticed ad targeting being way off recently and extra sticky (even section targeting tags can't fix rogue ads). Surely this isn't all down to recession and empty pockets.
I know there are a lot of variables to consider, more traffic doesn't mean more income exactly, but what defies logic here is how from an specific date, my normal, average very stable income per day dropped to the half and has been there since then.
Just like if someone has applied a rule to how things work.
I'm pretty sure the ad targeting is the problem though. Strangely it's bang on one minute and then completely rubbish the next and it also varies from browser to browser. One page recently went up had perfect ads for the content for about a day, then they all disappeared and were replaced with something completely unrelated.
Re seasonal trends, I wonder if you're receiving increasing traffic from Australia. Geographic trends based on seasons can have an effect.
My daily earnings have been pretty consistent over the years I've been with the program, showing a certain growth relative to the traffic. I keep a log and graphics to compare earnings by month and by year, and yes, I check the daily reports too. Long story short: very stable earnings across my sites.
Then I decided to give interest based ads a try on X date and 2 days later the daily income went down to the half. I had nonsense ads all over my sites. I was also having duplicated ads. I decided to wait, be patient and just give it time. After 11 days aprox I decided enough was enough and opted out from interest based ads but the earnings stay the same, half of what it has been for a long time.
I had 3 days of 65% of my normal earnings since then, only 3 days... the rest, half of it or less.
The strange thing is my traffic went up and has been above of what it used to be, nothing weird, no updates of strange things or out of the subject of each site. All my content is original including the pictures, every article written by me word by word.
Very very strange. The relation with the dates I opted in is what worries me.
The only thing not up is traffic but that's my problem to work on.
If I've jinxed myself by posting this I'll cut my throat.
...opted out from interest based ads but the earnings stay the same, half of what it has been for a long time.
That's really interesting. So you opted out of interest based ads but the low earnings remained. Which may indicate that the source of low earnings may not be tied to interest based ads at all. If that's the case, what could be the cause? Has there been a change in the geographic traffic patterns?
One of my sites hit a wall a few weeks back. I assumed it was seasonal. Traffic is down a bit, too. But another site has suddenly taken off and is making up for the shortfall.
Nevertheless, I'm seeing some pretty wild swings.
Not wishing to jinx myself but I took the lead from others and went 336X280 and cleaned up a few minor distractions right away from those ads, sites wide, and I'm very happy.
Been using that for a while, although it's at the end of my content and does perform the best. What were the minor distractions - were they advertisers that needed blocking?
I'm right there with you. CTR down, earnings steady.
It's more a case of CTR seriously down, and earnings down enough to hurt... Traffic kind of the same, maybe a little lower but not enough to worry about.
The thought does occur that it's the audience and not the system. People move on and things change so maybe I need to adapt. A measure of that would be how many others are experiencing similar problems and from what I can see some are, but more than a few publishers are experiencing good times.
Is there an Adsense equivalent for gamblers anonymous?
A discussion about CTR should also discuss earnings because low CTR in itself might be a symptom of higher paying ads showing that are less relevant to a broad audience
True, we shouldn't discuss things in isolation. All my previous comments across threads have been about low CTR and literally were exactly that:
Again literally, about low CTR. By its single self.
Generally, my impressions were the same, EPC was the same and, I don't do CPM as far as I know, so that doesn't count. All that was left was...
The topic of this thread "Low CTR most of this month".
Now I took certain remedial measures [more in desperation, so to speak] and I've since luckked [sic] out because of a clue from another thread.
Today I'm very buoyant, a Rooster in fact and, to use an Australian expression:
Tomorrow, I might be a "Feather Duster".
What were the minor distractions - were they advertisers that needed blocking?
NO
Under-performing other links, kinda 50 /50 situation, so I decided to bite the bullet and remove anything else nearby around AdSense.
I must admit adding a rectangle was a very radical move [for me]. AND lots of changes site's wide
Hell, for all I know just making changes might have shook up the system.
Lemmee check...
So far today [to this very minute] is getting back to around 3 - 4 years ago.
Anyway it's been a long time since I enjoyed real good double digit eCPM.
TRUE
These changes were introduced progressively. I'm talking about changes on pages that have had nothing altered since 2001. Yes I extensively use SSI.
To quote the very old boring expressions:
a) "for what it's worth"
b) "your mileage might vary"
What more can I say?
[ADDED]
Changes since 2001 refer to improvements to include SSI files etc. If you don't understand Apache SSI then this is meaningless. Yet again.
FWIW - YMMV
[edited by: IanCP at 2:48 am (utc) on Sep. 23, 2009]
- Exactly the same as the August's?
- Down slightly from July's
- Almost exactly the same as June's
No significant changes in eCPM over the last few months, either.
Ads mostly look OK and on target. (No "belly fat" ads, or at least none that I've seen, which isn't to say that they might not be showing up in Biloxi or Buenos Aires.)
My lowest earning in years hit this month. Google keeps rolling out these "improvements" which invariable seem to reduce my earnings. They may be helping Google's bottom line, but certainly not mine. Of course there is no one at Google to talk to about this since they don't like to communicate with us pions who "only" provide a couple million ad impressions a month.
Regards...jmcc
It's a shame that CTR and eCPM are down. I can live with since earnings are up so much.
March to July raising CTR
Now August and September again falling.
But at last, EPC is raising this month.
Hightest EPC since January 2007, this compensates the low CTR.
Regards...jmcc
It won't be a record setting month, but it will be our best month since April.
Regards...jmcc
Targeting borked. ECPM borked. CTR borked. Ad quality borked...
What about earnings?
