May 2017 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[Ironside]

Today has started off very well, 28 clicks and I'm already into double figures

[Peter_S]

huge drop off in my Page RPM today and I could not figure out why

Yesterday (25) was Holy Thursday (Ascension), and in lot of countries this is a 4 days long week-end + good weather + attack in Manchester + end of school, lot of things to divert the attention of people, and also for advertisers to lower their budget.

[Nicknamed]

What about the Ad balancer, its not working. Today when i checked it in adsense i see that they are updating it, doing maintenance on it. Hopefully it will work again soon

[riccarbi]

Quite a strange month. May started nicely (I'm experiencing a big improvement in AdSense revenues since November, compared to the same months in 2015/16; something close to a whopping plus 100%, yet traffic increased too, though not as much). All of a sudden, for about a week now, RPM dropped to a third or a quarter than it was in the previous weeks. Impressions are stable, yet CPC and CTR are dropping dramatically. It almost seems that AdSense has decided I've got enough for this month.... Anyone else is experiencing something similar?

[glitterball]

All of a sudden, for about a week now, RPM dropped to a third or a quarter than what it was in the previous weeks. Impressions are stable, yet CPC and CTR are dropping dramatically.

yep, for the last few days though from Tuesday the 23rd. I am seeing 25% less page views (on my best-earning site) since that date as well.
I'm starting to think that it's related to the so-called "zombie" phenomenon and that G have figured out how to syphon off any traffic that is likely to convert.

I am still seeing hundreds of thousands of extra page views that don't correspond to individual sites.

[Peter_S]

Quite a strange month

Quite a strange year, I would add. Since January things are odd. I am not "yet" still complaining, because my earnings are okay, but things are very odd indeed.

[riccarbi]

I'm starting to think that it's related to the so-called "zombie" phenomenon and that G have figured out how to syphon off any traffic that is likely to convert.

It can be so, definitely. I tried to figure out what zombie traffic actually is, without much success, admittedly; yet, it's clear that since about Tuesday, visitors' engagement is, at least, disappointing. Page views are a bit down, but not as much as ad revenue, this likely implies that the traffic we are getting is a very low quality one, at least in terms of engagement. If this is because some intentional action on G's side, one again their strategy and attitude towards publishers are utterly opaque..

[honestman]

A couple of very authoritative sites who did a lot of research said that websites with leaderboard ads of any kind got clobbered by "Fred."

Anyone have that experience?

I know that it is often a combination and ratio that results in SERP placement but just wondered if others had leaderboard-related issues all things being equal?

[neurropatic]

Everyone here is complaining about todays drop, but I am seeing probably the strongest RPM numbers I've ever seen for one of my sites.

Strange.

[Ironside]

I decided to test something today. I changed a couple of responsive units, plus the 300 x 600 unit two text ads only. At the moment, I just reached 50p in earnings. What you guys think about text ads only, do you think you should have text and images enabled?

[RedBar]

I might as well switch everything off today - flatlining - If this is the start of a holiday weekend then May's over for me!

[csdude55]

Everyone here is complaining about todays drop, but I am seeing probably the strongest RPM numbers I've ever seen for one of my sites.

I'm not seeing the "strongest numbers ever" or anything, but I did have an significant spike on 5/21/17. It went down a little on 5/22, but it has stayed consistent since then.

So, still a terrible month, but the last week has been much better than the first part of the month.

[Runfun]

@Ironside, I'm very intetested in your forum. I've a forum for more than 5 years now and maybe I can help you (or you can help me). I'm satisfied with the earnings but Adsense is decreasing so I've introduced other revenues like:

- paid accounts with benefits
- ad networks paying for CPM
- affiliates rotating with DFP
- premium advertisers

Mobile revenue is the best but a forum is not good for lots of clicks because people become blind for ads when visiting a website often.

[Ironside]

@Runfun I don't think people would pay to join a forum like mine. Anyhow, there are loads of other fish sites around which are completely free. Obviously if I was offering something very special then it could be a different matter, but I really don't know what I can offer that people would be willing to pay for.

I made a couple of changes last night to some of the main ads on my pages. I change them to text only, I think that was a big mistake, hardly earned anything so far today.

I know I am probably sounding like a parrot, but I am 99.9% certain that mobile users of my website are for some reason just not clicking on my ads. My hit rate is still quite good, it's normally around 2500 each day. You would think I could generate 100 clicks from all these people. I'm lucky if I am getting 30 or 40 at the moment.

Google's own advice on the best places to put adverts may work for some people, but they don't seem to work for me.

I used to have AdSense on my personal website until Google banned it because of a few rude jokes. One of the subjects I had was carp fishing. Obviously I'm not able to gain any money from this now. However, I decided to create a website aimed at newcomers to the hobby. If you go on the answer that there are hundreds involving the website all talking about the same thing. I think I will keep it a little bit more simple because there are bound to be a lot of people who are wanting to get into the hobby. At least then I can put AdSense on the website

[wtfowned]

Hello guys, please help me! I cant find the answer, searched all over internet - nobody has problem like mine with DESKTOP Google ADS earnings decreased up to 7 times in 1 day.

I have 5+ sites worked for me for few years (1st one from october 2013), all with responsive ads and marked every ad as "Sponsored links", ads are shown only at single pages (not at paginations / error pages / search / etc.), 3 ads per page with minimum space to image or clickable items 40px+. I've uploaded few screens to show how does it looks like for better understanding:
[drive.google.com...]
[drive.google.com...]

Basically, this is a copy of typical woman site <snip> but without clickable gallery and sliders, and with much bigger space between content and image. "Page value" feels like same (of course, I'm not Elle.com or else - they can produce better content, lol).

Since 21 may my CTR / CPC and finally RPM for only DESKTOP was smashed up to 7 times! All adsense blocks are responsive and text + images. Pageviews and Impressions are at same level, and no matter text/graphic - ads earnings decreased similar.
[drive.google.com...]
[drive.google.com...]

80% traffic from USA, 90%+ from Search Engines. For some sites sometimes its few hundreds people from social networks / day. Content is viral and good sharable.

Haven't changed anything for years globally, just increased some space between ads / images. This sites never been banned in Adsense and even warnings wasn't recieved, I just tried to follow all rules which I read from time to time to compare with my templates.

Now I don't know what to do because few days and situation is the same, I could find anywhere anybody with problems like mine with DESKTOP ads.

Please tell me what I'm going to do with it and how can I return it back, even partly.

I tried:
- to create a new responsive Ads and use them, but it doesnt helped at all.
- to change domain name for 1 of site with small traffic (by 301 redirect) > doesn't hel

[edited by: not2easy at 11:02 am (utc) on May 27, 2017]
[edit reason] no examples, please [/edit]

[nubchai]

@Ironside

If you go to Performance Reports > default report > Set report type to platforms it will how you clicks, PVs etc for high end mobile devices, tablets, desktop. So you can see where your clicks are or aren't coming from for a day, week, month etc.

[Mentat]

Monday, 29 of May 2017, is Memorial Day in Us and Banking day in Uk, so is a Non-working day where the €€€ is, so this is the anti-climax for May.

[Ironside]

High mobile devices page views = 15,646 impressions = 60,614 page rpm= £1.42 clicks 198

Desktop page views= 4636 impressions = 15,872 page rpm £2.08 clicks 36

Tablets 1855 impressions = 6520 clicks 11 page rpm = £1

Not entirely sure what period of time this is, just took this information from the page that came up.

[MayankParmar]

Why is my balance is -0.19$ ? I'm worried. It is in negative, why? :(

[Ironside]

You're not alone my friend, my earnings are pretty dismal so far today as well.

I am really got anywhere to go now. The majority of my traffic comes from mobile. There may be several locations you can put ads on the desktop, but once you view them on a mobile they will appear in the same place where ever they appear on the desktop. I am still getting a good 2500 hits every day. I just can't understand why can't convert these into more clicks and money.

[nubchai]

@Ironside. If you look top right on the Performance page, there's a drop down where you can pick "Today" or a timeframe. So you can get the device stats for any time period you need.

[RedBar]

It looks as though I shall be setting my lowest-ever PVs record today, hardly any traffic whatsoever therefore very little earnings.

It must be nice for all these people who have jobs whereby they can afford to have holidays!

[Ironside]

It seems that my desktop traffic is earning more money than mobile traffic. However, it just seems that more people are using my website from a mobile device.

Looking at this month proves that. I've had 58,191 page views on mobile, 16,684 on desktop, and 6698 on tablets. However, page RPM on desktop is £2.57 whereas on mobile it is £1.81, on tablets is £1.97. It's the clicks that are quite eye-opening. I've had 744 clicks on mobile, 184 on desktop, and 90 on tablets. Mobile devices have earned more than desktop, but there is only £60 difference. If I'd got the same amount of clicks on desktop I would be doing quite well.. Obviously mobile is killing it for me.

[nomis5]

Why is my balance is -0.19$ ? I'm worried. It is in negative, why? :(

I am -0.08.I've never seen that before. I assume it is invalid clicks from last month which are now carried over to this month. Quite why G are reporting it this way is a mystery to me. But don't be concerned, your daily earnings this month will eventually be included in the balance.

[Runfun]

@Ironside, I didn't mean that visitors have to pay for joining your forum. Some of my visitors are willing to pay money for remove advertising for them, having a exclusive part at the forum and few more benefits like the ability to change messages, etc.

I can't understand that mobile isn't performing that well for you. Here is the CPM much higher than for desktop. Are you using phpbb for your forum?

[Ironside]

@Runfun yeah, I know that some websites offer advertisement free browsing for a monthly fee. However, I can't see anybody who uses my site paying.

Quite a few people use something called tapatalk. It didn't cost me anything to install the plug-in so people could use it using this mobile app, but I know people have to pay for tapatalk and I am under the impression that if they are using it they won't see any of my ads.

I'm using the kunena forum component that is made to use with the Joomla! CMS

[nubchai]

I have a small, negative balance too. It's probably the claw back that will be taken from May's earnings.

[Ironside]

It's recommended that your website loads fast on not only a desktop but also mobile devices as well. Has anyone used the Google developers speed test tool? I haven't found a website that this tool gives a particularly good score on the mobile side.

[Runfun]

@Ironside, Tapatalk is something I refuse to install. In the past there where safety issues combined with the software I'm using and maybe it's still not recommended. I believe you're right that ads are hidden with Tapatalk.

About the speed issue, when I use DFP to serve my banners pagespeed decreases and the score with Pagespeed Insights raises with 5 to 10 points for mobile and desktop. However serving Adsense without DFP has some benefits so it's difficult to choose. Overall I prefer a better loadtime and the revenue is higher when using DFP.

[iwrkalot]

@Ironside: Regarding forum members paying to hide ads... I have a couple of forums that I offer this option. The key for me has been to make it super cheap. I offer a yearly $25, $50, $100 voluntary membership options. My members tend to have a larger disposable income and are pretty passionate about the subject of my forums, so your $$ options may need to be lower. I'm still a little shocked that some opt for the $100 option.

Come up with numbers that your members might be willing to pay and give a try. Across my 5 sites 2 have this option and it's been pretty successful. On average I make an additional $75-$100 per month

[RedBar]

After Xmas Eve and New year's Eve 2016, yesterday was my lowest-ever PVs however it looks as though today will be even lower with extremely low PVs so far and zero clicks.

Even my email boxes are dead!