October 2013 AdSense Earnings and Observations

Haunting Tales of AdSense That Would Spook Any Webmaster!

[JCKline]

Good bye September! What will October bring? Ups, downs, and everything in-between...

[mrengine]

The CTR I am seeing is so horrendously low that I thought there was some sort of reporting error. I have sites that operate in a number of sectors, and all of them are seeing a major reduction in CTR and also the revenue earned per click.

Without any public announcement from Google, other factors must be in play. Poorly designed/targeted ads? A reduction in advertisers as littlecubpanda noted? Shaving? It seems odd that this CTR problem is so widespread and there is not more noise among website owners.

[explorador]

I know traffic fluctuates and user behaviour changes but... it's too obvious G has lots of influence over the earnings, more than the traffic becuase we all see patterns changing at the same date and almost the same hour. G is playing with their beta changes.

Other than that... I often think we, constant posters of the GAdsense branch should change our nicknames to: low, superlow, crazylowearnings, below-low, always-low, etc.

[webcentric]

It seems odd that this CTR problem is so widespread and there is not more noise among website owners

I have been pondering the same observation. Perhaps it's just impossible to scream for help when you're being strangled to death. G has so many things in flux right now that I'm beginning to relate to those that have gone silent (probably because they're in a state of shear bewilderment and/or are in a mad dash for the nearest off ramp).

[explorador]

Well perhaps many website owners are now tired, bored and sick of the problems. I exchanged some words with other webmasters around here and many are tired and removing adsense, even some posts reveal people leaving or investing time on other things.

[mrengine]

I agree Google is indeed in a state of flux and that many website owners have grown tired with Google's many issues. Thankfully most of my sites have diversified traffic sources, which shields me from Google's organic mess. But with less traffic coming from Google these days, and the general impression that Google treats me as a competitor instead of a partner, reducing my dependence on Adsense to pay the bills is imperative. I've already transitioned many advertisements over to CPA offers, although I will leave some of the less prominent Adsense ads running on some of my sites.

[JCKline]

another all time low

[smashing]

Spoke with Adsense yesterday to complain about our huge drop in earnings which started Oct 3rd/4th (and continues). They cited 'new quarter' and pointed to a similar drop at the beginning of July. I'm not convinced but it's a data point nonetheless.

[mrengine]

Spoke with Adsense yesterday to complain about our huge drop in earnings which started Oct 3rd/4th (and continues). They cited 'new quarter' and pointed to a similar drop at the beginning of July.

My July earnings were exponentially higher then they are so far this month. I don't buy the "new quarter" excuse.

[webcentric]

Don't want to start a rant on SERPS in this thread but if ad serving is as disconnected from reality (in a contextual sort of way) as the SERPs are at the moment, it goes a long way toward explaining things that seasonal, fiscal, explanations can not possibly cover (goverment shutdown or not).

[JCKline]

Something is seriously wrong with AdSense. My one site compared to last month (which was a new low) is down 70% and another site that's bee on the rise, is down 31%. What happening this month? Traffic is stable...just don't get it. Is "the red bar" lying?

[SteveKuato]

My update:

From September 18 onwards my AdSense revenue dropped 60%+.

Last Tuesday Google did something which made my revenue go back to normal for one day only.

This Tuesday Google did the same thing and my revenue went back to normal on that day.

The good news for me is yesterday (Wednesday) Google did the same again. So that means this Tuesday and Wednesday I have had normal earnings.

I am so hopeful whatever experiment Google were doing with my account is over and things will be back to normal.

I will update later today/tomorrow to let you know if things continue being normal for me.

I can't emphasize how stressful this has been for me. My business was failing because of this. It really makes me realize I need to diversify; I can't rely so heavily on Google anymore.

[Play_Bach]

Yesterday was another lousy AdSense day. So far, October 2013 is on track to be the lowest month ever by a big drop in the nine years I've been with the program. Whomever is driving, just drove AdSense into the ditch.

[Play_Bach]

[dup post - mods please delete]

[explorador]

Yesterday ended fine as a decent day BUT october so far doesn't look good. Yesterday was weird:

Slow and low
Then it moved
Then slow and low
In the afternoon all of the sudden earnings went up in a flash
Then never moved again for the rest of the night

That's not good. It's like all the sites vanish from 18:45 til midnight, frozen.

[frankleeceo]

I bought into the idea that the beginning of the quarter usually has lower earnings. And it's true for my case. My RPM appears to be trending higher since the Oct 1 drop.

I really look forward to this year's holiday season earnings.

[smashing]

Here's a working theory... Perhaps Google has rolled out a new algorithm for filtering 'invalid activity'. In this case what I am suggesting is that perhaps they are trialling a new algorithm that is more aggressive at filtering clicks where say... the user clicks through on an ad and immediately clicks back again. The only reason I say this is because it seems in our case the biggest drop in RPM appears to be on ad units that are more likely for a user to click through in this way - prominent ad units, ad units that are blended within content, ad units that sometimes get those kind of ads that are 'tricksterish', leading the user to click accidentally. Ask yourselves if your ad units are universally affected, or if it's just some of them, and if the ad units affected fit this profile. And report back!

[Jaideemaak]

This has been going on for a long time and I don't believe it has anything to do with clicks being invalid or 'tricksterish'. There was some wording in the Adwords blurb some while ago that got changed, but it explained their way of thinking.

Advertisers don't simply want people to arrive on their page, they want some kind of a result after that happens. This takes a little time. If the user clicks through and then goes straight back because it's not what he wants, then that click gets taken back because there was no result. Google knows the user didn't do anything because of the time taken.

I don't think this is fair on the publisher, but it is Google protecting the Adwords users because they pay the money.

For a long time if I log in and see two quick clicks in succession, I check to see if they were on the same URL and from the same country. If they were it probably means it was the same user. The user clicked on an ad, returned, and clicked on another ad. If this happens, then 99% of the time one or both clicks will have been removed when I check next time.

Whatever gripes publishers may have, Google aren't at all bothered. Their loyalty is to paying customers and shareholders and their shares are now at record highs.

[bbc.co.uk...]

[SteveKuato]

Third day in a row things are back to normal for me.

I use 250x250 on mobile which is working well. They are displaying those nested text adverts and my visitors seem to like them.

Beginning to hope things are back to normal and I can stop being stressed...

[wolv23]

Red Bar again...

I have been with Adwords and Adsense for over 10 years and there is one thing that has bothered me for a long time.

My stats will show the same person click my ads 10 times and they charge me for every click in Adwords, but Adsense will never pay me for people who click on ads multiple times...

[Play_Bach]

Yesterday was another AdSense disaster. WTF is happening? I've never seen it this bad before. Text ads no longer look like text ads at all and targeting is horrible. Nine years with the program and now it's kaput. Is anybody doing well?

[nomis5]

Research firm eMarketer estimates that the mobile ad market worldwide will grow 89% to $16.65bn this year; up from $8.8bn in 2012.

Google's market share in the ad market is 6.9%. This has recently slipped slightly as rival Facebook has made inroads. Facebook now has 14.9% of the market, a jump from 9% last year.

Above is from the BBC report (previously linked to above).

Massive surprise to me:
1. That mobile ad revenue is estimated to have doubled this year.

2. G has such a small and decreasing share of it.

[breeks]

Is anybody doing well?

I'm doing OK not great but OK.

Good for me is an affiliate program that is kicking butt right now.

The affiliate program is doing good because its very targeted to the content of the website. Kinda like what AdSense used to be.

AdSense income is still important but not life threatening due to other advertising options.

[ember]

Doing well here, knock on wood.

[Turvey]

Hello, I watch this forum closely day to day and read the posts in this monthly topic at least 4-5 times a day. I look at the observations closely and treat every post with serious attention. This forum could in fact be a great forum if IMO the moderators gave some breathing space and actually let people like myself actually post. This is why IMO people don't post because they feel they are strangled by moderators.

The person that stands out in this forum is Webcentric and I value every word. I stand back with thought and feel this forum is giving Google adsense a very hard time, with pure lack of understanding of how advertising actually works in 2013, how Google work or anything with to do with RPM. This forum actually IMO are biased with who or can't post a reply unless it fits the criteria they want to listen to. Google is an outstanding company if your site matches the content they are looking for. Times move year on year, fit the site to the adverts without creating attention of MFA.

I really don't expect this post to last for 5 minutes before moderators take it down, because all you want to hear is doom and gloom stories (apart from Webcentric).

[smashing]

Interesting observations Turvey, I'm new here and a little surprised the forum isn't busier. I too appreciate Webcentric's posts as thoughtful and intelligent.

[ember]

This forum could in fact be a great forum if IMO the moderators gave some breathing space and actually let people like myself actually post.

Seriously?

Anyone can post here. Some people are just spending more time in the invite-only adsense publisher panel site. I have to say, though, that it too is fairly quiet.

[Turvey]

Hi Smashing, I would like to actually join this forum long enough to have a conversation with people like Webcentric, the problem is the forum is very biased with comments when it comes to positive remarks about Google or how people should learn about Google. This forum seems hell bent on running Google down into oblivion. I would like to seriously contribute with idea's and my observations of my sites, but is this possible on this forum?

[blairsp]

Interesting observations Turvey, I'm new here and a little surprised the forum isn't busier. I too appreciate Webcentric's posts as thoughtful and intelligent.

I can probably give you a few reasons as to why the forum isn't busier. In the main, this forum now consists solely of
1/people posting in this thread which consists of my money is up, my money is down, I'm doing great, I'm doing terrible. No real thoughts or insights. (117 messages at this point)
2/ The PIP thread - or the gloat thread as I like to refer to it. This consists solely of google are going to pay us, they have said so. Great, I'm the first to have noticed this in xx state or yy country. Dwindling thank goodness but still stretches to 13 messages for September.
3/Adsense ads stuck/the stuck thread - why oh why do we need a thread about this. Yep stuck here, oh sorry they aren't any more, oh wait yep they are, no sorry, just had a massive dump etc etc.

Absolutely pointless all of them. Thats why the serious posters have all but up and left to join other invitation forums where there is actually some real discussion/help/advice. Don't get me wrong there are still some very knowledgeable people her but look at how many times they now post-rarely. Why do you think that is?

Now compare this to threads like:
Best Position Of Mobile Ads - 4 messages
Ads showing on site, not showing in stats area? - 2 messages
Using GA to Track the Number of Times AdSense Doesn't Display an Ad - 2 messages

Are these of no interest to people because they perhaps need to think and show some knowledge?

As someone two posts up from me commented-wonder how long this post will last before it is interpreted as an attack on the mods which it certainly isn't as up to this point I haven't mentioned them.

Try out my theory. Post a thread about something slightly more difficult and see how many posts it gets or even views.

[Turvey]

I have an RPM of over $100 dollars, do you want to listen and try to have a conversation with me? or is this forum just negative Google? if people want to listen then I will contribute. If not then i will keep watching and seriously thinking where the IQ is some where frozen. I'm not saying I know everything about adsense, but I seriously think I need to have a serious conversation with you lot, because your going about adsense VERY WRONG INDEED!

[ember]

I would like to seriously contribute with idea's and my observations of my sites, but is this possible on this forum?

Turvey, instead of jumping in on your first post with criticisms of forum members and the quality of the discussions, how about starting a new thread? Something that you feel meets your standards?