July 2016 AdSense Earnings and Observations

[Ironside]

My post count is nowhere near as high as most other members, but I have been here since 2006 so I didn't see any problem in starting this month's AdSense observation thread :-)

Not much to say about my start to July, absolutely dreadful

[netmeg]

If you are promoting your site on Facebook or similar, the traffic and clicks are not counted by Google.

That's not true. Please don't spread misinformation. I've been promoting eight of my sites with eight Facebook pages for years, with no issue.

Invalid traffic is real though. I'd look at my Analytics, because the clawbacks don't show up there. What part of the world did most of my traffic come from. Which pages - did one or two have unusual AdSense earnings? And then as mentioned, the source. Not just of the traffic, but of the AdSense earnings (like I said, the clawbacks won't be in Analytics) That's where you start looking.

[Ebuzz]

@Netmeg

I guess you just haven't been browsing the Adsense forum much. And you've not seen cases where 100% of a publisher's earmings were deducted (luckily Google didn't ban him)...

And, that was a four figure amount....which probably amounts to thousands of clicks from - Facebook traffic. There were many such cases of huge deductions, and in every case, it was established that the traffic was from Facebook.

I should have clarified that I do not think ALL Facebook traffic is invalid, but it can be safely said that Google does not regard Facebook traffic as "good traffic" when it comes to Adsense, more likely if you do not have any other monetization on your site except for Adsense....

[netmeg]

I guess you just haven't been browsing the Adsense forum much. And you've not seen cases where 100% of a publisher's earmings were deducted (luckily Google didn't ban him)...

And, that was a four figure amount....which probably amounts to thousands of clicks from - Facebook traffic. There were many such cases of huge deductions, and in every case, it was established that the traffic was from Facebook.

You're right about not browsing the AdSense forum, but I sure wouldn't consider that to be any kind of authoritative source. Millions of publishers get a lot (or even most) of their traffic from Facebook. I sure wouldn't take anecdotal instances like that and declare them policy. There will never be any way to know for sure but I'd be willing to bet there was something else going on there than just "Facebook traffic"

[trebuchet]

I've had tsunamis of traffic from Facebook before. And while it tends not to click or convert very well, it is not discounted by Google.

If someone is having 100% of social media clicks wound back then I'd be asking how they were obtained in the first place.

[nubchai]

@Netmeg "I've been promoting eight of my sites with eight Facebook pages for years, with no issue"

Are you talking about FB Fan pages and targeted FB ads? That's actually pretty effective. (I'm not talking about the new FB ad tags that started up fairly recently. I haven't tried those yet)

[netmeg]

Facebook pages - I haven't used their ads on my own sites, just for clients. Basically I use the pages similar to how I'd use an email mailing list - I give them a taste of content, and remind them my sites exist, and they have to come back to my sites to get the complete content.

[nubchai]

Yes, that's what I do. Picture and blurb on the fan page. Link to the site for the rest of the content. A friend did help me with the FB ads, developing a custom audience etc. pointing a link to the website. That worked well too. Haven't done that type of ad in a while though.

[azlinda]

I had a clawback of 9.5% for June. For my type of site, that's absolutely ridiculous. AdSense is in my rear view mirror. No wonder they made such a huge profit this last quarter! They do this to enough people, and guess what? I got tired of jumping through hoops for AdSense also. Nothing is ever good enough for them it seems.

[Mentat]

Since 1st of August, they tighten the screw again. I see it in CTR, again :(

[nubchai]

AZLinda that does seem high. What are you replacing Adsense with?

[azlinda]

nubchai, look at your mail.

[nubchai]

AZlinda I don't see anything on the webmasterworld email here or my private email. Which did you send to ? Thanks!

[azlinda]

I'll resend, nubchai.

[nubchai]

Thanks AZLinda :) I sent a reply. Hope it comes through :)

[kindle44]

AZLinda what are you replacing Adsense with?