Estimated earnings?

[StoutFiles]

Logged into Adsense today and instead of "Today's Earnings" it's now "Today's Estimated Earnings". Is this normal?

[andrewshim]

Makes the report look a wee bit messy on my screen. Also, the numbers suck. December's gone down the toilet.

[stormshield]

At first I thought that the interface had been switched to my native language (which has longer words). I don't like how the report page looks now, but maybe it's because I'm just used to the old one.

[wyweb]

Not normal and I don't like it a bit. Tell me what I've made and leave the predictions to my own fantasies.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

We just did a post about this messaging change on the AdSense blog.

ASA

[surfer67]

The thing is, they've probably always been "estimated" earnings. For the official earnings you'll have to wait until the next day. It's always been that way, except they didn't call it "estimated earnings".

[HuskyPup]

Also, the numbers suck.

Or they're well and truly stuck! Half a Googleday gone and the numbers so far look horrible.

[LifeinAsia]

Must be new "truth in advertising" requirements. :)

[nomis5]

From a UK perspective estimated earnings makes sense. After all, who knows what the exchange rate will be when the earnings are confirmed. I have high hopes that the £ will plummet off the edge of a cliff over the next few months.

[BlueLeaf]

It's situations like that this that remind me how little I trust Google these days.

I would encourage any webmaster that earns monthly income from PPC on websites or domains, to send letters to your state and federal government officials demanding that transparency be forced upon ad providers, rights to audit your own earnings, etc... I've sent out four letters already, two for AdSense, and two for AdWords. If enough letters are received, your government will take action.

A lot of people earn a living from PPC, and it's time the industry became transparent.

[td22]

In order to be more transparent about how our system calculates earnings, we've added the words "Estimated" and "Finalized" next to "Earnings" throughout your account. Rest assured these terminology changes don't reflect a change to the way your finalized earnings are calculated. It's simply intended to give you a clearer idea of what's our estimation of your earnings and what's finalized.

[IanCP]

Here's the "offishul" story for those not signed up to receive emails:

[adsense.blogspot.com...]

[denisl]

Dont see the wok+rd finalised anywhere.

Just gone back to 2004 and it is still saying Estimated - thought those figures might be finalised by now - or might they still claim those earnings back!

[johnnie]

Was wondering the same exactly!

[Scurramunga]

I came here today to ask the same question and lo and behold it's already been asked.

Wasn't sure if it was me not having noticed :Estimated Earnings" before or not.

[BillyS]

This is the place to come when you see these changes. Makes you realize you're not alone...

[sailorjwd]

Yes, last year's are estimated. I hope they let me know what the final figure is so that I can amend my tax return.

As for settled earnings, I don't think they are really settled until 10 days after the end of the month.

[ken_b]

Estimated earnings?

How do you estimate... "LOL...earnings...you wish!" ?

[Roseb44170]

Actually now that I see this thread it did remind me of a few times when my actual adsense earnings were different than the amount that was noted at the end of the month. Adsense always has that line that appears in the payment history about "earnings will be finalized...." - usually during the 2nd week of the next month. And I noticed that a couple of times my "finalized" earning were higher than my "estimated" earnings. So I'm just taking for granted that adsense has been doing this anyway its just NOW that they are reflecting it on the publishers pages.

[IanCP]

Yes. I also think we aren't seeing anything different from years back except a different terminology [legal reasons?].

Without it having been drawn to our attention we would never have known a difference. I've noted odd variations in the past, but always very minor values +/- sub 1%

[zett]

"Today's Estimated Earnings" = Earnings can change at any time later. After all, these are just estimates. "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

[wolfadeus]

I see the same thing in Europe. Does anyone know what it means? Does it relate to exchange rate fluctuations, as it was suggested above? I don't think this would make (ad)sense if the currency in your account is the same in which the money is paid.

[Lame_Wolf]

I don't care what it means, or what it says.

[StoutFiles]

I don't care what it means, or what it says.

You're here, and you posted, so you care a little.

[nomis5]

We should be more positive. 2004 earnings might still be estimated and they might claim some back. But on a positive note, Adsense might realise they had paid us less than we were due and give us a five year adjustment upwards.

Who's to say that pigs can't fly, not me.

[richelectron]

I noticed it, but assumed as much as they had always been estimated - Google's just being more explicit in specifying it now.

[farmboy]

...send letters to your state and federal government officials demanding that transparency be forced upon ad providers, rights to audit your own earnings, etc

I'm in the U.S. so you're basically asking me to ask the U.S. Congress to "help" and interject their "wisdom" in between me and AdSense.

Er... NO thanks. No way.

As far as I know, there's not a single PPC program, affiliate program, etc. that a webmaster can't quit if he doesn't like it.

FarmBoy

[Lame_Wolf]

You're here, and you posted, so you care a little.

Not at all. I gave my opinion. That is allowed in a forum, yes ?
I can agree, disagree, or be neutral.
I couldn't care less what it says on there. It could be in Urdu for all I care.
Just try not to see things that are not there just because is says "estimated".

[Lame_Wolf]

Nice to see you back Farmboy. I guess harvesting has now finished for the year ;)

[netmeg]

It just means what it says. They have all kinds of internal procedures to check for click fraud that they do for the AdWords advertisers, and given the ginormous size of the entire enterprise, it's not always done instantaneously as soon as the clicks show up on your earnings page. So it's an estimation until it finalizes, which is as it's always has been. I frequently have downward adjusted earnings after month end up to about a buck or so*, just as on the AdWords side, I always have adjustments every month for invalid clicks as well.

Nothing has changed, except the language on the page.

*one time it was actually higher, which is a total mystery that I will never understand or get an explanation for