August 2015 AdSense Earnings and Observations

[RedBar]

I'll start it however I doubt I'll be contributing very much!

[londrum]

300x250 doesn't always fill the width of a mobile screen though. my site shows at 700px across on a mobile, so a 300 box still only fills up less than a half of the width. so i suppose they must make exceptions

[RedBar]

Saturday, for the second-ever time, and the first time was 2nd August, USA CTR = 0

I'm hardly surprised, if US ads are anything like the garbage I'm seeing in the UK then I'm amazed I'm getting any clicks whatsoever.

At this very moment my specialist construction site directory has in my top 728 x 90 a "Fast Track Now At Argos" and my end of article 336 x 280 has:

Google

503. That’s an error.

The service you requested is not available yet.

Please try again in 30 seconds. That’s all we know.

Awesome G!

[Ironside]

How many of you run static websites where you need both a mobile and a static site? I run CMS software myself. I use Joomla! which means you don't have to have two sites for the two different devices. The templates we use are designed to resize to whatever device the website is being viewed on. The beauty with running CMS such as Joomla! is that I can use a special module that automatically resizes the AdSense units. So basically if I run a 728 x 90 banner above the first paragraph and below the heading, it will always resize beautifully on any mobile device. Having said that, I've now realised that 300 x 250 non-responsive unit which I have more control over, i.e. embedding it in a paragraph of text can often perform better than a responsive ad. I don't really see much point in using a responsive ad when a 300 x 250 non-responsive ad sits in just perfectly on a mobile device.

[nomis5]

Agreed Ironside. I never have understood why more use isn't made of non-responsive 300x250 if you have a responsive site. Even the 336x280 one looks OK, the side edge can be ever so slightly clipped on a mobile but 90% of the time it just clips off white spacing.

[RedBar]

Wow, has everyone given up posting in disgust?

Monday's PVs and CTR suddenly came back to normal however my EPC was a disaster again.

July's earnings were bad enough at -23% v June, August looks like it's going to be about -20% v July!

[netmeg]

Nope, just busy.

[nubchai]

Busy here too. Seeing a nice uptrend in Adsense this month. No idea why.

[webcentric]

Wow, has everyone given up posting in disgust?

It's never been a very useful exercise. Well, maybe therapeutic for some. Been busy here too and that busy-ness is starting to pay off (if only gradually). Too many factors to even hazard a guess as to why at this point.

[EditorialGuy]

No disgust here. AdSense isn't the cornucopia that it was in 2003 and 2004, but we've been doing pretty well with it lately. (I'll probably be disgusted again during late fall and early winter, when traffic and ad revenue slow down.)

[dan3s]

The traffic increased then decreased, the earning is worse than July. Waiting for further crash next month.

[RedBar]

Tuesday was like Monday with back to "normal" PVs and CTR and, unbelievably, exactly the same EPC at -33%.

Once again it was the US and UK dragging down my overall average, there seems to be some awfully low cost clicks out there.

[trebuchet]

Still up and down like broken underwear. Tuesday I had about 100 more page views than Monday but made almost half the amount. Ad quality and EPC remain frightful for the most part.

[breeks]

August 2015 lowest monthly Adsense revenue in six years.

All other revenue streams up, Adsense down.

[kireb]

Slightly up compared to last year, but traffic a bit lower. I notice that Adsense has become a bit of bumpy ride, going from very good days to extraordinary crappy days. Yesterday was great, today is a no no.

[koan]

Breeks, same here, it's been a significant Adsense decline this year with most of my sites, started with a big drop in January, then another one at the end of April, now this August is my worst month in 4-5 years, about half of last year income over the same period. I'm not sure if it's increasing mobile traffic that pays less, or Adsense is discounting more and more clicks. It's demoralizing, but trying to figure this out. It's hard to please Google Search and Google Adsense at the same time it seems.

[Ebuzz]

I was trying to find out if advertisers do pay for mobile clicks, and it seems they do from all accounts. But in Adsense, all we have experienced so far, is that mobile CTR is a lot worse than desktop. If you ask anyone from Adwords, they simply say, "No Comment".

What they might admit, is that the clicks "burn up" a lot faster now on mobile than it ever was, and any advertiser who wants to advertise on mobile and desktop needs a much bigger budget (today). If that's the case, WHY is Adsense revenue declining for most publishers largely on account of increasing mobile traffic?

Something is not right here. You do the math....and put one and one together.

[SEOPTI]

My clients relying on BingYahoo traffic, demographics is 40+ with a lot of money to spend see the same pattern. Google will never value your demographics. Smart pricing is designed to hide their greed. They will smart price and keep the difference. You know what this means.

Most of the clients switched to CPA. CPA pays 4000% more than adsense. Adsense is not a business model any more, it never was. I' m sure those goog agents will stop this whole adsense nonsense with their alphabet or whatever they call their shill program.

Waiting for the day adsense will die so people will start to become creative about their traffic.

Adsense these days is for people who are not able to convert their own traffic. Adsense is like "sorry" I have failed to convert my traffic so I have to use a CIA funded company like Google to stay alive. It is just a joke in my face.

[Ebuzz]

While there have been a few half baked attempts to audit Google's search engine monopoly, there has NEVER been any attempt to audit what is going on with Adsense/Adwords. They can practically do as they please. Sigh.

[netmeg]

is that mobile CTR is a lot worse than desktop

Of course it is. Think about it. Who really wants to click on an ad from their phone? Far fewer than from their desktops, I'm quite sure, and it has to be even more relevant than for a desktop user.

Advertisers do pay for mobile clicks but many (like me) adjust downward, so we only pay a percentage of the amount we'd pay for desktop. And many many advertisers still don't have mobile sites, so for them, there's not much good in paying for mobile users to come to a non-mobile page.

[breeks]

I was doing some research last and it is very difficult to click on a mobile Adsense ad. Click directly on the arrow or title, anywhere else and nothing. It has to be a deliberate force, not a glancing touch to activate the ad.

The second problem is the giant arrow which most people know by now means ADVERTISING and skip over, This is why Google search ads desktop and mobile have no arrow.

Another issue is any visitor has to run a Google Gauntlet to get to a website from search. Search results pages are like a minefield. Three ads on top, followed by knowledge box, map, in the news. On the right, there can be up tp ten more ads.

All of this is designed to push organic results down sometimes below the fold. The more competitive the keywords the more distractions (ads) on the search page.

Ad blockers, clawbacks, invalid clicks. It is amazing publishers get any clicks.

[RedBar]

Ouch, ouch, ouch ... so far today a new record low EPC average even though PVs and CTR are normal ... August has been an epic fail for me, it's a good job my local pub has beer on at very special prices:-)

[trebuchet]

The last few days have been pretty good, aside from one or two plunges into the EPC abyss. Just as well too because there's no cheap beer at my local.

[Ironside]

It looks as though this month's earnings will just above the last month earnings. I have seen a small increase each month for the last three months. However, I think that things are going to level out because I just don't see a dramatic rise in earnings that gives me any hope that my monthly earnings are going to continue to rise.

[netmeg]

My August is a victim of the calendar this year; usually Labor Day is a big weekend for me, but this year it's in September instead of August.

[breeks]

Something must be broken down at Adsense today. Getting some really nice looking advertisements that fit the topic of my site. Very strange.

I am sure they will get if fixed ASAP and get back to showing get rid of belly fat, download useless toolbar and meet Chinese Lady for dating ads.

:)

[Ironside]

Yeah, my earnings are really struggling today, not sure why. Mind you, most of my earnings come from the US, it's only 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the east coast so plenty of time to recover.

[Runfun]

Well I'm using Adsense and Adwords and the funny (sarcasm) part is I see several euros declined a day as false clicks and so on. At the end of the month Google grabs some percent of the total amount but I never see getting paid back for false clicks in my Adwords account.

I've noticed several times with Adwords that an ad displayed once and clicked twice (LOL!). I asked Google how that was possible and they answered "the visitor clicked the ad, visited your website, used the back button and clicked it again". It's a lie and I can't believe it but it's something we've to accept.

[Ebuzz]

Well I'm using Adsense and Adwords and the funny (sarcasm) part is I see several euros declined a day as false clicks and so on. At the end of the month Google grabs some percent of the total amount but I never see getting paid back for false clicks in my Adwords account.

I've noticed several times with Adwords that an ad displayed once and clicked twice (LOL!). I asked Google how that was possible and they answered "the visitor clicked the ad, visited your website, used the back button and clicked it again". It's a lie and I can't believe it but it's something we've to accept.

And that is why at some point, an audit of Adwords/Adsense would have to be called for.

I don't live in a fairy land where everything is always peachy and hunky dory. Let's not be under any illusions. Power always corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[EditorialGuy]

Yeah, my earnings are really struggling today, not sure why.

Look at the calendar. Advertisers take vacations, too. :-)

(FWIW, we've had a decent August with AdSense, but AdSense revenue, affiliate bookings, and traffic have all been off slightly in the past week or so. That's typical for us during late August. I'd be off at the State Fair myself if I didn't dislike heat and crowds.)

[RedBar]

What an unusual Sunday for me, a holiday weekend in the UK.

Lowest PVs for August 68.1%
Highest clicks 147.6%
Easily the best CTR 209.9%
109.1% EPC
Easily my best RPM with 227.2%
Plus top earning's day of the month 154.9%

Earnings were spread almost evenly across the three platforms

Is it too much to hope things are coming back to normal? Nah...don't even go there!