February 2014 AdSense Earnings and Observations

[RedBar]

I'll kick it off then!

[MrSavage]

With respect this is about what you yourself are seeing in daily earnings. If you're sensitive about negativity, then find a different forum to read. I'm not posting positive results if they are not. If reality is most of us are faltering? I would like at least ONE source where I can verify that. I appreciate honest reporting not skewed reporting.

That said, yesterday was my best day of the month. Call it a bounce back.

Another site I monitor? Well that's opposite and currently earning on a daily basis went from dollars to pennies. Yes, from dollars to pennies. At the start of the month I was getting the warning about earnings being less than 95% of expectations. No more warnings, just earning pennies instead.

[avalon37]

I already received an email from AdSense just 24 hours after I took all ads off one of my sites. I know they're worried I may pull ads off the much larger site which is a premium publisher site that I manage as well. Essentially, they want to know what they can do to "win back" my business. I countered with a fixed CPM deal for the rest of 2014.

[spreporter]

OK I think something is getting clear to me, why earnings are getting low while traffic is stable. I just checked one of my websites, the adds have nothing to do with the widget or location that is targeted, how do you expect someone looking for a widget in Klingon to click for an advert about Mr Bean?

[wa desert rat]

I also tried to convince myself that it was weather or the holidays or just a change of seasons... but it's clear to me that it's something Google is doing. Whether it's a catastrophic mistake that they cannot manage to correct (or even discern) or on purpose has yet to be determined.

I'm looking for other ways. Amazon is a complete waste of time unless you substitute your content for pleading to buy from your links. There has to be something better; something that we can at least understand.

[JCKline]

There has to be something better; something that we can at least understand.

There is. It's called "selling direct advertising", which I am switching over to more and more. In-fact, I believe enough AdSense advertisers have, that it got the attention of Google making them add the ability for publishers to sell direct ads through the AdSense interface. But I have no interest in sharing my profits from direct ads with them.

This being said, this month has been full of tha same old garbage, and I'm amazed that each month gets worse. Somehow it gets worse.

[webcentric]

the adds have nothing to do with the widget or location that is targeted

That may be the biggest problem the Adsense system has. Another is takeover ads (ads that essentially take over the airwaves for a few hours or a few days even). Blocking does help with the second problem if you catch it in time. The first problem IMHO is a real Google issue and I thinks it's also linked to the whole invalid click problem some are experiencing. If an advertiser targets a certain country for example and G shows the ad outside the target market, the advertiser is going to contest paying for it. This targeting problem has existed for awhile and is a real source of complaint for publishers.

I still think that getting Adsense to work now days has a lot more to do with page design than anyone cares to discuss. The new formats REQUIRE a rethinking in layout and design of the ad environment (your pages). Some of these new formats are useless IMHO and others work exceptionally well when placed properly. I can't fix ad targeting on my site but I can experiment with presentation and so far, that's working pretty well but it takes some serious thought and a fair amount of trial and error to get things dialed in. Some pages (or ad placements) are performing off-the-hook while others are still a mystery to me. Believe me, I have seen how to get stagnant areas performing again and it's often a subtle change of color, repositioning, controlling of the ad size or all of the above. The days of slapping up a few units and letting 'er run are gone. You have to get into the mind of your users, identify the natural exit points on your site and target those for example. Plastering a site with ads only creates ad blindness. Try getting more selective about where you use ads. I'm coming to the conclusion that less can be a whole lot more if you do it with some care.

[avalon37]

Yes it's been pretty heavily discussed how poor the ad targeting has been since the beginning of the year. That I believe is the biggest change.

[JCKline]

This month is down 26.6% compared to last month, which was down about the same amount to the month before, and so on. Down, down, down, and down again. At this rate, I will be making 0 a month by May.

[Brodowski]

After great December (100-130$/day), now its not more than 50$....Oh well, better than at ROSS, where I worked before ;)

[webcentric]

February is already 25% ahead of January. January was 25% better than December. This February is already 10 times better than all of last February. This January was 13 times better than last January. I thought about blaming these results on Google but then happened to walked past a mirror and changed my mind. Got to figure this out though. If Google is so screwed up, how can this possibly happen?

[RedBar]

I have to keep reminding myself of all the bizarre weather "things" that are happening and have to assume that this is why my "across the board" numbers look so crap!

For me the USA is simply not clicking, the PVs supposedly are there however when daily earnings from China and India surpass the USA...then something is seriously wrong.

So far today I have earnt ONE English pint where I live! Oh for the days of 100+ pints again:-)

I reckon that come May/June and then AdSense will be removed. I'm not leaving it on for the monthly minimum, that's an absolute and total insult, I simply cannot comprehend what Google believes it is gaining...well it's not looking at this chart:

[zdnet.com...]

This mirrors precisely what has happened to me, WTF is going on? In my industry's situation which relies very much on images, Google's decided IT owned them all, it now sends me very little image traffic meanwhile if has dedicated the regular SERPs to totally and absolutely useless Chinese and Indian trade directories which are crap, total and utter garbage...the trade doesn't go anywhere near them, they are freakin' useless yet Google seems to believe they're the dog's bollox!

People say that because Google is a private company that they have the right to do whatever they like...but surely when a company has that much power and influence it should not be allowed to have the abusive position that it is blatantly displaying?

It is destroying prefectly legitimate businesses without any explanation to anyone, anywhere, bang, you're gone and for what reason!?

They are beholden to no one, no government, no country, no court, no one is stopping their hidden powers of creation and destruction even though some believe they are being "restrained"...lol

Agree, or disagree with me, YOU could be next!

[paulfitz]

This February is already 10 times better than all of last February.

That doesn't mean too much unless you have a sense of scale. If you made $35 last February, it doesn't mean a great deal.

If you went from $1000 to $10'000 and saw increasing CPCs and RPMs then I would be more inclined to say maybe Google Adsense isn't in decline.

Personally I have seen a drop from around $4-6k a month down to 50% of that. RPMs dropping, quality of ads dropping and Google relentlessly shaving "fraudulent" clicks.

[webcentric]

That doesn't mean too much unless you have a sense of scale...Personally I have seen a drop from around $4-6k a month down to 50% of that. RPMs dropping, quality of ads dropping and Google relentlessly shaving "fraudulent" clicks.

You miss my point entirely. Everyone here wants to talk numbers and percentages but in a virtual absence of context. Scale? bah humbug. Fraudulent clicks? Where is your audience originating from? If you or anyone intends for me to draw a conclusion from statements like "Google shaved 90% of my revenue today" or "I've seen a drop of x% over the last whatever period of time" you'll need to provide some sort of supplemental information, What country are you in? Where does the majority of your traffic come from? What are you doing to adjust to the changes in the Adsense program? Etc. Issuing a blanket complaint that you're loosing money (or making it) and then blaming it on Google is like blaming Santa Claus for not bringing you a new car for Christmas. For all we know, you wrote to the Easter Bunny and asked for a flat screen TV. Or maybe you're just complaining about the fact that the way you used to trick people into clicking on ads doesn't work any more? I'm not accusing anyone but it's just as valid a possibility as Google being out to destroy your business. In fact, the two aren't even mutually exclusive. Maybe you're color blind and have just been getting by because the text ads had underlined hyperlink but now you have no clue how to deal with that change. There are a lot of maybe's out there but if you're promoting the idea that Google is the sole source of your problem, it'll take more than just saying so to convince someone who can't seem to reproduce your results. There is way more to the results posted in this thread than meets the eye which makes it look like a smear campaign.

[explorador]

Remember the old times when Adsense started? we talked "hobby sites" well, we seem to be back on that, pure hobby sites with little income.

Feb2014 has been low, some mid average days but still low. Even that traffic keeps going up, I'm having very good days, including 14feb that supposed to be a low low (it's low every year, not this one). Weird.

[wa desert rat]

Look at this link. [zdnet.com...]

It is a ZDnet analysis of Google's Adwords and Adsense annual growth year-to-year over the past 3 years graphed on a quarter-to-quarter basis.

This was written at the end of January, 2014 so it's quite recent. It does not represent writing to the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus. It indicates that Adsense is in serious decline but that Adwords is growing.

It makes one wonder just where Google is placing all those extra Adwords ads. Clearly on a declining basis of Adsense publishers. If you are one of those publishers then you are in good shape.

But what if you're not? And why the sudden change?

[wa desert rat]

Here is another link (which is a link in the previous post as well) which indicates more issues for Adsense; both revenue and ad placement.

[siliconvalleywatcher.com...]

All of this, plus the difficulties many of us are having with our own Adsense revenue, seem to be to be relevant to this forum. Seems to me that we should start paying attention to this and not just to the usual prattle.

[wa desert rat]

People say that because Google is a private company that they have the right to do whatever they like...but surely when a company has that much power and influence it should not be allowed to have the abusive position that it is blatantly displaying?

Google is not a "private company". Google is a publicly traded company required to obey the rules of the SEC and pertinent laws. They most certainly do not have the right to do anything they like.

[webcentric]

First, about the primary figures reported in both articles. The article is showing Google revenue, not publisher revenue! I'm also wondering if it would be enlightening to some if the Adsense line on the graph was labeled "Third-party Networks" instead of "Adsense"?

Adwords is a revenue generating program. Google takes a cut and publishers get a cut when they help generate a click. The same goes for for the "Third-party Network" side of G's business. Publishers display third-party ads, G gets a cut and publishers get a cut. This is how the graph should be labeled.

Adsense is a program that allows publishers to tap into both of these revenue streams. It's not a revenue stream in it's own right. Advertisers are providing the revenue stream.

So, there are two ways to interpret the numbers here depending on what those numbers are supposed to represent.

If the Adsense line means "advertising revenue not generated by Adsense that's one thing.

If the Adsense line means "advertising revenue generated by publisher activities" that's something completely different. If it means this, then there's a third part of the graph completely missing so this option doesnt' make much sense.

If the graph is showing Adwords vs third-party networks then I can take partial credit for the shape of that graph because I've banned all third party networks from my sites. So, if your business is going south, one huge question would be, what ad networks do you allow onto the pages of your site? This question is also relevant if you have a high rate of "fraudulent clicks" being taken back. It's also relevant to the whole question of ad relevance. The whole concept of third party network ads should also also be considered in the light of where your target market is located. I'm getting a sense that US focused publishers have a huge advantage in this area over publishers marketing to a world economy. It would be interesting to see the numbers in the article graph extended with some geographic figures.

Anyway, maybe success or failure depends on whether third party networks are part of your equation or not. I think a lot of people who read this board would be completely confused by the way some people throw around the term Adsense when they may very well be talking about revenue generated by the third-party network element of that program.

[wa desert rat]

The graphs seemed to me to be well explained in the text of both links but especially well in the second link which I will repeat here so you can actually read it.

[siliconvalleywatcher.com...]

Why you would imagine that a line on a graph labeled "Adsense" which is correlated with "Adwords" and including explanatory remarks in the text would mean "advertising revenue not generated by Adsense" is a mystery to me. The entire article is about the decline in Adsense; there is no mention of "3rd party" advertising revenue. WTF?

This independent analysis of what may be serious problems within the Adsense program seems to confirm many of the publisher's complaints here.

This statement, for instance:

"This large gap in the performance of Google's ad networks is unprecedented. Historically, they have mirrored each other's growth (below) until about two years ago when Google introduced Panda, its first big change in its indexing algorithm."

Just because you say you're not experiencing it does not invalidate our posts. We are all pawns in Google's greater game. I know some of us imagine that they are, somehow, in control of their business but I think that is, on the whole, imaginary. A small change in Google's can change everything.

Something is clearly up with the Adsense program. Whether it only impacts small publishers does not mean that it's inconsequential. That is where a lot of Growth comes from. Not many publishers start out big.

And until the first of 2014 I was not experiencing much of this; so perhaps it is trickling through the Adsense community of publishers. Who is to say that you might not be next?

[webcentric]

My point is simple. Adsense is not a revenue stream unto itself. At best, it's a skimming operation off of other revenue sources (namely Adwords and Third-party Advertising Networks). It's the program that lets you and me make money off the revenue-generating content (ads) provided by G's advertising network but the revenue Google collects comes from the advertising side, not the publishing side. That graph could simply reflect a change in accounting practices as relates to this fact (or not). "Adsense" is pretty much the expense (or cost of goods sold) side of G's advertising network. To compare it with Adwords or revenue generated from third party networks is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Why would the expense side of the ledger show a profit? These articles are leading people to conclusions that don't marry up with plain old common sense. One thing that seems on point is that economic factors are playing a role in all of this. Hmmm. Is Panda killing the Adsense program or is it just harder to make money with less traffic? Removing publisher nonsense from the system could make it stronger in the end. Then there's plain old entropy at play. This isn't about invalidating what anyone is saying, it's about getting folks to try and think a little deeper about the tea leaves they're reading. I'm not even saying I'm right but towing the party line isn't my style either.

[wa desert rat]

Your point that Adsense is a skim from Adwords revenue would be completely wrong.

At least from Google's standpoint it appears that Adsense is the revenue stream not Adwords. Looking at the 2013 Annual report Google has a category for "Google Websites", "Google Network Members' Websites", "Total Advertising Revenues", "Other Revenues", "Total Google Segment Revenues", "Total Motorola Mobile Segment Revenues" and "Elimination & Other". There is no listing for "Adwords" or "Third-Party Advertising Networks". All the advertising revenue appears to stem from Google's own websites and the "Network Members' Websites".

This makes accounting sense because no money accrues from an Adword ad until there are clicks or views.

[investor.google.com...]

And your contention that you cannot compare apples and oranges is also wrong.You can if you are doing something like comparing out how much one increased over how much the other decreased or how much money an apple orchard makes versus an orange grove.

You just make all these objections up out of thin air, don't you? Admit it.

If you look at that 2013 Annual Report you can detect some serious problems in the Adsense ("Network Members' Websites") revenue stream. Q1, Q2 and Q3 of 2013 actually show negative growth quarter-to-quarter while the "Google Websites" revenue streat showed no growth in Q1 but growth in Q2, Q3 and Q4.

However, the report also shows that Adsense revenue lags way behind Google's own website revenue. And that growth looks robust throughout 2013.

This is in stark contrast to a decade ago. In 2003 Google Websites revenues increased 159% (year-over-year) while Network Members' Websites revenues (Adsense) increased a whopping 505% (over previous year).

In 2004 Google websites revenues increased 101% versus 147% for Network Members revenues (Adsense).

However from about 2005 onwards the Google Websites revenues all increased year-over-year by greater amounts than the Network Members' Website revenues (Adsense).

Since 2006 it appears that Adsense has assumed a lesser role in Google's revenue stream. And every year since that role has diminished.

So perhaps Google (as the Silicon Valley Watcher claims) is backing away from Adsense. We might be more trouble than we're worth.

[webcentric]

@wa desert rat - Sorry, but until you or someone else can explain where the dividing line is between Adsense Revenue and Adwords Revenue, it's a futile discussion. Adwords, according to the graph, IS a source of revenue and it's being compared to something it is actually integrated with. Either it's a revenue source or it isn't. If this is about types of properties that generate the revenue, any idiot could label the graph in those articles better than that. Adwords feeds ads to both types of properties BTW so concluding that the graph is about Google Websites vs Member Websites doesn't add up.

From the second article:

There are serious issues with online advertising affecting the entire industry.

Hmmm. The economy and other factors can also impact quarterly earnings. And what about all the development costs being poured into Adsense these days? Where does that factor in? Google may be planning on dumping Adsense in the future but they're sure putting a lot of work right now into something they're planning on dumping.

It's easier for me to conceive of G getting out of the business of working with third party ad networks (third parties can be a pain in the neck don't you know) than letting go of a tool it uses to promote it's own ad network which it has more control over. I can also see why they might be on a path to cull some troublemakers out of the publisher community too. Guess we'll all find out soon enough.

You just make all these objections up out of thin air, don't you? Admit it.

My dog actually whispers things in my ear which is more like wet air. Better than dead air but still wet.

Added: My dog reminded me that all this supposed loss isn't happening in a vacuum. It's one thing to loose money when your just going through the normal routine. It's a totally different thing to be losing money when you're spending like crazy on developing new systems or redesigning old ones. There's a reinvestment factor to consider here and that can impact short term revenue figures as well. Factor the in the economy, competition, etc. and the losses make a bit more sense.

Added: Added: And don't forget entropy. Nothing grows forever.

[wa desert rat]

Just let me talk to the dog, directly.

[RedBar]

Google is not a "private company". Google is a publicly traded company required to obey the rules of the SEC and pertinent laws. They most certainly do not have the right to do anything they like.

Yeah, right, Enron's ringing in my ears!

It is plainly obvious that the US government has given Google the green light to do whatever it wants to...period!

[wa desert rat]

Can't argue with that! Seems strange though. Microsoft never got this much of a green light.

[wa desert rat]

Well this has been another yoyo day. Google giveth and Google taketh away. It's become a joke now... if it goes up one hour then it will go down the next. CPCs from 15cents to 71 cents and back to 30 cents. Truly bizarre but it's what I've come to expect.

[avalon37]

Today so far is encouraging. But this wild range of cpc prices still baffles me. Only 2 clicks so far today; 1 click cpc not enough to mail a basic letter. However the 2nd click I could buy a large coffee at Starbucks. Both clicks text ads because that's all I run. Both pages where click occurred should be equal in advertiser competition yet such a wide difference in cpc prices.

[wa desert rat]

I woke up and I had one click valued at 89 cents. An hour later it was gone and my total earnings stood at 2 cents. They took my ONE CLICK away! No wonder Adsense is in decline.

[webcentric]

Can't even reach Adsense or Gmail at the moment but also seeing 100% packet loss from at least one California router and several others across North America on the Internet Traffic Report. So, maybe not G's fault this time. No ads are serving on my site either. Hmmmm. Have also been having trouble reaching some of my own sites. TraceRT has been timing out all morning.

[ember]

Good month and a great day so far.