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.

[trebuchet]

Yeah it's been stuck here for a while. Haven't seen a click in 3-4 hours and pageviews are also crawling. Keep expecting to see tumbleweeds blowing past when I glance at my Adsense app.

[kireb]

I haven't changed my site to responsive yet as its designed and made for desktop use. For mobile I am considering an App rather than a responsive version. My database with categories and sub and subsub categories is so exrensive that I cannot come up with a different design.

I kind of feared the new Google update, but to my surprise my earning only went uo after the update. May is absolutely fantastic with very high RPM and increased traffic. Anither confirmation to wait with the redesign for a while.

[chalkywhite]

Amazing day today, triple yesterday, RPM over £7. If i was a cynic id say either they are catching up from yesterday or that bot attack from last month is back.

[netmeg]

Yea, better than average day here too. Don't think it's bots.

[AlexB77]

Same here. No definitely not bots, i already checked all stats and logs.

[RedBar]

Appalling EPC today, 46.4% of average and not only easily my lowest of the month but second lowest of 2015 so far!

[Whatagreatdayitis]

Things seem to be returning to normal for me after two weeks of very bad numbers.

[Ebuzz]

@ kireb

That's the way. Never follow what Google says, unless it's a direct order. Their recommendations, etc and guidelines are invariably negative. I have 5 circles in my account for my scorecard now, and fine good it has done for me. Before all this responsive nonsense, I had one circle for my Revenue Optimization for the longest of time, and now I have 5 full circles for ALL 3 categories. What a joke. Except it's not even funny. When Google said, "jump" - Everyone jumped.

Note that they only "advised" everyone to switch to responsive. The guys who ignored them are sitting pretty now. In fact, I don't think anyone was adversely affected by the mobile update who didn't change; any negative movement was due to the "phantom core update" which they probably inserted to muddy the waters.

[Mentat]

What happen in the last week of April (-40% medium CPC) is the new normal now!

Advertisers must be happy!

[trebuchet]

Yesterday was the first time in six months I've had <1% CTR for the day. The long term reports show a steady slide in CTR since February. I expect this is a reflection of the poor quality ads out there.

[netmeg]

Never follow what Google says, unless it's a direct order. Their recommendations, etc and guidelines are invariably negative.

Of course, not everyone has had the same experience. By a long shot. Make your own decisions.

[EditorialGuy]

May has been okay for us so far. Adequate by modern standards, though not as good as the grand old days of 2003 and 2004.

[MrSavage]

I shake my head in disbelief. I'm even more baffled at the earning puzzle and how this works. What should be, isn't. What shouldn't be, is. I have a strong runner who seems to be the chosen one right now. It's essentially 1 vs. 20+ in terms of ad units, but that "1" is performing at astonishing, never-before-seen levels. Of course take this in context. I'm not buying a BMW and a yacht with my earnings. Relatively speaking, it's encouraging, but overall I have a long way to go. However, in terms of the last 30 days, for this one particular "thing", I'm almost at my original short term goal. It was one of my first levels that I wanted to achieve. I have no idea how I managed to get close to that, but it's what I see right now in the stats. If anything, it's giving me some clarity as to where my time is best spent. No, sorry, that doesn't include more time on the forums here...

[Selen]

On the other hand, higher earnings / CTR may be an indication that visitors don't find what they like and want to leave the site (perhaps it could have negative effect on earnings long-term).

[RedBar]

I was just having one of my best days of the year until G removed half a dozen clicks at $2.00 each, thanks a lot!

[AlexB77]

I am sure that most have already heard this news, but would share this anyway "European Mobile Carriers Planning to Block Ads to Force Google to Pay Them"

[thesempost.com ]

If this is actually going to happen that all the effort that G is making in relation to mobile is for nothing or almost nothing.

This week was very very strong for all platforms for me traffic wise and revenue wise and today is not exception.

[RedBar]

It's already being discussed here:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[HymnSite]

Good grief. As the day draws to a close, RPM at $0.60. CTR at 0.39%. I have never seen numbers that low.

Day to day varies, but this month is way below prior Google gouges.

[Ebuzz]

I can only come to one conclusion after all this while of tolerating the worst earnings I have had in 6 years. And that is, Google is leaving the small guys to die.

After all, Google's Adsense revenue has declined significantly since late last year, and what likely happened is they are "redistributing" their ad network to focus on the bigger guys (who will be the last to die, if the whole system collapses). The smaller publishers get to keep the trashy, irrelevant, and low paying ads that no one including their dog wants to click on. Also, Google Adwords have not been doing their job, and malware-adverts have made their way into the system since early this year.

Please note when I say "big publishers", I just mean publishers with a higher traffic monopoly. Small publishers = small/smaller traffic guys. That is the only difference.

What we are seeing "could" be indicative of the death of the system from the roots up. If the US economy tanks this year (and HSBC has likened the global economy to the Titanic without lifeboats), well......my words won't sound so dramatic anymore, will it? ;)

[MrSavage]

I have a very terrible feeling about this. I've been reading a few headlines today. Something is amiss or afoul, depending on your perspective. Look out, things just got a bit heavy on the interwebs. Big picture stuff, some of which isn't being discussed on WebmasterWorld just yet.

I'm okay with earnings today. Overall I'm nowhere near what I considered decent from a year or two ago. But with a fresh mindset and much lower standards, I'm okay with the earnings in the past week or so. It's only palatable because I can say next to no time is being spent on more of my sites. Less expenses make the less earnings feel more significant. My weekend is off to a good start!

[HymnSite]

The best part of my news is that I still have my "pesky day job." GoogleAd revenues were almost significant to me for a little while, especially toward the end of 2013. Since then, Google has not really been much of a friend of mine. My best advice--manage your site as though Google does not exist. After all, they didn't exist when I started...

[jbayabas]

You sum it up accurately, Ebuzz.

Great advice, Hymnsite.

[netmeg]

No complaints here.

[RedBar]

Friday was my best day since 24th February and my second best of 2015, not that it was a huge amount but at least it went in the right direction!

[MrSavage]

Out of the gates this morning with a chunky amount. When this happens, it's a good day. Most times when I first check, this tells me how the day is going to turn out.

[jbayabas]

Good day today surprisingly. I'll take it.

[MrSavage]

As expected, the day has sailed along rather well. This pattern for me indicates better ads on the weekends on one of my sites. Amid some sobering realities of the interweb, I'm content (not satisfied) with the more recent earnings. I need another site to pop through for some sunlight however.

[Ebuzz]

Strange, but just like most of you, I too have had a fairly solid day. Not really good, but compared to the past 30 days, pretty much a solid day.

[RedBar]

but just like most of you

Not for me, since the beginning of April my Saturdays have followed the same pattern being the lowest-earning day of the week with ~66% of PVs and clicks. My EPC is average simply noticeably less traffic which is strange since awhile back for several weeks Saturdays were my best day of the week.

Not that I've ever noticed it before however I must check to see if this is a seasonal thing.

[avalon37]

Good news and bad news this past week. The good news is that the quality of ads are back to normal - I'd even say perhaps better. And CTR is dramatically improved. Now the bad. For the 7 years I've had my site, clicks have always been pretty consistent throughout the day. It's the type of product that should, and has, spiked in traffic and clicks during peak e-commerce times of the day. However, the entire month to date, I am seeing almost no clicks after mid-afternoon. It's a ghost town in terms of clicks (not traffic). Google is doing something whether on purpose or not, but this is 16 days of consistent click dropoff during a peak time for me. All other times of the day look unaffected. Strange.