Adsense earnings April 2011

discuss the earnings trend this month

[Rockyou]

I am having a blockbuster start to this month first day, I think its too early to make a call.

[Play_Bach]

Impressions have gradually been moving up today but click count is at a standstill for several hours.

[benallos]

same here and earning is also low

[HuskyPup]

A surpringly average day all round however I would love to know how one site over 5 days can have an EPC average of 0.51, 0.50, 0.39, 0.51 and then 0.28?

That's one helluva spread to say the least!

[jmccormac]

@HuskyPup I think that the people in Adsense broke the contextual element of Adsense a long time ago because they thought they were smart and could "know" what users were searching for when they landed on a page. The other factor is that the financial attraction of opening Adsense to the highest bid with the contextual element taking a back seat was just too much.

Impressions moving but clicks are not. Same stuff - different day.

Regards...jmcc

[WolfLover]

You know, I'm really sick of this Google thinking they know what people want to see. For example, I was looking up running shoes for flat feet for my sister about two weeks ago and now, nearly every site I go to has this same pair of shoes in an image ad. I was simply doing some research for my sister and now I am bombarded with Google ads about shoes I don't want or need and of course that is what I see on my own sites when I look at them too.

My traffic is higher than it has ever been, but my earnings are lower than they've ever been. This is because the CTR is so much lower than it used to be. When customers come to my sites looking to buy the widgets that I sell and they see ads for widgets that they were looking for two weeks ago on my site that have NOTHING to do with the widgets on my site, of course they don't bother to click any ads.

[Play_Bach]

@WolfLover
Agreed. Obviously this IBA stuff is working for Google, otherwise they'd have scrapped it by now. Doesn't mean it works for my site though. For awhile now, the ad targeting I see is all over the place. Some ads are relevant, most aren't. The net result is a confused block of links of ads from several categories that just does not look right. Used to be ALL the ads were well targeted and related. Now it's just a mess.

[newborn]

Earnings not moving at all.

[JCKline]

@WolfLover and @Play_Bach, why don't you block these ad types in the Genaral Categories of the new interface, as well as IBA's in general under your account. I know it only works for some countries, and the amount of ads you can block in the general cats is WAY TOO LIMITED, but it does help to minimize this behavior you mentioned.

Aside from this...clicks are once again STUCK.

[Play_Bach]

@JCKline
Sorry, can't block the categories I need. Wrote a post about it here
[webmasterworld.com...]

As far as IBAs go, don't think you can control those either.

[HuskyPup]

As far as IBAs go, don't think you can control those either.

I use two browsers as standard, one with cookies the other disabled, and have six browsers installed and only two in total of them have cookies enabled plus I always automatically flush cookies every time I shut a browser window!

That works for me however I doubt Joe Public knows about it.

The thing that really annoys me is the geo-targetting of the ads via my ISP's location. I get local ads for a place 250 miles from me, pointless, utterly pointless.

[JCKline]

As far as IBAs go, don't think you can control those either.

There is some control.
My Account > Account Settings > Interest-based Ads Preference > Edit

[Play_Bach]

@JCKline
But that's just for me. Doesn't affect people visiting my site, right?

[m0thman]

My gut feeling is that they've messed with the formula way too much over the last few years. Simple context based ads worked well enough. If it ain't broke, no need to fix it.

[netmeg]

You can't really control the IBAs.

[JCKline]

@Play_Bach, I don't believe it's just for you.
Set your preference for interest-based ads. These ads are served to users based on their interests...

[Play_Bach]

@JCKline

However, you cannot opt out of showing ads to users based on their previous interactions with the advertiser, such as visits to an advertiser's website.

Here's the Google IBA link:
[google.com...]

[JCKline]

@Play_Bach, got it, thanks.

As far as stats today, impressions keep climbing but CTR has been stuck for many hours.

[WolfLover]

I hope that stats are still stuck? I'm like 7 hours behind in earnings this time of day.

[Play_Bach]

Pretty slow here too. :-(

[azlinda]

My traffic has been down by 2/3s since April 11! I haven't changed a thing.

[HuskyPup]

A very disappointingly below average day:

I would love to know how one site over 5 days can have an EPC average of 0.51, 0.50, 0.39, 0.51 and then 0.28?

And yesterday? 0.23...this is freakin' SmartPricing gone into stupid overdrive mode!

Please Google, stop this idiocy, your PhDs have zero credibility any more.

[JCKline]

Different day, same garbage.

[netmeg]

Some rather more marked peaks and valleys, but overall at 150% of last April, so I'm cool.

[Fuzzyfish1000]

I got so annoyed with the customised ads; I bought a bit of kit from EBuyer a few weeks back, and all I got was ebuyer ads from then on - but I've *already* purchased. I tend to use private surfing (ctrl-shift-N on Chrome) now if I'm looking at a site outside of my usual sphere.

Earnings way down this month (almost 30%) - but I think that's generally to do with my niche; it's been too sunny, and there are too many bank holidays in the UK! Not fretting, but will be watching next month closely.

[Atomic]

Ditto Netmeg. Crazy peaks and valleys, but it all works out in the end. We're a dollar away from an April record with 2 and a half days to go.

[HuskyPup]

My UK earnings are absolutely abysmal today but the supermarkets are making a killing...the majority of people are evidentally totally barmy since they obviously believe shops are never, ever going to be open again!

Roll on May and hopefully a more normal month.

[m0thman]

I'd like to see a normal month again too. Can't remember what that was like though. Once I get over this pandalitus I'll see how the weather is.

[jmccormac]

Bad day. Bad CTR. Bozo targeting.

Regards...jmcc

[kodox]

Bad day too. One of my good channel is not appearing.

Others are low ctr and cpc.

[snickles121]

bad day here too, traffic OK,