October 2011 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[incrediBILL]

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

[kd454]

Must be nice to shave a few here, a panda there and boom record profits.

[Scurramunga]

question for those with falling earnings: what is the cause of this?
Lower visitors? lower CTR? lower ecpm?

Started off with lower ctr at the start of the year
Next it was lower ctr + lower ecpm.
Then to finish it off there was a 10-15% drop in traffic some time later.

At the end of it all earnings had fallen by about 75%+

[pelizden]

earnings up, but so is my traffic. ctr could be better though, but I won't complain too much.

[HuskyPup]

Heading for worst day of the year, 3 clicks in last 2 hours...complete AdSense collapse across the board, CTR, EPC therefore obviously eCPM.

Will check Saturday morning and if still similar will remove AdSense completely.

[azn romeo 4u]

Back in 09 or something...don't remember. I removed adsense for 8 months and put in it's place Valueclickmedia.com At that time adsense and vlc was making about the same.

Then after 8 months, I decided to put adsense back into the site. Earnings tripled. *Knocks on wood*

I left it there ever sense, except I don't use adsense 728x90.

My earnings seems to be the highest ever in my history. Here's what I do. I use the largest rectangles. I don't use the 728x90. I use the 160x600. Also I blend the ads with my colors. Also I use multiple ad colors. I use some blends and some that stand out. I rotate about 3-5 I think.

My website is pretty much about one thing, but that one thing can be about everything. So I have interest base ads turned on. For example, I have stuff about credit card, cars, toilet paper, dirt, anime, cartoons, movies, etc etc. I found that I would get a higher CTR with interest based ads off by a little, but the ecpm was way lower. Though I have switch them on and off from time to time to test. But if I have one bad day/week I revert back to what I previously had.

I usually try to optimize once a year, but 90% of my visitors are new. I think if you have frequent same visitors, you have to optimize more.

Hope that helps someone.

[Play_Bach]

> Heading for worst day of the year

Sounds like my Wednesday, HuskyPup - sorry to hear it.

[HuskyPup]

Something has to be majorly wrong, clicks are going up at ONE per hour! India has out-earned the UK so far today that's how bad it is.

[farmboy]

So I have interest base ads turned on. For example, I have stuff about credit card, cars, toilet paper, dirt, anime, cartoons, movies, etc etc. I found that I would get a higher CTR with interest based ads off by a little, but the ecpm was way lower. Though I have switch them on and off from time to time to test.

How do you switch interest based ads on and off?


FarmBoy

[mike2010]

Heading for worst day of the year, 3 clicks in last 2 hours...complete AdSense collapse across the board, CTR, EPC therefore obviously eCPM.

Will check Saturday morning and if still similar will remove AdSense completely.

record profits continue for Google at our expense...

Farmboy, the option is in the Adsense settings area. Shouldn't be hard to find.

[HuskyPup]

Something has totally fallen apart today, my biggest volume url channel has so far today a 0.08% CTR, unfreakingbelievable...preparing to remove AdSense in the next 8 hours unless there is the biggest click dump EVER!

[farmboy]

Farmboy, the option is in the Adsense settings area. Shouldn't be hard to find.

The poster wrote:

So I have interest base ads turned on. For example, I have stuff about credit card, cars, toilet paper, dirt, anime, cartoons, movies, etc etc. I found that I would get a higher CTR with interest based ads off by a little, but the ecpm was way lower. Though I have switch them on and off from time to time to test.

Sounds like the poster is saying that he is turning interest based ads on and off as in selecting when interest based ads are displayed on his site via AdSense. I haven't found that option.


FarmBoy

[Play_Bach]

> Sounds like the poster is saying that he is turning interest based ads on and off

Yet another publisher that thinks they have control of IBAs when they don't. Maybe one of these days there'll be a sticky about it...

[HuskyPup]

Well there ya go...Friday was my worst day of the year at 50% of post-Panda 2.1 average across the board and almost 20% of pre-Panda average.

Yeah, I know Gfans, it's me, there's nothing wrong with Google whatsoever...much!

[zarathustra2011]

Had almost a record number of clicks yesterday which equated to one of my worst pay outs this year, however during the day I'd updated my website, refreshed and uploaded all of my pages. I wonder if this sometimes plays a factor, as I sometimes notice during major updates, the reportings are a bit on the low side for a day or two, even if the clicks remain consistent.
Here's hoping to a better day... Morning hasn't started off too badly.

[azn romeo 4u]

@Play_Bach so we don't have control of interest based ads? Why do they give the option to turn it on and off then?

Yesterday I'm up 30%. So far up about 25% compared to previous month. And up 125% compared to October 2010.

edit - I mean up 225% compared to October 2010. *knocks on wood*

[Play_Bach]

> @Play_Bach so we don't have control of interest based ads? Why do they give the option to turn it on and off then?

Nope. You can only turn them off so YOU don't see them, not anybody else. It's a common misunderstanding for publishers to think they can turn off IBAs to their visitors but unfortunately, that's not how it works.

[azn romeo 4u]

Hmmm, I'm not following you 100% here. Why would they even offer that option? It's not like the publishers are gonna click on their ads, if the IBAs were only meant for the publishers themselves.

We're talking about the same IBA right? The one in the adsense account management where it says turn on or off?

I guess I can try to test it. I have 4 different computers at different locations. Also could try with proxy or onion network.

Lately I been seeing progressive insurance ads, because I been looking for car/home insurance.

Today I'm down about 15% at this time, but got 8 hours to go. Maybe it'll be the monthly average. But the earnings seem to be delayed lately to me. When I check in the morning they are higher than right before I check them before I go to sleep which is like around 11pm-midnight. Like 10-20% higher. Not sure if that's normal.

Edit. Okay, just read up at the support forums over at adsense. Apprently it won't be turned off, if the user has once visited an "advertiser" website already.

[thatjen]

azn romeo 4u,

I would try turning it off to see what happens. I turned it off a month or two ago and it helped my CTR somewhat (by about a 1/2%). Before I turned it off, if I went to a music website, and then a sports website, I would see music ads on the sports website, etc. I have visited my sites on 10+ computers since I turned them off and I rarely see irrelevant ads anymore. The only ads you can't turn off are remarketing ads, so if you went to zales.com, then you went to your website, zales.com ads may show up. Those are the ones you can't get rid of (unless you block zales.com), but by blocking the IBAs, I personally saw a huge improvement in relevant ads (at least from the 10 times I've tested my sites on different computers). By the way, the one irrelevant ad I saw this week was for Progressive, and I haven't been looking at insurance - I blocked progressive.com since it has nothing to do with my sites.

[Leosghost]

You can't turn off any IBAs.. the rest is your imagination ..

The reason "they offer it" is so that you can turn off having your site influence what people will see on other sites once they leave your site..

Pointless ? yes ..but it gives easily deluded or influenced people the idea that they can influence whether IBAs are visible on their site..Google lawyers wrote the text very very carefully..even the ASA at the time had to go check with them ..because she had misunderstood it the first time ..like folks are meant to misunderstand it...they are not all "Ph.Ds" and lawyers at the plex.

All this was confirmed along time ago on these forums when I insisted on the point with the ASA at the time..

She went back and asked the lawyers for clarification ..and then admitted that turning off ( it actually was written at the time "as opting out of" ) IBAs did not mean that they would not be shown on your site..

That has not changed..

They get even worse if you have visited an advertiser's site that has opted to use them on the content network ..so if you are addicted to jewelery sites ( or mentioning one of them in particular 3 times in a short post ) you'll see their ads just about anywhere on the net where the adsense site itself has either not got a very clear theme*..or is running multiple adsense blocks..in the latter case you'll see about one IBA per three or four "contextual" ads..

As some one said further up ..yes it would be usefull to have a "sticky note" here about IBAs ..to stop so much inaccurate information being given about them.

You will also increase your chances of seeing IBAs if you have "interacted" with an advertiser ..this includes visiting a page upon which they have shown an ad ( and thus "dropped you a cookie"..or "adjusted" your google, doubleclick, dart etc cookie )..even if it was not their website..

Reading and actually understanding what the ( apparently for some, complex ) words really mean when Google write and have written about IBAs would prevent many people posting misleading and time wasting advice about IBAs.

Whatever you think you are blocking on your site ..you can block it from showing many things ( you can block specific advertisers, categories , image ads etc ) ..but you cannot block it showing IBAs ..when I or anyone else visits it ..we will see IBAs ..if the cookies in the browsers on the machine(s) we use are set to retain enough data about our browsing for that to happen..if the browsers are set to "delete cookies on exit" ..then there will be no "advertiser cookie data" and thus no IBAs..that is the only way one avoids seeing them.

* if your site makes it's theme and subject matter really really obvious and unmistakable ..then it will show less IBAs ..but it will still show some depending on the visitors cookies ..if you have image ads turned on ..and you have say ..three showing ..and 2 from 3 or more are IBA ..you really need to think about making the point of your site or page clearer to Google..same applies if you only have text ads..but more than two or three of them are IBAs..your adsense is then unfocused..and will perform less well

[Play_Bach]

The very low earnings days continue. :-(

[Play_Bach]

Thinking of AdSense, hearing this song.

If we'd thought a bit about the end of it
When we started painting the town
We'd have been aware that our love affair
Was too hot not to cool down

So good-bye, dear, and amen
Here's hoping we meet now and then
It was great fun
But it was just one of those things

-- Cole Porter (Just One Of Those Things)

[ElvisFan]

Frank Sinatra did a great version.

My swan-song goes something like this....
"Where have all the clickers gone?
Long time passing"

[HuskyPup]

Rollercoaster crazy, after Friday's disaster Saturday brought the following...and note, NO click dump:

Impressions 73.5%
Clicks 86%
CTR 116.9%
eCPM 147.9%
Earnings 108.7%

Panda's "minor" update has slaughtered a couple of my sites, as in 10% of what they were doing until Thursday.

The only reason I can see is that they were .asia sites, I've wondered for a while if G was becoming xenophobic!

[zerillos]

The last two days have been awful. I bet even chitika pays better now.

[Jaideemaak]

Clicks down this month compared to last and a high proportion of clicks being invalidated every day. Most of my clicks come from link ads. I typically see n clicks for x payment all coming from link ads. Next time I log in the number of clicks is the same but the payment has been reduced quite considerably.

My assumption is that the clicks probably came from the same person as the person clicked through to one ad, returned to the list of adlinks, and then clicked to another ad. If there isn't enough time between clicks I guess they get invalidated.

When clicks are so difficult to come by, it is frustrating that when I do get clicks quite a few are being wiped out this way.

[thechromeguy]

Looks horrible every Saturday and Sundays. I was hoping to prepare for the holidays.

[koan]

One of my site was released from Panda prison a few days ago and I just had one of my best week end in a long time. Don't know how long it will last but it made me hopeful again with this online business stuff after an execrable year.

[vampke]

new all time high earnings yesterday, exactly 1 week after my previous record (+1.5%).

[zarathustra2011]

October is really coming along badly by contrast to September. I've unblocked anything I've had blocked on my URL list and will give it three days to see if that makes a difference.

[zarathustra2011]

Last night looked at my earnings at 1am (GMT+1) before I hit the pillow, and they were looking promising. woke up this morning, and they must have got revised during the night, as it had only increased by an extra couple of dollars.