October 2011 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[incrediBILL]

Thought I'd kick off the thread this month just to prove I'm still here ;)

[HuskyPup]

A good post Panda Tuesday however click volume, CTR, eCPM and earnings 50% of 2010 yet with the same page impressions!

Just where did Panda fit in with AdSense?

[jinxed]

It took away your high paying traffic.

[netmeg]

I don't really see where Panda and AdSense earnings fit together in any real sense. It shouldn't affect CTR. I don't know why it would send you different traffic either - I mean, you all have meta descriptions (other than maybe HP who is more image search) right?

None of my sites have ever been pandalyzed, and my last bunch of seasonal sites were WAY up over last year in every metric. However, my next bunch of seasonal sites (halloweenish) - I'm seeing more traffic, slightly higher CTR, but far lower EPCs. Nobody on the planet Earth loves Alice Cooper more than I do, but scary ads for his next album are blanketing all my sites; I may have to block him.

Lower earnings may coincide with Panda, but at the rate these things come out, *anything* could coincide with Panda, including phases of the moon. Correlation doesn't mean causation.

[mike2010]

I also don't understand the correlation between Panda & AdSense if regular & keyword traffic have remained the same throughout.

I'm guessing this is either a time where most Advertisers generally take time off...gearing up for the holiday season...or Google is just outright screwin with our earnings as they please.

[zarathustra2011]

October started great, but now two terrible days have followed one another, and I'm wondering what October will bring. Plenty of clicks, just not any decent high payings ads.

[andrewshim]

I'm guessing this is either a time where most Advertisers generally take time off...gearing up for the holiday season...

Can't remember when or where, but I DO remember a discussion about this some years back - about advertisers holding back their budgets in Sept/Oct to gear up for Nov/Dec/Christmas.

[zarathustra2011]

Hope that's true - just had my lowest paid day for the entire year!

[Play_Bach]

So far, earnings this month for the first five days are:
Sat 90%
Sun 30%
Mon 30%
Tue 70%
Wed 80%
Here's to hoping the upwards trend continues!

[zarathustra2011]

I think Google Ads felt sorry for giving me a hard time yesterday, and the first ten clicks of this morning have paid out extremely well... They may of course choose to revise those earnings downwards!

[koan]

This October has been one of the most volatile time I had with Adsense. It's almost insane.

[HuskyPup]

I don't really see where Panda and AdSense earnings fit together in any real sense.

Me too but it's as clear as daylight...overnight May 5/6th my CTR was slashed in two, since that date I have not had one day when clicks/earnings have even achieved my Jan 1st to May 5th average yet my EPC has remained the same therefore they didn't take away my higher paying traffic, simply half my CTR therefore clicks.

It's no wonder they posted record profits if they did this to several thousands of publishers.

[HuskyPup]

Just checked my 1-5 Oct 2011 v 2010:

Clicks 48.2%
CTR 52.4%
eCPM 43.7%
Earnings 40.2%
EPC 83% which is not a good sign at all
Impressions 91.9%

If I have the same debacle a few days before Thanksgiving I had in 2010 then I shall probably remove all ads since I took a 25% overnight reduction then for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Possibly another 25% off 40.2% in earnings?

This is scarcely credible!

[Lame_Wolf]

my CTR was slashed in two...

I am one of the crowd that think Panda has nothing to do with Adsense earnings.

If your CTR has decreased, then there must be some influx of adverts on your site[s] that interests no-one.

It is vistors - not Google - who dictate clicks.

[GodLikeLotus]

my CTR was slashed in two...

I am one of the crowd that think Panda has nothing to do with Adsense earnings.

If your CTR has decreased, then there must be some influx of adverts on your site[s] that interests no-one.

It is vistors - not Google - who dictate clicks.

Our CTR is also falling for no obvious reason other than the ads are off-topic. The CTR has fallen by around a 30% over the last 5 months.

Since the end of September nothing is making any sense at all.

[HuskyPup]

It is vistors - not Google - who dictate clicks.

I have to disagree with this, I have seen Google turn off and on the taps just like that before, they have the means.

Surely, but surely, I would have at least ONE day of clicks that was comparable to my Jan 1st to May 5th average?

Nope, this happened on a specific day at a specific time with a specific culprit, Panda 2.1

My two month average pre Panda 2.1 was 100%, the following 2 months were 52.6%, the NEAREST ANY day came to the 100% was 71.7%

My lowest two days pre Panda were 52% on Easter Sunday and 59.9% on Royal Wedding Day, no other day was below 80%

Ok, believe what you like, I know I've been screwed-over by G!

[mike2010]

Maybe they needed to make their Quota , and screwed us for a couple days to make it....ya neva know.

[Lame_Wolf]

It is vistors - not Google - who dictate clicks.

I have to disagree with this, I have seen Google turn off and on the taps just like that before, they have the means.

Surely, but surely, I would have at least ONE day of clicks that was comparable to my Jan 1st to May 5th average?

Nope, this happened on a specific day at a specific time with a specific culprit, Panda 2.1

Well, the planet i'm on, it is the vistors that click adverts.

And I have never heard or read anywhere of Google stating there was a Panda 2.X
I've only heard of other webmasters use that phrase. Google releases over 500 algo changes per year.

As far as I am concerned, Panda has been and gone. Anything else is a new algo change.

I can recall a 50%-75% drop in earnings that happened "specific day at a specific time"... a few years ago on April 1st and lasted a few months.

And if I recall correctly, you have complained about drops in earnings, CPC and suchlike long before Panda came along.

[cruzer2006]

In my opinion, I think the only way Google can have an impact on our earnings is via smart pricing, invalid clicks. CTR has nothing to do with Google, Panda and such. It also depends on our AdSense layout, ad blindness etc...Yeah ad blindness is starting to prevail. The CTR I used to have in the past is no longer the same. Furthermore, I believe the ads change on our site affect our CTR like good advertisers inventory running out, unrelated ads, interest-based ads enabled or not, Google +1 enabled or not. All these factors can have a negative impact. Just my 2 cents.

[Play_Bach]

Yesterday closed back down at 50%. :-(

[ElvisFan]

I'm down to the lowest earning month since I started with adsense 2005... on top of that they had the nerve to adjust last month by 10 bucks...

Skimming off the top at the end of the month is becoming a trend every month the amount is bigger and bigger...

[netmeg]

FWIW I'm seeing higher amounts returned to me for invalid clicks on the advertiser side, so I think maybe they mostly just adjusted their detection dials. I doubt they're trying to skim via invalid clicks.

[zarathustra2011]

In the past half hour my earnings literally doubled. I expect it to be revised downward at any moment!
Yesterday was slightly better than average, but so far October isn't look anywhere near as great as September.

[zarathustra2011]

Yep, didn't last. They just revised it downwards - was still looking quite good, then a few seconds later they revised it downwards again. I don't know why they keep doing this. Until a couple of months ago, I never once saw my earnings revised.

[Play_Bach]

Stuck. Click count hasn't moved for hours.

[azlinda]

I got a call from Google this morning about AdWords. They got a few choice words.

[Freedom]

"They got a few choice words."

Ha! I love it. I would love to chew their *&^ out. What did you tell them?

[mike2010]

are we ever gonna get phone support ourselves ? heck, I wouldn't even mind paying a small fee just to talk to a representative at times..

I think that's their biggest fear...is if they ever make their number openly public, that we'll be bombarding them with calls every 2 seconds..

charge a small fee for it, and everything's resolved.

[HuskyPup]

And I have never heard or read anywhere of Google stating there was a Panda 2.X

You have obviously NEVER read anything in the Google search forum! Do you honestly not know how many iterations of Panda there have been this year?

And if I recall correctly, you have complained about drops in earnings, CPC and suchlike long before Panda came along.

After Thanksgiving 2010 and until the first week of January 2011, yes since they did the same slashing to me then, since that first week of January until May 5/6th my CTRs and earnings were returning to normal.

For anyone who does not believe me and wants to closet themself, fine, just don't come squealing to me when you get Google slapped for your "unknown" reason...I'll not listen to you either and will retort with, Google does you no harm, it's your site, your advertisers, your layout, YOUR fault!

[Lame_Wolf]

Thanks HP, but I wasn't affected by Panda, Big Daddy, Florida, yadda yadda yadda. I haven't really followed the latest. To be honest, I got bored of listening to it.

[Lame_Wolf]

just don't come squealing to me when you get Google slapped for your "unknown" reason.

LOL. That's a good un. Why would anyone come to you if you too are affected by it? Doesn't make sense to me.