October 2017 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[ivok]

Another month, another problems, but let's hope everyone will be happy with Adsense this month. May the force be with you!

Now to the point - Huge clawback for September earnings - like 8% , which is high three digit...

[azlinda]

I'm completely getting rid of AdSense after another 30% straight off the top of September earnings. I've had it with the thieves.

[vegasrick]

I had my largest deduction in my history with Adsense. I should add that I made my highest amount in September - ever in my 14 year run with them. But, they took 4.6% back and that's a big number which drops my overall take low enough from my top spot to make it my third or fourth largest earning month.

[Mentat]

A new record for "clawback tax". I worked 1.5 days for invalid traffic in September.

[MayankParmar]

60$ clawback. This is my Saturday earning, I earn this much in weekend and it has been deducted by AdSense for no reason?! Before it used to be 10-20$ at max, it is increasing!

[NickMNS]

Clawback tax

I've had it with the thieves.

The amounts report on an ongoing basis in Adsense are clearly marked as estimates. The balance reported at the end of the month is the actual amount that you will be paid. The fact that there is a difference between these two is simply a correction for errors in the estimates. This is not thievery or taxation or any other malicious action on the part of Adsense. If anything one should complain about the poor estimates. And for the record I had a 5% clawback this month as well. But it appears that the amount of the clawback is equivalent to the amount of some strange clicks or "ghost" clicks that I reported about a week ago in the September thread.

[azlinda]

Well, AdSense is gone from my site today. I will never use them again.

[azlinda]

I worked TEN days for invalid traffic in September. And we're not talking about an inordinate amount of clicks either...50 a day at the most on a 40,000 page website.

[ivok]

Looks like eveyone is getting high clawbacks, so maybe it’s a bad reporting in real time. Last month it was 5% , now 8%, I hope this trend doesn’t continue

[azlinda]

My clawback has been 30% for three months in a row. The way I figure it is three strikes and I'm outa there. My clawbacks before July were very nominal, and I had approximately the same amount of clicks for the month that I have had in the past three high clawback months.

[ivok]

@azlinda - you could check CTR across all ad units ( Custom channels ) to see if there is something abnormal. I think anything more than 5% is worrying.

I am always concerned that these clawbacks have something to do with high CTR, but not sure

[azlinda]

@ivok - My CTR has never been more than 1.5%, and it normally hovers at 1% or a little below. There is absolutely nothing alarming about my CTR.

[NickMNS]

I think what Ivok is suggesting is to check your CTR by ad-placement. You may not see any abnormalities in the overall numbers as these may be skewed by normal variability.

Try checking your CTR by channel as suggested or by ad-creative size.

[trebuchet]

Just under 4% for me. I was happy enough with that, given the amount of zombie traffic about and the number of high-value clicks I received last month from places like Africa and Kuwait.

[Peter_S]

Count me on (for the very first time), with a significant deduction. So far, the difference between the estimated and finalized earning has always been under 0.5%. For the month of September it's 15% ! No change in page layout, and no change in traffic, excepting for the last week, where it's up and down like roller coaster.

[azlinda]

@NickMNS - I did as you suggested. I sent you a PM with the figures. There was absolutely nothing to indicate that a 30% clawback was warranted. Not even close!

[kireb]

1% clawback for me. September traffic down 8% to that of 2016, but RPM skyrocketed. Record month.

[robzilla]

2.5% clawback for me in September, double the usual but still pretty insignificant.

October is off to a decent start, despite it having been a Saturday. More interested in how the coming week will hold up.

[CommandDork]

There's no discernible pattern to it: my clawback/cat tax/altar sacrifice for Sept was only 2.3% yet July and August both were in the 6% range. 2% is historically the norm for me.

[frankleeceo]

4% clawback here. Almost 50% RPM lower for october first compared to a day ago.

[CommandDork]

My RPM is always lower at the turn of a new month. I attribute this to ad campaigns ending and new ones not yet begun. AND it's a Sunday so ad buyers wont get back to the office until tomorrow (Monday).

[kegnum]

1.9% crawl back.. not the end of the world but my RPM for the first is down about 40% of my average.. was the same the last few days of Sept.

I reactivated auto ads out of desperation but it seems to have had no effect

[child please]

Less than 4% clawback for me, not too bad.

Also to those who are talking about a low RPM for the beginning of October...it's not only the beginning of a new month, but a new quarter as well. It happens all the time and yet people are still not used to it. Sigh.

[Maximum44]

1st of October is not looking good at all. Earnings way down. Hope it is due to the first being on a weekend and it is a new quarter. Kinda always weak then.

[nomis5]

Almost exactly 1% clawback here.

UK, informational

[MayankParmar]

1st, 2nd October are bad.

[taljanich]

Every quarter start looks terrible for us (up to 30% CPM decrease)

[Ironside]

75 clicks for October 1, but only 11p per click, better than nothing I suppose. Four years ago I was getting 30p a click.

@Mayank if you're getting $60 clawback then I would certainly be wondering why that is. My clawback was about £1 ($1.40) and it's never much more each month. Sounds as if people are accidentally clicking on your ads.

[Maximum44]

I agree with Ironside. A big clawback most likely indicate something is off. Maybe an ad unit of yours gets a a little bit too many accidental clicks? Could also be a fraudulent advertiser (have no clue if Adwords/Adsense own up to this or not). It is possible a campain was created using dubious methods or no advertiser payment was recieved/charged back.

Make sure your users know it is an advertisement. Just going for clicks these days will decrease your earnings significantly as many of those clicks will probably be accidental. Worked wonders for us.

[Ironside]

You know where it says CPC under the performance section? Does this actually mean how much money you get for each click? If I calculate a number of clicks by my earnings then it certainly seems like this is the case. However, this morning one of my responsive unit which has its own channel has made 25p from one click. I know that you have RPM, but since I've had just over 200 page views on this particular channel, I wouldn't have thought that many page views would have earned me the extra 13p. I can't quite work out how the money is and when you actually look at your channels.