September 2017 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[Peter_S]

Since no one dares to start the monthly sacrosanct* Kiss and Cry** Adsense topic,... have a nice month :)

* [dictionary.cambridge.org...]
** [en.wikipedia.org...]

[EditorialGuy]

It's my humble opinion that no search engine should put paid advertisements at the top before results. The right rail would be a better place for them. Too many people with excellent websites get buried by putting ads at the top.

That might have been a reasonable argument when desktop was everything, but in the smartphone era, there is no "right rail" in many cases.

[egem1367]

NickMNS, I agree with some of your points, but I'm saying the same thing as the Wired article published today, and the Wall Street Journal. I'm not saying anything radical here. It's the same thing the European courts rules in June. I thought this was very much on topic because everyone is trying to figure out why their earnings have been impacted.....My earnings are low today....

Ironside I totally agree with that.

[leebow]

I agree with what people are saying here - Google is great a great service for users - but for us “content providers” - they are literally starting to take the piss.

For years google collected links to websites - and “cached” their content. Google used to rank and list the found sites - and offer them to searchers.

So an early example - search for “pictures of trees” - and you’d get a list of sites with pictures.

But starting with google images they decided to cut out the middle man (us) - so instead of letting searchers see lists of sites with images - now google showed all the images - so searchers didn’t have to go on our sites. (The option of a link is there - but you’ve got what you want, so why would you)

Now because ad revenue i s down - and there are more mobile users - Google have started to integrate everyones content and ideas into their own homepage.

They are trying to make it so you see their 3 top ads - and then what you are looking for is built directly into the google results page. No need to click links. They’ve taken everyone’s content - and now they are using it.

BUT... egem1367 says he doesn’t think google staff are sat there writing lists/content - I think they ARE!

I think Google have started copying all the top websites ideas - I noticed it years ago with “what is my IP”. The top result was a website that must have been making loads with adsense - then suddenly - you don’t need to click the site - google has written code to show you your IP. That was a human decision.

They basically used their analytics to see that was a popular feature - and stole ip sites idea. Google gets its revenue from its top ads. So it doesn’t mind. But IP site must have lost loads.

I’ve noticed “is website down” is now built into google.

Weather results, lottery results, etc, etc. Niche sites that people worked hard to make - and google used their data to see it was worthwhile to steal webmasters ideas and build them into the result page.

It’s amazing for google users - just bad for site owners. It’s really a monopoly pushing our little guys - but stealing their business ideas.

The goal in the end is to dumb down the internet as mobile browsers now don’t search or use the net how they once did. Google will be like a “service” to get answers not search the web. It’ll be like an “ok google...what/where/when/why” and no “here’s what I found on the web”, just “the answer is...”

The web with 10000s of sites will be over for google. It’ll be just a answer service.

[EditorialGuy]

We had the best day yesterday in recent memory, with unusually high RPM and CPC. It probably was a fluke, and in any case, day-to-day variations are pretty meaningless in the overall scheme of things.

[egem1367]

Oh this is killing me...I'm down 75% at least in earnings, but only down maybe 1/3 in visitors. It's insane. The last time we even touched earnings this low was in 2009....I've noticed listings like Yellow pages, have returned to list useless local searches. Many of our ads are not even matching content anymore. Sad, sad sad.....oh the pain...

[MayankParmar]

September end is resulting in a drop in CPC... and the first week of October will be like this. Bad days!

[trebuchet]

@leebow is right. Google has shifted from search engine to content aggregator. But nobody should be surprised by that. You had a powerful corporate and technological entity dominating search on one side and advertising on the other, with content providers in the middle. You didn't need to be Madame Marie to see where this was heading. I've always found Google's "do no evil" schtick quite laughable, given its willingness to appropriate ideas and content then elbow their original creators out of the way. C'est la vie.

[edited by: trebuchet at 5:30 am (utc) on Sep 29, 2017]

[trebuchet]

Ah forgot what I came to post... Earlier this week I spent a couple of hours trawling through ad review. I located one Adwords account running 69 different ads. The landing page was an ugly Wordpress-based tech blog with thin content and no obvious monetisation. After blocking these ads, my coverage has dipped by about 1% but my RPM has shot up considerably. Of course, I don't know if the two things are connected.

[Mentat]

It's a coverage problem, especially for non-$ countries!
If you use the minimum bid, you have tons of views for your ad.
Is a very lucrative business, especially to spread malware.

[andymorris]

Very low click rate today, end of the month ?

[CommandDork]

It's end-of-the-month AND it's a Friday. I expect tomorrow to be much worse than today and Sunday a little better.

Monday's are usually the best gauge as to how the week will turn out (for me at least).

[ember]

Red bar today and yesterday. Haven't seen that in ages.

[james007]

During the last week, I've seen page RPM's higher by 45% for some reason (I've made no changes). Unlike many others here, September will end slightly higher than August. All this with a backdrop of 5% fewer ad impressions. (Most of my traffic is from the UK).

I don't fully understand AdSense's fluctuations, even after being one of the very first users of it. One thing I do know is that the secret is to delight your users, and keep them coming back to your site: much more useful than spending too much time on SEO.

[Ironside]

I think you're more likely to get clicks from people seeking specific info. I think regular users will ignore adverts

[elman]

If adverts are pertinent and interesting, why regular users won't click ?

Sometimes I see very interesting banners and I really wan't to click. But I can't.

[MayankParmar]

Switched to https and today's AdSense is actually better than yesterday :D

[skynet84]

Mayank Parmar i see your website is really strange you earn good but you don’t respect any adsense policy.

[MayankParmar]

@Skynet84 Like? The placement and everything related to AdSense is managed by the Google's Certified partner. It should be perfect :/

[Ironside]

I've seen his website and I don't see any problem with AdSense placement either. Remember that Google does allow more than three ad units per page nowadays. Maybe you are not up to date with the changes they made.

[Peter_S]

I think that skynet84 refers to what I had mentioned once [webmasterworld.com...]

- The "content" of an article begins 1360 pixels from the top of the page, on desktop, there are two 720x90 banners, one 300x600 and one 360 x 280 before the content begins.

- Banner right under the article title.

- And on mobile, there are two 300x250 slots before the content, it requires two screen scrolls to read your article.

- ratio content vs ads

- etc...

[skynet84]

Yep @Peter Got the point!

[trebuchet]

Each to his own. I just looked at a page with an article of about 120-130 words and there are seven ads and a link unit. I have articles of 2,000+ words with three ads. I consider that quite enough. If working with a GCP means they tell you to load up your ad placements like that, I'm glad I don't work with GCPs.

[EditorialGuy]

If working with a GCP means they tell you to load up your ad placements like that, I'm glad I don't work with GCPs.

Ultimately, it's up to the publisher to use good editorial judgment. I've been working with ad reps and ad networks for 16 years, and they've always been more interested in advertising than in the user experience. That's just the nature of the beast(s). Give a rep a blank page, and he or she will cover it with ads.

[MayankParmar]

Peter, Ah I see. But not all of them are AdSense, some are AdX and one 728x90 ad is a direct ad.

The GCP is doing changes by using the heatmaps. When Peter pointed out last time, I did ask my manager, he told me that a single change/removal of an ad unit will result in a drastic drop. However, as I was worried, he sat with a Google employee and discussed the placement, she told him that everything is perfect.

@Peter Skynet84 Shall I remove the second 728x90 ad unit or 336x280? The latter pays a lot while the header one is considerably low when compared to the 336x280. Thank you!

[Jedi82]

i don't know if i can post it but are my value ok or bad?

clic 79 - cpc 0,09€

[kegnum]

Anyone else seeing a huge drop in RPM today? very low cpc and CTR

[MayankParmar]

What a pathetic end to September and horrible start to October.

[Mentat]

For me, September was goodish, compared to other months.
The month is ending on a week-end, this guarantees a lousy end and a similar beginning.

October is here with surprises.

[MayankParmar]

September was very good for me too. However, the last week seen a good drop and last few days were pathetic. Same trending continued today.

[Ironside]

Actually got my finalised payment through today. Less than 2% clawback out of three figure sum, very pleased.