May 2016 AdSense Earnings and Observations

[Mentat]

April 2016 [webmasterworld.com] was by far the worst month in my Adsense history, since the beginning.
Low payment (CPC), but now they removed the "Nessie arrows" and CTR took another dive.

I believed that it cannot get any worse, but I was wrong.

So, let's hope we will see some improvements/communications about this dire situation in May 2016.

P.S. 30 of April and 1st of May are holidays in many parts of the world...

[Ironside]

I just got a message in my AdSense account telling me that I can try page level ads. What I'm confused about is what happens to the ads that are already on my page. If I copy this code that I been given into the head tag, does that mean I've got to remove the ads I already have?

[trebuchet]

No, you don't need to remove existing ads. The page-level ads appear between page loads, so they don't count toward your allotment.

I'm trialling them on one site but I'll probably get rid of them soon. Too much like interstitials for my liking, and the RPM is pretty meh.

[RedBar]

In theory people who are still getting plenty of desktop browsing should still be earning quite well

Nah, that's why my earnings are crap, taking 1st April to 16th May again desktop 2016 v 2015:

Clicks 59.5%
RPM 70.6%
Earnings 59.2%

And comparing 2016 v 2013:

Clicks 24.4%
Earnings 22.2%

Nothing other than a downward spiral

[EditorialGuy]

In theory people who are still getting plenty of desktop browsing should still be earning quite well

In practice, too, for both AdSense and affiliate commissions.

(We get quite a bit of mobile traffic, but we get even more from desktop/laptop/tablet users, and most of our revenue comes from the latter.)

YMMV.

[nubchai]

@Ironside page level ads don't count against the limit of 3 Adsense display/text ads per page.

[trebuchet]

In theory people who are still getting plenty of desktop browsing should still be earning quite well

Not the case with me. If anything it's desktop earnings that are to blame for my earnings slump. Comparing 2016 with 2015, mobile RPM has dropped only slightly but desktop/tablet RPM has almost halved.

[Ironside]

I wonder if it's got something to do with people looking at a little screen, rather than a large monitor. If you're sitting in front of a large screen then this more information available, you don't have to keep scrolling down, you're more likely to notice and AdSense unit, rather than sticking plaster and a little mobile phone screen.

[EditorialGuy]

I wonder if it's got something to do with people looking at a little screen, rather than a large monitor. If you're sitting in front of a large screen then this more information available, you don't have to keep scrolling down, you're more likely to notice and AdSense unit, rather than sticking plaster and a little mobile phone screen.

On the other hand, there tends to be less visual clutter on a "mobile-friendly" page that's viewed on a smartphone, so individual ads should stand out more.

I think the problem with mobile has more to do with how smartphones are used (and what people are doing when they're using them) than with the screen size.

[Squarix9]

I've noticed a higher CTR on mobile. But mobile has a slightly lower RPM than desktop, so the earnings even out.

[Mentat]

Common people, let's drop the mobile problem!
It's a new version of smartpricing and its a disaster!
Since I've got back my arrows on some sites, the revenue is abysmal on text ads, CTR and payment is still halved!
The targeting is very poor and I really hate the IBA ads...

[RedBar]

Awesome G you've finally done it, under my countries report I have had one click from Germany and my earning from it is 0 ... Yes, zero, nothing ... amazing stuff, enjoy your cut tonight G:-)

[Ironside]

Where do you go in your account to find out which countries clicks have come from?

[vdR7]

hi there...can someone pls tell me what to do?i got this message on my adsense account :

Link your AdSense account with Analytics?

what to do,do i need to link or ?

[RedBar]

Where do you go in your account to find out which countries clicks have come from?

It's on my home page just below View Channels and alongside View Platforms.

[netmeg]

what to do,do i need to link or ?

If you have Google Analytics on your site, link it to your AdSense account and you'll get all kinds of useful information, like which pages earn the most and so forth.

[Ironside]

There should be a cap on the minimum advertisers pay for each click. For instance, I've got a nice responsive banner underneath the first post under every thread on my forum. Yet, I have just been paid 4p for two clicks. That's an insult as far as I'm concerned. You wouldn't expect a shop to advertise your car for 5p, why should they expect us publishers who advertise their businesses for such pathetic amounts of money?. If you think about it, Google have deemed our websites suitable to show Google ads, we should therefore be paid a reasonable amount for each click.

It's a shame that there is some function available that will only show ads that will earn you 50p and more.

[trebuchet]

If you think about it, Google have deemed our websites suitable to show Google ads

Google has also deemed where the ads go. Somewhere in Google's algorithm there's an e-monkey sending those unappealing 2p a click ads to Ironside's website - while sending the nice 50p a click ads to Google's own web properties.

[Ironside]

Silly thing is I can have a really good 60p click from let's say a skyscraper unit, then the next click is 5p. So it's not as if my units deliver the same amount of money for each click.

[NickMNS]

@Ironside, I think that is a great idea. Only display ads for advertiser willing to pay more than say 25p, then when there is not sufficient demand Google can display blank squares. That will solve the problem, your 2p clicks will be replaced by 0p no-clicks.

Sorry, I'll take the Adsense Algo as is.

[netmeg]

That will never happen. Advertisers want cheap clicks, and Google doesn't want to be stuck with all that inventory. And advertisers matter far more to Google than we do.

[Ironside]

Yes I know that in the real world my suggestion is probably not feasible. But in the ideal world someone could create code where an ad unit shows a picture related to your website and only shows advertising when the desired amount for the click is reached. If some of you haven't yet tried media.net then I would strongly recommend you have a look at it. I've been using it for a few months now and my earnings have increased quite a bit. Apparently the CPR on mobile is a lot better than AdSense. If there are some of you who are getting let's say 10,000 every day, I'm willing to bet you that you will do really well with media.net.

[EditorialGuy]

That will never happen. Advertisers want cheap clicks, and Google doesn't want to be stuck with all that inventory. And advertisers matter far more to Google than we do.

Also, not all AdSense ads are CPC. As I've mentioned before, our site earns a higher average RPM from CPM bids than from CPC bids, and I'm sure we're not alone.

[netmeg]

If some of you haven't yet tried media.net then I would strongly recommend you have a look at it.

I do okay with media.net, but they still don't approach AdSense earnings for me. Definitely better than any of the other networks I've tried. My main problems with them are that I can't get their async ads to work properly since I flipped to https, and their ads aren't really responsive. It means I have to limit them to a single 300x250 placement to make sure it'll render on a phone. The only truly mobile option they offer is an anchor ad, and I'm over those.

[trebuchet]

As I've mentioned before, our site earns a higher average RPM from CPM bids than from CPC bids, and I'm sure we're not alone.

Nope, the same is true for me. Impression ads are my bread and butter; clicks are just icing on the cake. Although these days the icing is fairly thin.

[RyuUK]

The current problem I'm seeing is targeting that is dropping the CTR big time.

This is clear from viewing the many cr@p ads that run pages deep in the review centre.

[vdR7]

@netmeg i only use youtube...!

[Swanny007]

nutmeg, can you run AdSense and media.net on the same page? Did you check the Google TOS?

I do okay with media.net, but they still don't approach AdSense earnings for me...

[netmeg]

nutmeg, can you run AdSense and media.net on the same page? Did you check the Google TOS?

It's *netmeg*, yes and yes.

[TheWebGuru]

Here's a small snippet of an article over on the "New Media Rock Stars Website"
[newmediarockstars.com...]


" What’s worse is that Google says YouTube is to blame for the drop in prices. Don’t panic though, according to Google this is all good news "

" According to Google reps, that drop in prices is a sign that YouTube is growing. YouTube views are up significantly and as a result Google is selling more YouTube ads than ever. Sales are so good that YouTube can afford to offer ads at a reduced price while still making a tidy profit. Google attributes this to growth in viewership on the platform as well as a spike in the number of people viewing, rather than skipping, pre-roll ads. All of this means that YouTube can earn more money while charging less for ads, a move that will likely draw even more advertisers into the YouTube space"

That article was from last April 2015

So basically, as YouTube continues it's massive growth, ad prices will continue to drop -- YouTube / Google will make massive profits,

They say this is good for YouTuber's

Yet, it would have to be the number of new YouTube channels starting up being way out of proportion to the number of new viewers(views) which i driving these lower ad costs.

No matter how many new people are watching, or how much the overall "viewership"on YouTube increases, the fact is that the massive number of new YouTube channels being started up, has diluted the overall value of ads.

If a large % of that massive amount of new content being added to YouTube every day, is low quality rubbish, then this will dramatically affect Ad pricing.


Though, for many publishers, this will lead to a steady drop in relative earnings.

So Publishers would increasingly need a greater number of views just to keep a decent amount of revenue coming in.

[trebuchet]

If a large % of that massive amount of new content being added to YouTube every day, is low quality rubbish

And it is, or seems to be. The level of fake clips and dishonest junk on Youtube seems to have reached plague proportions. Try searching a current news event or sports highlights, you'll end up seeing scores of garbage uploads that have little or nothing to do with the title. And most of them seem to be monetised.