The Effect of US Elections on AdSense

[engine]

Yesterday and especially today was a bad day for U.S. traffic and earnings, and I suspect tomorrow may be, too. However, i'm looking forward to things getting back to normal in the next few days, whatever normal ends up being.

[NickMNS]

I am not. My ad inventory is full of political ads, from both sides of the campaign. Hopefully, Black Friday and Cyber Monday ads will make-up for it.

[keyplyr]

I've always blocked all Political & Religious ads. Back when I didn't, I would sometimes receive angry messages through my contact forms :)

Today isn't looking very good, but surprisingly my last few days have been nice.

[robzilla]

Lowest RPM of the month so far, and traffic is also a little slow, but nothing major.

[martinibuster]

Traffic is about the same. No AdSense carnage to speak of here.

[tangor]

Most will need another two weeks or end of month to know if the US elections had much impact, after all, the last 18 months have been US election...

[frankleeceo]

Guess now the question is...how is a republican Trump presidency going to impact adsense or ad serving in general! My guess is...business as usual? Is it going to affect us in anyway? I am still pretty young and have not gone through any major political changes since Obama, I am only in business for the past 4~5 years or so..

But the stock market sure looks scary as of now.

[martinibuster]

...how is a republican Trump presidency going to impact adsense or ad serving in general!

That may be a topic for a separate discussion. And if it becomes a topic I will appreciate the usual respect this community is capable of most of the time. ;)

[tangor]

Pretty sure that after 48 hours of "shock and awe" and all that other MSM stuff things will get back to "normal" for the web ... as normal as it has been and that ... as they say ... is a Different Story!

[koan]

Well the major stock markets are crashing after confirmation and Adsense/Adword is a market, so it's either neutral or bad, probably not good.

[keyplyr]

Yup, all 3 US stock markets have tanked to 30 year lows. Even the Nikkei index (Japan) plummeted more than 900 points.

[engine]

Please, let's not drift into politics.
Our AdSense earnings is the important thing.

[keyplyr]

Many of my ad spaces are empty since election results were announced. Virtually no income in the last 6 hours.

[elguiri]

The dip in my traffic on US election day was similar to the dip on Halloween, which is a neat comparison. On one of those days the ghouls came out, and on the other there were just a lot of kids doing trick or treat.

[RedBar]

Election day completely normal for me however today is completely different, hardly any USA traffic whatsoever for me, so far ... Methinks there are maybe a lot of headaches of varying guises!

[ember]

Everything will be fine. U.S. markets are actually up.

[Chrispcritters]

Tuesday was one of my best AdSense days in a while. I think after everyone gets over the shock it will be business as usual. Looking forward to a great rest of Q4.

[LuckyD]

High-traffic site lost around 20% of traffic on election day, today still approx. 10% down so far. I hope that tangor is right and that it will stabilise...

[keyplyr]

Third straight day of almost zero earnings for US site. This is normally a site that consistently does very well.

[IanCP]

I haven't noticed any difference at all.

[keyplyr]

This would most affect US sites IMO

[super70s]

FWIW I had a spam email in my Yahoo Mail every day from the Trump campaign since his nomination. Never seen anything like it from a political campaign and I've never done anything proactively to get my email on their list.

[motorhaven]

Up week for my sites, except election day.

[tangor]

Okay .... wanted to wait at least 72 hours before I poked numbers on the few sites I still adsense. Down 11% on average. This, for me, appears to be lack of eyeballs on site as other metrics also indicate that the number of users on line is also down in USA, and I can even name a few geo locations where those sites are down: California, Oregon, New York, Illinois in particular. I don't have to go far for external observation (just read your news reports on marches/protests) for substantiation of those numbers.

Dec 19 (not to be political, just telling when this madness might end) is final for Electorial College voting. Etched in stone, so to speak. As mentioned above, I truly do believe it will take at least two weeks (or the end of the year) before the eyeballs are back on line.

Depending on your target audience, that is. If over 35 your numbers should be getting back to normal pretty gosh quick for US traffic. Don't expect the 12-20 eyeballs anytime soon (they are a large market, but have no earning power except for what mom and dad provide) as they vent until worn out.

As webmasters we see this every four years though (and this will sound political but it is NOT) when Dems win the backlash from Conservatives is relatively small (they go back to work the next day). When Dems lose the "hangover effect" can go a few weeks.

I've been pushing web since 1996 and watched this over the years. There's nothing you, as a webmaster, can do to make the numbers better. Human nature is what it is, and political human nature is a horse of an entirely different color.

Grin and bear it. Don't take it personal. None of the loss in traffic or income is a vast conspiracy or anything "g" has done. It is what it is.

[keyplyr]

My traffic is high but few advertisers. Lots of empty ad units. Earnings a bit better today but still comparatively low.

[ember]

Happily, I have a solid, boring baby boomer and older Gen X audience. I think they're probably happy with the election and are at home and/or work reading my website and not out marching in the streets. Age has its benefits.

[farmboy]

There was an election somewhere?

[robzilla]

RPM today is finally back to pre-election heights, but traffic is a little slow still.

[elguiri]

I'm seeing traffic recovering a bit on Sunday 13th.