May 2012 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[HuskyPup]

Will the downwards spiral continue for some of us? Why do the supposed big earners hardly ever post?

Confused? "These questions—and many others—will be answered in this month's episode of...AdSense."

[JCKline]

The last two day it seems the bottom has dropped out. I'll see what today brings.

[netmeg]

I don't recall Google doing this sort of thing before.

Yea, they've been doing it for a while; I remember looking up Easter and seeing it. You can also get your own IP number now, and various other things. Anything they think they can answer themselves, they're gonna do. I can even plug in "temperature in ann arbor" and get the current weather and the forecast.

Back to AdSense - I continued my text vs image ads test, and I'm not saying anyone else would get these results but... the CTR went WAY up on image ads, but the EPC went WAY down. That continued for two days, which is pretty short lived for a test, but this time of year I have a lot of traffic, so I figured it was enough. So I took the image ads out of the mix. Immediately the CTR went down. Also immediately the EPC started climbing back up again.

Now it's possible that since I hadn't had image ads in that spot for some time, it requires more than two days to get good paying ones. But I'd rather go with the evil I know - low CTR and high paying clicks. So for now, I'm all about text ads.

Takeaways - always be testing, and find some way to evenly rotate ads so you *can* test. I found a nice little WordPress plugin that's so handy I'll probably send the guy a donation.

[jpch]

the CTR went WAY up on image ads, but the EPC went WAY down.

What did the Page RPM do?

[netmeg]

Decreased significantly.

[jpch]

It's been awhile since I ran the same type of test so maybe I'll try it again as I'm using both Text and Image now.

[JCKline]

Dead as a door nail thus far. Yet impressions are way up.

[edinburgher]

Looks like I've got the live hamster today. Numbers in the "poor but believable" level.

[JCKline]

This is the worst day so far this month, and I thought yesterday was bad.

[ThatsBoBo]

Things have been going really well here over the past few days. Setting records on earnings over past years.

[CodeJockey]

Best day of the year yesterday.

Today is shaping up to be the worst day in weeks unless there's a packet of clicks hiding in the corner.

This up and down thing is getting to be fairly consistent.

[fearlessrick]

Cheers to all you Adsensers. I always enjoy this thread. My observations:

May was looking great until the 19th, when I had the highest number of clicks, but the lowest CPC and second lowest earnings of the month. Since then, it's been bound in the lower range of my average daily earnings, though not horrible.

One thing I did notice this month is that my lowest earnings day has been significantly higher than in previous months, but also my high earnings day have been lower. Thus, I have achieved a kind of consistency. For me, being somewhat of an undisciplined type is a bit unnerving. I've been told that routine is good, but I happen to like the highs and lows - makes life interesting.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm almost content, which, for me, is probably not good.

When I am king, free houses for everyone!

[dirkji]

May was looking great until the 19th

Same here, CTR and earnings took a dive on the 19th. Could Memorial Day next week have something to do with it?

[zarathustra2011]

Yesterday was okay, today looks okay, but all in all a very mediocre month. Already looking ahead to June.

[edinburgher]

After a poor but believable day yesterday, today is pants. It might catch up later but right now it's looking like being another pathetic day.

Unfortunately the average of "poor" and "pathetic" still isn't good enough to justify continuing to use Adsense in the long term.

[fearlessrick]

@dirkji, I wouldn't venture a guess on what it means, though US holidays are generally slower for me. depends on your niche, I suppose.

Anyhow, after bottoming on the 19th, daily revenue has progressively improved four consecutive days and today is looking very promising for a fifth straight.

[JCKline]

Clicks haven't moved in over 6 hours.

[greatstart]

This month wouldn't of been so bad if my search engine traffic didn't fall off so much. My pay per click has been fairly steady.

[edinburgher]

Another day of what looks like massive data loss.

It feels like the whle system is clogged with "waves" of delay running through the servers. If you're lucky, your clicks get through. If not then they're held up. And, it seems, eventually just dropped.

I can't say what I feel about this for fear of libelling a certain popular rodent.

[zarathustra2011]

Normal page views, big reduction in clicks, poor CTR, but easily my best CPC ever, and as a consequence, my best paying day in two months.

[edinburgher]

Normal page views, big reduction in clicks, poor CTR, but easily my best CPC ever, and as a consequence, my best paying day in two months.

Which backs up an alternative theory to data loss: that Google are mxing large numbers of CPA ads from the Affiliate Network into the Adsense stream. Clicks on these don't appear in the normal reports but when some finally convert then they show as high paying single clicks.

If Adsense is mixing CPA into the normal ad stream then I want a way to opt out.

[netmeg]

I seriously doubt that they are mixing in GAN ads; for one thing I've seen nothing that would lead me to believe so, and for another, the advertisers in the GAN have to approve where their ads are shown.

But even if Google was doing it, there wouldn't be a way to opt out.

[edinburgher]

I seriously doubt that they are mixing in GAN ads; for one thing I've seen nothing that would lead me to believe so, and for another, the advertisers in the GAN have to approve where their ads are shown.

You might be right. But if Google don't give facts then they'll get speculation.

[netmeg]

Killer day today, and officially the start of my peak season. Woo hoo!

[HuskyPup]

You've officially killed me netmeg...yet another disastrous day so far with my lowest EPC of the month. Average daily click volume now down to less than 10% of 2005/6.

[netmeg]

I'm sorry, HP.

[JCKline]

@HuskeyPup, my day is looking as bad as your, but my CTR is up. My CPC and eCPM are so low, it doesn't matter. I get depressed seeing US clicks adding up to pennies. Not normal.

[Atomic]

Yesterday was my best day in two months. Today is down but so is traffic. But that is hardly unexpected on a holiday weekend like this. Even so the CTR and page RPM are both pretty good for my site. Now if only the traffic would just pick up...

[JCKline]

Clicks haven't changed in hours. Stuck?

[JCKline]

Still stuck! hmmm

[Lame_Wolf]

Moving okay here. (UK)