May 2015 AdSense Earnings and Observations

[incrediBILL]

Continuation thread from April:
[webmasterworld.com...]

This thread is for discussing AdSense fluctuations only.

This thread is not for discussions of bot blocking, ad placement, reporting to google, or anything other than it's express intended purpose, the fluctuations of adsense.

All other other topics need to be taken to a new thread
Off topic posts may be deleted without notice.

[Papabear1]

On the one hand I always get the same ads on my site. The most of them come from Google. Thats the reason for my bad CTR. On the other hand the CPC is very low at the moment. Combined: Low earnings....

Maybe we have to use Responsive Ad units? Did anybody tested it?

[Ammalgam]

Here's my takeaway from this mess.

Adsense while it is the most stable and reliable source of income is now the most volatile for non experienced businesses and site owners. I have been with Adsense since almost the very beginning and can see how shaky it is BUT I still continue to believe that a lot of these issues are 1) niche specific and 2) the cost of doing business.

If you are a young and less experienced website owner, this is still the best and most stable form of SIDE income you can make while trying to figure this internet thing out.

If you are a seasoned website owner who has made 6 or 7 figures with Adsense, SHAME ON YOU for complaining and not diversifying with all the time and experience you have had. You have had enough time to find other sources of revenue.

Everyone know what happens when you put all your eggs in one basket.

All the madness and up and downs are happening to me too so I am not holier than thou, I just never expected Adsense to feed me forever and made other plans a while ago.

Word to the wise.

BTW I am not being snarky, I hope this helps some of the younger members who are trying to sort out all the doom and gloom on this board.

This board's value to me is primarily in making sure that on VERY bad days, it's not just me.

Regards

[Sillysoft]

Using Adsense as a primary income is like a regular job, you always risk losing it. No difference, I dont go make 7 figures at a job and go, hmm lemme go get another job just in case.

[MrSavage]

I appreciate any guidance I get here. I bow to greatness and successful people with their websites. I can't imagine a better living frankly. Adsense earning have allowed me to do things I love, but as that has shrunk, so has my motivation. Point taken on the diversification aspect.

[netmeg]

Using Adsense as a primary income is like a regular job, you always risk losing it. No difference, I dont go make 7 figures at a job and go, hmm lemme go get another job just in case.

I'm sorry but I am so tired of hearing that. Even if you are working for someone else, you have more control over the situation than you do with AdSense. For one thing, you can always update your skill set, and people who are willing to work hard and acquire marketable skills can always find something to do and someone to pay them to do it (How many sequels have they given Liam Neeson, fer crysakes) and as you build your skills you have leverage to go find something better. Or strike out on your own. That's nothing like AdSense.

[MrSavage]

One of my sites is just killing it today. One site, but I'll take it. It has been more than just today, so perhaps it's a trend. This is typically the point that I get my dreams crushed in the next week.

[Sheqel]

I'm sorry but I am so tired of hearing that. Even if you are working for someone else, you have more control over the situation than you do with AdSense. For one thing, you can always update your skill set, and people who are willing to work hard and acquire marketable skills can always find something to do and someone to pay them to do it (How many sequels have they given Liam Neeson, fer crysakes) and as you build your skills you have leverage to go find something better. Or strike out on your own. That's nothing like AdSense.

Webmasters also have control in the form that they have the freedom every day to start a new website in a different niche using a different strategy to attract visitors and monetize (either via adsense or a different network).
Sure, if a webmaster is a one-trick-pony only who keeps making the same kind of website in the same niche under a slightly different guise, which can all be wiped out by one panda or adsense-quirk, then it feels like having less control.

[trebuchet]

Adsense website owners don't really work for themselves, they work for Google. And Google is a fickle boss. He's always changing the rules of the workplace (often without telling you). Some days he pays big bucks, other days he pays peanuts. And there's always the chance he will fire your a** with little or no reason, and throw you out on the street with no money, references or chance of re-employment.

The good thing is he lets you use the talents and skills you have, and work on anything you want. If you like having that freedom, as I do, then the rest of your boss's bad habits are bearable.

[Sillysoft]

As a person who worked as a senior developer for the past 15 years, working for Google/Adsense is nothing new. How many people who make 6 figures a year go out and look for other jobs? I mean that is just laughable to think these people are out there trying to find a second job because they want a "backup". You are hired to do a job, not use your job to make money so you can do other things. I'm sure you boss would be thrilled to know they are paying you to work a second job rather than produce. lol

Using Adsense you naturally increase your knowledge. You want to learn more to increase your earnings. I'm not going to neglect my Adsense sites and not learn more about my niche, about SEO, about web design, about development thinking I need to concentrate on other things. Google continuously updates their algorithms and you have to continue to monitor and adjust and expand your knowledge. In fact Adsense is what helped me learn SEO at another level. People want to hire me right and left as a SEO expert because of my sites and showing the proof of the earnings I have made from my sites. Do you risk losing it all if all your income comes from just Adsense? Well duh, but you also put all your eggs in one basket by working at one job. You risk losing it to cut backs, performance etc.

[Selen]

SEO is the science of bringing people to the site; Adsense is the science of making them leave quickly. ;-)

[Mentat]

Back to adsense trends and problems, please.

I know it's easy and cheap to be a philosopher, but the problem seems to be the lack of ads in the system.

The bidding system seems to lower the bids each week on a steep pace.

When I see "religious ads" and ads for "Google Adsense" with High label marked for display (Ad review center), I know, that the situation is grim.

[Evan Salamanca]

Adsense is not a "job", therefore diversifying and using ads other than Google is not the same as getting a second job. As an Adsense user with some experience (made just over 100,000 dollars in four years), diversification is easy. I have accounts with around 13 other ad networks and typically use 3-4 at a time, and I'm a fairly small webmaster (30,000-50,000 impressions per day). Adds an extra 1,000 to 3,000 dollars per month in addition to Adsense.

And if you have less than 5,000 impressions per day and are complaining about Adsense income, get more traffic. Pure and simple. Once you have 10,000+ daily impressions, then we'll start talking.

[Evan Salamanca]

Back to the topic: EPC is up gradually from 10-12 cents to 19-22 cents over the past week after some experiments. I went from 4 ad units (which is approved for AdX-approved domains according to Adsense customer service) and 3 link units to 2 ad units and 1 link unit. I picked my locations as right below the article (which according to many studies is where clicks are very likely to become conversions) and header (high EPC space, very few accidental clicks) and have seen daily increases in EPC thus far. CTR is very obviously down but total RPM isn't far off, and if my EPC keeps increasing number, it will top my old numbers.

[glitterball]

Looking very bad again here today; there seems to be a complete lack of advertisers.
As others have noticed, I am seeing mostly Ads for Google and Adsense. Presumably when there is a low inventory of ads, Google will keep the best ones for their own real estate.

[netmeg]

If you think there's low inventory for your site (which I'm not sure I agree with, but let's say there is) you might try temporarily removing an ad unit and see if that increases competition for the space. That's what I would try first. If that didn't make it, then I'd take a look whether I could add some additional content that could attract more ads (on topic or at least related to the topic of my site).

My EPC took a big jump as of May 1st, but I think that's when the travel and tourism campaigns for my target areas pick way up.

[trebuchet]

My EPC for May is a smidgin below average. It's the quality of ad inventory and click rate that's the problem. Yesterday's CTR was pathetic. The US have always been big clickers on my site but even they weren't clicking yesterday. Outcome is that RPM is down about 20% on average.

[glitterball]

If you think there's low inventory for your site (which I'm not sure I agree with, but let's say there is) you might try temporarily removing an ad unit and see if that increases competition for the space. That's what I would try first. If that didn't make it, then I'd take a look whether I could add some additional content that could attract more ads (on topic or at least related to the topic of my site).

That's what I'm starting to do by replacing an Adsense unit with a Media.net one.
I tried it on a smaller site yesterday and it seemed to make a difference in terms of CTR.
Still, today's CTR is about 1/3 of what it was for the last 6 or 7 years.

[ember]

then I'd take a look whether I could add some additional content that could attract more ads

That does work.

Lately I've been testing Vertoz

I signed up with them, but then their site didn't work. Couldn't submit a help ticket, either. Took customer service three days to get back to me via email. Didn't bode well.

[breeks]

There must be some mistake today. I have a really high RPM :)

[RedBar]

There must be some mistake today.

Definitely a BIG mistake somewhere...I have my lowest EPC of the year at 36.4% and an RPM of 42.05%!

[netmeg]

Pretty low today, but the pageviews don't match up with my stats either. We'll see.

I signed up with them, but then their site didn't work. Couldn't submit a help ticket, either. Took customer service three days to get back to me via email. Didn't bode well.

If I'd had that experience, I'd agree, but so far so good for me. I'm about to add them to a few more sites. 'Course I haven't been paid yet, so...

[RedBar]

What a heap of steaming rip-off today by Google!

[glitterball]

That was my worst day ever on Adsense.
CTR has just collapsed completely.

[MrSavage]

Here is a word that I haven't used in a long long long time here in Adsense daily reports. In fact I had to look up the spelling of it. Word of the day for me and today's earnings? Exceptional. I'll check back tomorrow to make sure that I'm not delusional.

[Sillysoft]

And if you have less than 5,000 impressions per day and are complaining about Adsense income, get more traffic. Pure and simple. Once you have 10,000+ daily impressions, then we'll start talking.

Evan Salamanca you talking to me specifically? Or is that a general statement?

Getting back to my normal Adsense monitoring, still getting OK numbers. I still dont get why this one site just suddenly dropped the CTR to under 1%. It has never been that low, yet the CPC goes up to almost $2. I dont think its the ad placement, wonder if crappy ads are loading? The traffic hasnt changed. Maybe more content might help.

[Evan Salamanca]

No sillysoft I haven't seen you mention your traffic. The part that was for you was referencing the additional ad companies. Supplementing Adsense with others is the key nowadays.

[bigicebear]

I am also experiencing wildly fluctuating numbers. RPM was over $17 this a.m. and by the end of day under $5. Converted to responsive ads and revenue is almost halved. Desktop earnings is averaging about 90% now (was 50%) while mobile dropped from around 50% to under 10%.

Revenue is down 35%. Disgusting.

So much for responsive ads - my site performed better non-responsive!

[trebuchet]

Strange figures here too. CTR is the worst since the 2013/14 Christmas period, yet EPC is up and daily earnings are about average. Users just don't seem to be clicking. Again, I put this down to the quality of ad inventory, which on my sites at least is currently poor.

[breeks]

The ads you see are not the ads visitors see. Even if you clear cookies you still do not see the same ads.
Back in the old days ads matched content, now ads match visitors search history.
Bottom line publishers don't know WTF visitors see. :)

[AlexB77]

Yes you can see what your visitors see if you open your site in Incognito Tab of your browser. Of course it may not be exactly what your visitors may see, but at least you can get a picture of what your new visitors see when they enter your site for the first time.