December 2011 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[HuskyPup]

Oh heck, here we go into what is, for many of us, traditionally the worst month of the year. Any bets for when the big drop in earnings starts...20th/21st December?

[WordsnCollision]

I'm with Husky on this one. Metrics fluctuate day to day but when they fall off a cliff and stay there, you look for a reason. When it happened to me I did some digging and that's how I learned about Panda.

With that said, not every Panda update had an effect on my metrics.. in fact, only one subsequent update did: July 23. Since then my numbers have been back to normal and then some.

We've gone an unprecedented 11+ weeks since a major Panda update (as per various sites that note such things). Are they done, or is a Panda-tsunami on the way?

[Slashus]

Couple things:

1) They began a (new?) vigorous scrubbing algo on or about Oct 1, 2011 or enacted something that makes it appear so. It's like night and day. Clicks aren't synched yet properly on the interface - so you can actually see yourself receiving clicks/earnings and then they'll zero out the earnings 5 minutes later - but leave the click itself in your custom channel and overall account view. Artifically reducing your EPC.

2) A Google Preview from the Google search results counts as an ad impression but does not count in Google Analytics as a page impression or visitor. In other words, if you have A LOT of pages (100k+) that are indexed but aren't in the Google cache - your ecpm may be artifically low because people are Google previewing your pages with no chance of an ad click.

[Lame_Wolf]

I disagree IF my log referrals are correct, similar visitors with similar queries through similar searches from the usual countries

Come on HP, you know that is b0ll0cks.

Are you saying to me that the 10k visitors you had on monday are the same 10k on tuesday ? (or whatever amount of visitors you have).

Even if there were a 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance of them being the same, it doesn't mean that they are in a buying mood at the same time. I may look for something to purchase on monday (and click on an advert), and nothing for the rest of the week.

[Lame_Wolf]

Clicks aren't synched yet properly on the interface

They never have... not even in the old interface.

[ElvisFan]

Sorry to confuse the issue ... when I said "same" I mean "same amount" of traffic and same SEO with google for most of my pages... yet, for some reason NOT the same earnings at the end of the month...
Everything went downhill after the first Panda update in May.. regained some ground after a month or so, but after the recent Panda update back to square one...

[JCKline]

Well it's Christmas Eve and #'s are down as I expected. Happy holidays everyone!

[HuskyPup]

Are you saying to me that the 10k visitors you had on monday are the same 10k on tuesday ?

Not at all however traffic volume usually generates reasonably consistent averages and especially so when concerning niche widgets.

People don't just randomly surf for my products or fall over them per chance, they are deliberate searches, I know they are since my logs tell me precisely for what they are searching such as specifickeyword1/specifickeyword2/specifickeyword3. They don't get referred to me by newspapers/blogs/twitter/facebook/whatever, these are specialised and expensive products for which both Joe Public and the widget trade are seeking.

As WordsnCollision wrote:

Metrics fluctuate day to day but when they fall off a cliff and stay there, you look for a reason.

Precisely, and when that fall is timed to perfection with a Panda iteration there is only ONE answer, this was no coincidence, I didn't just lose 33% CTR and 50% earnings over night purely by coincidence.

This was a causal effect (causality) of whatever that Panda iteration was supposed to achieve and in my AdSense case failed miserably.

And today has already set a new record for me...a 0.39% CTR...hahahaha...roll on the 9th January 2012.

[Lame_Wolf]

People don't just randomly surf for my products or fall over them per chance, they are deliberate searches, I know they are since my logs tell me precisely for what they are searching such as specifickeyword1/specifickeyword2/specifickeyword3. They don't get referred to me by newspapers/blogs/twitter/facebook/whatever, these are specialised and expensive products for which both Joe Public and the widget trade are seeking

Funny that, same for my site. My CTR % fluctuates too, I then play with the system rather than come and complain here, where no-one from Google can help.

This was a causal effect (causality) of whatever that Panda iteration was supposed to achieve and in my AdSense case failed miserably.

You were complaining about this before Panda.

[matrix_jan]

Merry Christmas to all!

Are you having low traffic or the adsense weakness is because of advertisers low bidding?

This is my first Dec of relatively low traffic(-20%), although the eCPM is up(20%)...
Thank you

[HuskyPup]

You were complaining about this before Panda.

You come up with that statement every time and it is blatantly untrue. I only ever complain when there is evidently something wrong, period.

It's pointless discussing this with you and any other naysayers any further since you will not accept that Panda has had an unexpected effect for some of us and until it ever happens to you nothing will ever change your minds no matter what Google metric evidence we provide.

[JCKline]

@matrix_jan
My traffic is definitely lower, but not low enough for the 0% CTR.

[Lame_Wolf]

You come up with that statement every time and it is blatantly untrue. I only ever complain when there is evidently something wrong, period.

Oh, come on. How many times (i've lost count) where you've said how bad it is, CTR down, yadda yadda yadda.

Here on Earth, there is a minor thing called global recession, and in some parts it's xmas, where it is too late for many to do online shopping etc.

Maybe you would like to visit us sometime. Not hard to miss, we're the third large rock from that big glowing thing. ;)

[Lame_Wolf]

It's pointless discussing this with you and any other naysayers any further since you will not accept that Panda has had an unexpected effect for some of us and until it ever happens to you nothing will ever change your minds no matter what Google metric evidence we provide.

For what it's worth, I was affected on the 1st of April (not this year), and that joke ran for months before it went back to normal. Nowt to do with Panda (it didn't exist then).

[zarathustra2011]

Didn't expect to make much on Christmas! lol.

Happy Christmas everyone.

[has2hands]

Merry Christmas dear readers !

[Lame_Wolf]

bah, humbug :)

[jk3210]

Down about 15% yesterday. Not bad

Merry Christmas!

[HuskyPup]

Not hard to miss, we're the third large rock from that big glowing thing.

Ah yes, I have visited it on occasion. It is the planet where the vast majority are gullible and consider it heresy to question its self-anointed Goggs purported wisdom.

And on that note, Merry Xmas Terra species and enjoy your humbugs.

[Lame_Wolf]

Ah yes, I have visited it on occasion. It is the planet where the vast majority are gullible and consider it heresy to question its self-anointed Goggs purported wisdom.

That's the one.
Come on down, you'll fit right in. :)

[WordsnCollision]

Comparing last December 1-24 to this one, it seems while impressions are down 10% all other metrics are up 10-20%. Xmas day 2010 was the lightest day of the month traffic-wise (as usual), and the week of Dec 25 through 31 of 2010 was nothing to write home about (again, as usual).

Merry Christmas to all WebmasterWorld contributors, your observations and advice this past year have been very helpful!

[GodLikeLotus]

Stats Stuck. Very slow day, anyone else?

[Play_Bach]

Stuck all day here too.

[andrewshim]

Stuck

Santa's had too many cookies and is stuck in the Adsense chimney.

[zarathustra2011]

Actually Christmas day didn't finish too badly - surprised me. Certainly better than some of my worst days over the past two or three months.

[HuskyPup]

How utterly bizzare...again!

Xmas Eve recorded my lowest-ever CTR and earnings' day at 34.9% of Dec average even though impressions were up compared to Wednesday and Thursday, EPC absolutely on my average.

Xmas Day impressions were 49% however earnings were 108.4% of my December average with a CTR of 173.4%, an EPC of 128.6% and an eCPM of 221% .!.!.!

Canada topped my list of earners followed by the USA and France...France.?.?.? and then Yemen...good grief, what was happening yesterday?

And so far today France is already my biggest earner...logs here I come.

[Play_Bach]

Yesterday saw my lowest earnings all year. :-(

[WordsnCollision]

Xmas Day broke a longstanding trend by NOT being the lowest-earning day of the month, though it was still a bit below my monthly average for December. A couple more decent days (knock on wood) and I will break my all-time (since May '07) record for monthly revs.

[farmboy]

For those who are experience lower than normal earnings on holidays such as Christmas, do your other sources of monetization have a corresponding decline?


FarmBoy

[zarathustra2011]

They do for me farmboy - these past couple of days have been pretty bad all around (Adsense and elsewhere), but they usually pick up a few days after Christmas (at least that's been my experience over the past 6 years).

[farmboy]

Interesting. My other revenue sources seem to keep chugging along. Only AdSense seems to hit a brick wall on those days.


FarmBoy