CTR down but PPC up

Funny that it evens out exactly

[MichaelBluejay]

I don't spend much time looking at my AdSense stats. I prefer to spend my time doing what I enjoy -- creating good content -- and be content (pun intended) that the money will follow.

But today I compared my stats for a year ago with recent activity and the difference was pretty striking. The number of clicks per unit of traffic has plummeted. However, the EPC has increased. So these effects cancel each other out, and I'm earning the same as I was last year per unit of traffic.

I'm calculating CTR by both total clicks divided by the number of distinct hosts I served (from my own traffic reports), as well as total clicks by the number of "Page Impressions" that Google reports.

I haven't added much more content or changed how the ads are displayed much. Most of my work has been to rewrite existing pages.

I looked for previous threads on this topic but didn't find much. There's an article in the Library where some members had sort of similar experience, but there wasn't much about it.

I'm not sure what to ask here. It just seems that a major decline in CTR coupled with a major increase in EPC is...unusual.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 7:00 am (utc) on Jun 30, 2010]
[edit reason] Removed specifics at posters request [/edit]

[HuskyPup]

Whilst my metrics are not as drastic as yours, several posters over the last few months have mentioned similar occurences.

I assume that this happens when the CTR is lower then the advertisers have increased competition and need to bid more to ensure their ads are seen.

Maybe netmeg could confirm/clarify this?

[ken_b]

That's pretty much my experience too. CTR way down, EPC way up. So far it seems to have pretty much balanced out for me.

I have also seen a fair sized shift in where (which channels) the clicks are coming from on my site. That could account for some of the change in site wide average EPC.

[netmeg]

That's been the case with me too, only I wouldn't say it balances out, it's actually way higher earnings. I'm already way past the "best AdSense month evah" threshold (and there's still four (huge for me) days left in June)

I'm pretty sure CTR is down across the board for most people - I've tried various other ad platforms and some aff mktg, and it's down there too. I don't really have an explanation from the advertising side, because while I see lower CTR there in some niches, I haven't really experienced higher CPCs. But I don't advertise in the same niches that I publish.

[bumpski]

Perhaps interest based ads have caused the decline in CTR but having more advertisers targeting interests has improved bidding competition raising earnings?
Even though I've asked Adsense that CPM ads not be displayed, earnings from these ads have clearly increased in the last 12 months (as small as they may be for some types of sites). I used to see extremely small earnings from some CPM ads (gone now). (Notice I'm avoiding the term eCPM).

[edited by: incrediBILL at 12:33 pm (utc) on Jun 29, 2010]
[edit reason] thread clean up [/edit]

[Mark_A]

Looking from the other side (adwords) my PPC has gone up a great deal.