Google vs Italian authority, chapter 2

Google will reveal the revenue sharing to each publisher

[darkyl]

After the investigation of the Italian antitrust authority Google has announced that "the revenue sharing percentages will be communicated to each publisher".
It is not clear if this will happen worldwide or in the italian market only.

Italian editors who promoted the investigation have not commented but it seems they are not completely satisfied by Google response.

[incrediBILL]

From the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S.-based Internet search company has offered greater transparency in its advertising revenue-sharing contracts with publishers, Italy's antitrust authority, Agcm, said Friday.

[online.wsj.com...]

That would be typical that they would only share with the Italians and leave the rest of us hanging ;)

[zorogat]

I am italian, but I can't see nothing new in my adsense account!

[johnmoose]

It will take some time before they implement that.

[IanCP]

In any event what real help is this to anyone beyond idle curiosity?

Will this knowledge improve your earnings? Make you happy? Likely leave you feeling "ripped off"?

[leadegroot]

In any event what real help is this to anyone beyond idle curiosity?

As a one off figure - no, not really interesting beyond prurient curiosity.
But if you track it over time and notice a drop - you know there is a problem.
It lets you try things and see if that makes you a more or less valuable publisher.
Its one more thing to compare against other changes:
'ECPM dropped, but my revenue sharing percentage didn't - so its not me, its a change in publishers."
This knowledge will lead to a different choice of actions to attempt to fix it.

Yep, I for one would really like to have this information and consider it a fairly basic necessity to a business relationship.

[Edge]

Will this knowledge improve your earnings? Make you happy? Likely leave you feeling "ripped off"?

Yes, yes and yes.

Knowing the total revenues of each click will help each publisher to better understand our websites value to advertisers and our performance or website quality.

Example - if your revenue drops dramatically you will be able to tell if there was a drop or change in advertiser quality (price bid) or Google has decided to pay you less percentage. This will end the endless “smart pricing” discussions on this and other websites. Personally – I’m tired of all the endless AdSense conjecture and speculation – mostly worthless discussions as nothing useful (how to be better) is revealed.

For that matter - I think all revenue share programs should have always been revealing the revenue share.

[jcaron]

Smart pricing does not affect the revenue share, it affects the amount the advertiser is billed, and thus the amount the publisher gets.

[Jon_King]

Seems to me "unfair trade practices" of some sort could come into play with the disclosure. Think of the accusations that might be leveled between publishers in the same ad space if the payouts are not equal. What a litigation nightmare that could become.

[potentialgeek]

I think it's funny the Italians have turned the screws.

The real question Google never answered is: Why don't you share the split like everybody else?

Who benefits from the lack of transparency? Whose idea was it in the first place?

If it is higher than or the same as industry averages, Google would benefit from revealing it.

Personally I never really thought it was better or worse than the averages. I thought it was just a scheme to let Google swipe a bigger chunk if its stock ever got weak and it needed to make a big grab. Slick insurance policy.

[joelgreen]

I think they did not disclose it because of sharing percentage formula complexity. And if they say we'll give you from 50% to 90% that would arise much more questions than we currently have

[Edge]

Smart pricing does not affect the revenue share, it affects the amount the advertiser is billed, and thus the amount the publisher gets.

I have not seen any conclusive or revealing evidence of exactly what smart pricing is.

Anyone whom has studied or lived long enough to understand trends in business practices - won't believe anything claimed by a business partner without proof.

I think former president Regan used the phrase -

"Trust, yet with vertification"

[ponyboy96]

Anyone want to take bets about what the average is? My guess is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20%, but I'm no adsense expert. My figures are based on my average clicks and earnings vs the reported CPC's that I see for related keywords.

[purplecape]

10-20% for Google or you? Using information from Google's financial reports, people have figured out that Google pays on average 60-70% of the total earnings in the content network. Of course, Google may be paying some sites more than others, but if the numbers that come out actually can be generalized to sites outside of Italy, you might be surprised....

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

They don't have any incentive to be completely satisfied so why would they be? They've gotten more than they should realistically have hoped for.

Case closed.

[rustybrick]

When someone see these reports in their accounts, please do post a screen shot. :)

[londrum]

different countries have probably got different splits anyway, so the italian info wont help all that much.
adsense has got more competition in the US than it has in europe, so US publishers probably get a better deal.

you probably get a different split for different niches as well. if there's only one program advertising red widgets then they've got you over a barrel, and you're probably going to get a worse cut than one like books, which has bazillions of different affiliate programs.