CTR has dropped

[ProfMike]

My CTR has been fairly constant for months and I get good results. I've been doing Adsense for a few years and I know how it works. My traffic is constant.
On March 28 my CTR suddenly dropped by about 25% and has stayed at that level since then. I have done no changes to the ads. I do know that CTR varies from day to day but that looks more like a policy change.
Has Google changed the way clicks are evaluated or something?
Has anyone else seen a sudden change in CTR?

[DanAbbamont]

How does your CPM compare?

[HuskyPup]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld ProfMike

Has anyone else seen a sudden change in CTR?

Yep, my CTR started to decline after the last maintenance on 20th March and my average CTR is now 20+% lower.

I have absolutely no idea why, I've done nothing different therefore it's got to be at G's end.

[Lame_Wolf]

I do know that CTR varies from day to day but that looks more like a policy change.

Certainly not a policy change.

[ProfMike]

What's CPM? RPM is down by about same amount as CTR. CPC doesn't seem to have changed - average per click is about same as before.

[netmeg]

MY CTR has dropped way down. My EPC (note EPC is EARNINGS, CPC is COST) has more than doubled. So it's a net gain for me, but I am somewhat curious as to why the CTR dropped so much. I'll probably never know though; I can't tell what ads other people are seeing.

[DanAbbamont]

Probably just less targeted ads but with higher bids.

[JCKline]

...or maybe...PANDA! Sorry, I didn't mean to freighten anyone. ;)

[ProfMike]

I'm not scared! Or am I .....
Do you think PANDA would have changed Adsense results? I thought it only affected ranking.
In my case I'm getting the same traffic, my rankings haven't changed but the click-thru-rate has gone down 25% meaning my overall earnings go down by the same amount.
I guess maybe I'm getting poorer ads that don't attract clicks, but only G knows why!

[koan]

My pandalyzed web site is suffering from terrible earnings because I miss out on higher paying US traffic, so the drop in earnings is actually worse than the corresponding drop in traffic (might have a spoon of smart princing in there also).

PS: I'm developing a phobia for pandas. Reminds me of the hilarious Australian ads about Panda cheeze where the panda is acting like an aggressive a-hole.

[netmeg]

None of my sites have lost traffic from Panda; a few have gained.

[CMidd]

My site have gained from panda big time. I'm beating out my top competitors for short tails, but my CTR has dropped big time over the last month. I earn almost half some days "way better then when i started, but a big drop".

I think the type of traffic I'm getting is different. I used to get long tails, now I get short tail "people just looking around". So my CTR has dropped

also google instant search could be the issue. The keyword people use to reach you site impact peoples action "even if it's the same visitor"

example. some searching for prices of widgets in city x, starts search with city x, and after a few letters of widget x your site shows up, with out prices. Even through they are looking for prices and would click on a ads related to it, they haven't landed with the expectation of looking for a price. instant has changed their search LMAO.

I've been migrating more toward affiliate offers over adsense.

I have also be changing my content to more engage short tail lookers.

earning with google is so variable the reasons could be thousands of things.

Change you monetization strategy to be less Dependant on google. Google should pay the bills, and earn some nice income, but if your traffic is valuable for adsense advertiser it should be valuable for the most knowledgeable advertiser for your sites YOU!

Take a step back and re analyze you strategy and hunt for Affiliate offer, Joint ventures, white label, store addiction, etc.

[coachm]

Same here on the CTR since Panda. Our traffic is the same in quantity, but incredibly bad ctr, and also nothing else which was working for revenue before panda is working after.

it's not something occuring organically. For all intents and purposes, if nothing changes all our Internet based business is dead, which is an amazing thing when traffic levels are constant.

As for affiliates, don't count on it. More states taxing, and more companies excluding states.

[ElvisFan]

What do you guys and gals consider to be a healthy CTR?

[CMidd]

As for affiliates, don't count on it. More states taxing, and more companies excluding states.

That tax isn't that bad. my main affiliate product have a ton of tax. State tax, town tax, and accommodation tax. totalizing around 18% "seriously" but i still make money.


I think the solution is instead of whining about panda and claiming the online world is dead, you need to think in the eye of the new user expectations.

I've been adding more videos, pictures, and extras to engage those user, and placing ads and affiliate offers around then and it's been working.

I also separate church and state LMAO. instead of of trying to monetize within content people land on. I created a separate section just for purchases "Store/shop". visitor who are looking to buy visit the Store/shop and buy.

one page i had which was my largest lander did great with adsense and affiliate offers, now it sucks, but since putting an in house ad for videos with an ad for the New Store, click to the store have increased and purchase have also.

when people are landing Google is almost knocking the "Buy Now" out of them, you have engage them, then remind them.

Passer by clicks are going away, and they should.
Exit clicks are going away, and they should.

Google is changing the exceptions and the user base is getting smarter. You know have to have more then just traffic to make money. You need to learn how to sale/market.

The glory days are gone for the lazy webmasters.

[CMidd]

What do you guys and gals consider to be a healthy CTR?

2% site wide. 10% on highly targeted "Buy" pages.

but it depends on your model. MFA-Lite site do a lot better, some around 5% CTR site wide, but most of those site are the ones suffering from panda updates.

Some content rich site, where the webmaster cares about the content would be happy with 1% "they goal being to engage reading, not influence ad click"

but i would say 2% is a great target.

[HuskyPup]

but i would say 2% is a great target.

Oh for the days when I had 6% when AdSense first started.

Oh for the days when I had 2% only in January and February of this year, it's been a downhill slide since March, which actually started well, however now I'm doing well if I get to 1.5% but mostly it's around 1.3%.

The usual caveat...I've changed nothing therefore it has to be Google!

[StoutFiles]

Slow and steady CTR drop is ad blindness.

Quick CTR drop is badly targeted ads (different areas get different ads).

It's not rocket science people!

[HuskyPup]

Quick CTR drop is badly targeted ads

From what I can see my ads are ok however with G trying to follow everyone around heavens knows what the visitor in Elbonia is seeing.

All I can prove with G's metrics is that 20th March maintenance had a big drop effect for me and has never recovered.

[Play_Bach]

> has never recovered.

Mine is on life support as well. :-(

[sailorjwd]

Panda changed my visitor demographics which resulted in CTR dropping by 50%. EPC is about the same. Ads appears the same. Just nobody clicks anymore.

[Play_Bach]

> Ads appears the same.

Not for me. Targeting is way off. I'm not sure if that's because there's a shortage of advertisers in my niche or what, but I'm definitely not seeing the same quality of ads I used to.


> Just nobody clicks anymore.

Ditto.

[JCKline]

Maybe it's time to break the ad blindness by changing things up. Every once in a while (using multiple pallets), I creat a new ad look to throw in the mix. It usually helps. 1 matching ad, one clashing ad, and one somewhere inbetween.

[JCKline]

I just realized G is no longer showing multiple pallettes? Even though it's selected for my ads, they only show the first selection? Then I checked the new adsense beta, and multiple palletttes aren't even an option! Now there's really going to be ad blindness, unless I go through and edit every channel often. Why are they limiting publishers options? This is wrong!

[CMidd]

Maybe it's time to break the ad blindness by changing things up. Every once in a while (using multiple pallets), I creat a new ad look to throw in the mix. It usually helps. 1 matching ad, one clashing ad, and one somewhere inbetween.

I'm going to test this and see how it works

[Play_Bach]

> Why are they limiting publishers options?

That's what I don't get either. Seems to me they make money when we make money, so why not have our ads look as good as possible. For starters, I'd be happy just to have them look like they do on Google itself - no "more ads" arrows <> and the urls below the text (just like they did in the old days!).

[CMidd]

That's what I don't get either. Seems to me they make money when we make money

Not all the way true.

Don't forget there is CPM "cost per milli impression" which on my site averages about $.02

So you maybe be losing High Earning Clicks, but impression are still being served to your site and Google is making money on some of those impressions.

Now we get a cut of impression, but it's super low for us, but Google is serving billions of impression and that adds up.

[Broadway]

I've notced a ctr drop. Enough so that I came here looking for an explanation.

Like others here, I've benefitted from Panda (substantially). Although the ctr drop seems more recent than Feb 24th.

[CMidd]

Broadway Welcome to club.

From what I have been seeing online a lot of people are seeing a drop in CTR. Of all the webmaster i know we all are seeing drops. Few people say they haven't noticed it.

[piatkow]

@ProfMike. What country are you in? On another board some UK people, including me, are reporting an overall drop in traffic recently and I have seen CTR drop as well.