Declining Revenues and More Transparency for Publishers

[MrSavage]

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System: The following 2 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/4849412.htm [webmasterworld.com] by martinibuster - 2:35 pm on Jun 14, 2017 (utc -5)

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I don't think we disagree on the Adsense perspective of "owing". Clearly when this program was flourishing, Google didn't "owe" most every publisher a communication or support channel. They didn't "owe" publishers much of anything, but they did offer a nice Adsense in your city program which was a nice gesture. They didn't "owe" an explanation of account terminations. They didn't "owe" publishers a lot of things and clearly the lack of support over the years demonstrated it. Sure if you think the Adsense program doesn't "owe" explanations or contact/support, then these new initiative would be like the best thing ever. Like better than sliced bread even. Amazing...

[robzilla]

Now that it really doesn't matter (for most)...

They already basically said it was overdue, so what's the point of rambling on about it? And don't say "for most"; speak for yourself. Many publishers are doing very well indeed, many others may not be, and it's always worked that way. If AdSense no longer works for you, tough luck, nothing lasts forever, time to move on. Don't play victim to circumstances you created, it only derails threads.

[MrSavage]

What good do relations do when earnings are down 20, 40, 60%? I mean how much does that "relationship" really matter when the program doesn't pay the publisher enough for their time, effort and expenses? If you can't do anything to improve earnings, then what are we talking about? There is a core who is likely doing well, maybe a bit down, but I venture a guess that most are in the doldrums. Things that matter? How about ad blockers. Any action for publishers on that front? New reporting system. Wow. The Chrome default ad blocker should be lovely as well. That should help every other browser by default use ad blocking. These are the issues that really matter. It's easy to come in now and say fresh start. Meanwhile you can clearly look at the cheques being cut to publishers. Are these measures of "partnership" going to increase our revenues? Do tell how Google itself, now that it's monetizing ads just fine without help from publishers, that this is somehow going to become glory days again. I'm not fooled sorry. It's about revenue. Period. Everything else is just rhetoric and you might have a few ears gobbling up all the feel good, but sometimes reality is cold and harsh. Show us graphs of publisher earning going up with all these "partnership" implementations. When I see those, then my perspective will change. However when any company can pay employees (publishers) a lot less money but at the same time see company revenues climb and climb, there is ZERO reason for change. So to those enjoying nice earnings, congrats. These measures can fill you will joy and believe that all is pure. You folks are the voice of positivity so spread the good word. Some will believe.

[edited by: martinibuster at 7:43 pm (utc) on Jun 14, 2017]
[edit reason] No edit. [/edit]

[EditorialGuy]

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However when any company can pay employees (publishers) a lot less money but at the same time see company revenues climb and climb, there is ZERO reason for change.

I wasn't aware that I was an employee of Google. I guess I'd better check to see how much vacation time I've earned this year. :-)

[ember]

We are not employees. We are independent business owners, some sole props, some LLCs, some S corps, etc., who have a contract with another company, Google. We are essentially vendors that Google pays for providing a service, i.e., showing their advertisers' ads. And so Google only owes us what is in the mutually agreed-upon contract, i.e., 68% of every legitimate click that happens on our website. Beyond that, they owe us nothing.

[ember]

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System: The following message was spliced on to this thread from: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/4853691.htm [webmasterworld.com] by martinibuster - 2:50 pm on Jun 14, 2017 (utc -5)

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I equate the situation to when radio was king. Then television came along. Everyone thought radio would die as advertisers fled to television. Instead, radio changed and adapted and is still here. Not the king it once was but still competing. Adwords/Adsense are not what they once were - more competition now - but they will continue to have a place in the online advertising ecosystem.

[edited by: martinibuster at 7:49 pm (utc) on Jun 14, 2017]

[glitterball]

I don't think that the main reason behind declining revenue is due to adsense itself, though more transparency would be welcome.

The reason behind declining revenue for the vast majority of small publishers is simply that Google Search sends less traffic to small websites.
Why?
1. Google scrapes content from websites and presents that information as their own at the top of the search results. The Searcher does not need to visit the source website to get the information that they are looking for.
2. Google favours large broad-topic websites over specialist websites: e.g. a newspaper's article will often be favoured over a website dedicated to the topic.
3. Wikipedia are number one for everything
4. Google hot-links publisher's images, so the user never needs to visit the source site.
5. There are now more ads above the search results.

I'm sure some on this forum will respond with the usual tired "Google doesn't owe you a living" responses, which I don't entirely disagree with, however that response was fine when Google didn't have the near total monopoly that it does now. Unfortunately this monopoly endangers some of the basic promises of the web that attracted me to work in web publishing in the first place (which was before Google existed).
For me, the web promised a great level-playing-field where the small guy could compete with the big corporation and where the public could access information from real experts rather than just the articles written by journalists, with limited specialist knowledge.
Sadly, I believe that the only way to restore some of the promise of the web is to break up Google.

[IanCP]

@glitterball

The reason behind declining revenue for the vast majority of small publishers is simply that Google Search sends less traffic to small websites.

I mostly agree with your points 1 to 5. With falling traffic I think the main impact upon Adsense with the publisher is you simply get the crumbs off the table with not only your EPC, but also the quality of the advertisements rendered.

This leads to a triple whammy:

1. Reduced page views from search
2. Poorer advertisements leading to reduced CTR
3. This in turn leaves you with poor EPC.

In my case, a further development over the years - where a large proportion of traffic came from other site referrals - is many of those site owners are now disappearing because of ill health, death, or simply giving up. Add to that the fact we don't really see another generation embracing my genre coming through as before.

A brilliant forum in my genre which I joined some 20+ years ago had members in the thousands, my number was #1890. It folded several years back with around 200+ members left.

C'est la vie!

[MrSavage]

We are comparing the online world with radio or television or anything else that the public had access to in great numbers? We're talking here about ONE player. Bing is a farce, let's be honest. So let's forget about comparisons to things in the past because if there was one radio station or one television station then we can draw comparisons. It's pretty clear there are no comparisons to the online "ecosystem".

Reality regarding transparency is this. If the ads paid what they did or close to that, then I don't care about customer service. Who cares? Customer service and catering to your customers like never before suggests that a "value add" is needed. Here, we pay you far less (we are making more than ever) so we will be more transparent and will care now, more than ever about your well being.

To draw a parallel, if I charge more than every other store for a product, I better offer much much better service and support. So Adsense wise, if you pay far far less than you did, you naturally play the customer service and sincerity card. People are gullible. That's what I know.

A start for me would be a word from Adsense regardings ads being parsed out of their "Google" Chrome browser. Instead of saying we don't know what they do in the office down the hallway, they can offer some transparency on that. You think? Or just let us find out on our own. Right. What is transparency again?