Horrible CPC: Anyone else know why and/or experienced this in 2014

On all three platforms

[Evan Salamanca]

For the last three years, my CPC has generally been 30-50 cents (higher between Thanksgiving and Super Bowl) for an iOS and Android game site. After the 2014 super bowl it dropped to 22-25 and has continually slid, now averaging 12-15 cents. Traffic has been about 70-15-15 mobile-tablet-desktop this whole time, FWIW.

Has anyone else had this kind of CPC drop and if so, how have you combatted it? I have considered dropping my ad units from 3 to 2 or even 1 but I'm not sure that would work because my link units don't fare much better than my standard ad units. And for what it's worth, my most highly clicked unit is a 300x1050 that has been active since around September this year, and I'm sure it generates more accidental clicks than the others. Not sure if more accidental clicks would lead to a lower CPC across the board or not. Would switching that one to a more conventional unit help?

Also I have tested various solutions for one day at a time or so (35,000 impressions per day so one day is usually a good barometer) but if one of the above solutions were to change the CPC at all in not sure how long it would take to see a difference. I have been reluctant to go beyond that time span because my CTR is fairly high compared to what it used to be, so my overall RPM is still pretty decent. But increasing CPC would allow me to get rid of some ad real estate and keep a similar income.

And finally, all three of my ad units are responsive units. None of em are standard units.

[ember]

Welcome. I'd take a look at your traffic quality. Has it changed? If it is not converting for advertisers, then the epc can drop. Adwords wants to keep advertisers happy and won't charge them as much to put their ads on sites that do not convert well.

[avalon37]

"Adwords wants to keep advertisers happy and won't charge them as much to put their ads on sites that do not convert well." ember - what proof do you have of this? I know this "theory" is getting mentioned more and more here, but I wonder where everyone is getting their facts?

[ember]

Doesn't it make sense? 1) We know advertisers are the most important thing to Google. Without them there is no Adwords. 2) Advertisers who spend money but receive little ROI generally aren't happy. 3) To keep advertisers happy, why wouldn't Google charge them less to be on sites that have traffic that does not perform well?

[avalon37]

Well making sense and being a fact are two very different things - especially in AdSense World. I run display campaigns for clients and just looking back in the last 90 days prices are all over the place by domain. I am not seeing any real consistency between higher CPC prices and higher quality sites.

I was just curious where you were getting your proof that Adwords won't charge advertisers as much to put their ads on sites that do not convert well.

[netmeg]

[support.google.com...]

There's actually a little more information on the AdSense side:

[support.google.com...]

[ember]

I am not seeing any real consistency between higher CPC prices and higher quality sites.

Not quality of the site. Quality of its traffic. Two different things. A gorgeous site with lousy quality traffic is not going to do as well with Adsense as an ugly site with high quality traffic.

[avalon37]

It's useful info to take into account, but the reality is that there are so many moving parts. It's not WON'T charge them less, it's really MAY NOT charge them as much. Honestly, why would AdSense continue to allow "low" converting sites in their network if they care so much about advertiser ROI? Much less their organic results. Regarding pricing, I've just not seen proof that Google does anything consistently especially as it pertains to CPC prices. Also, Google is full of different for different tiers of advertisers/publishers.

[EditorialGuy]

It's worth noting that Google introduced "smart pricing" nearly a decade ago. Is it a factor in the OP's drop in CPC? One can only guess.

[Evan Salamanca]

Traffic quality is about the same. Mostly search engine traffic. The only changes I can think of are adding huge ads that get more clicks (especially on mobiles) and getting secondary ad networks on my site, and the latter should not affect earnings at all. And the drop started prior to adding native ads as well.

So shrinking ads and taking steps to stop accidental clicks seems like the best solution, seemingly. Time to give it a shot!

[Evan Salamanca]

Does anyone know if they rank traffic quality differently between ad units and link units or do they blanket rank it based on account? Or on domains?

[netmeg]

They won't tell you that (I don't think) but judging from my own experience and other accounts I've audited, it looks like it's by site or domain. I know that one set of my domains in a particular niche has a way higher EPC than another set of domains in another niche.

[Evan Salamanca]

Oh ok. That makes sense.

Would link units change anything or be responsible for lower (or even higher) conversions from what you have seen? My link units tend to average a 30-40 percent higher CPC than my ad units but im at the point of going nuclear against accidental clicking and bad clicks so it doesn't hurt to ask.

[netmeg]

I haven't run link units in a couple years; the EPC on them dropped way way down plus Google told me flat out they weren't interested in a fixing a particular bug that occurred if you ran them on anything but a white background. I dropped em and never looked back.

[Evan Salamanca]

Update: ad unit CPC still sucks. Gave the best CTR position (between the first and second paragraphs of the content) to two 200x90 link units instead of one 300x1050 unit. They now make up nearly 50% of Adsense income. Losing almost no income and user experience metrics have skyrocketed. Hopefully as companies recover from Christmas ad spending the ad unit CPC will improve.