November 2017 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[MayankParmar]

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System: The following 5 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/4870784.htm [webmasterworld.com] by martinibuster - 5:27 am on Nov 1, 2017 (utc -5)

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Good for me too, last two days were very bad and today (1st November) the same trend continues.

[rspwfaq]

All my ads suddenly went blank a little after dinner time last night as well. Very very concerning.

[Rbag]

I had a 70% drop in revenue. I initially thought that my site had been attacked and that they were stealing me clicks. I've researched and done a lot of testing, and my conclusion is that the advertising on my site is cheap and low-quality advertising and this is reflected in the clicks. Just browse as an anonymous user. I've tried new forms of adsense advertising and yet I find that it has not improved revenue. Today I read a news about the fake news and goggle says it has eliminated 100k suspect sites. My site does not have fake news, but has viral content. I think here may be the reason for the ads on my site being of poor quality. Does anyone have more than one site? Already tried to change the domain?

[dollarsound]

Today sites with wrong ads.txt have stopped serving ads.

[rspwfaq]

"Today sites with wrong ads.txt have stopped serving ads."

That's a pretty galling change if so. I never received any notice or email from Adsense that this was coming. In fact their documentation on the subject still says that it's optional!

[rspwfaq]

"Today sites with wrong ads.txt have stopped serving ads."

That's a pretty galling change if so. I never received any notice or email from Adsense that this was coming. In fact their documentation on the subject still says that it's optional!

[rspwfaq]

"Today sites with wrong ads.txt have stopped serving ads."

That's a pretty galling change if so. I never received any notice or email from Adsense that this was coming. In fact their documentation on the subject still says that it's optional!

[ember]

From what I see it is still optional. If you have installed the code incorrectly, then that might be what is causing the glitch.

[rspwfaq]

They're back, thankfully. So whatever the issue was, seems to have been resolved.

[CommandDork]

So is ads.txt a required thing now? I thought it was still optional.

[Pistoche]

It's optional. My ads are being served as usual and I don't have an "ads.txt" file. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they become mandatory later on.

[allhearts]

I know it's only been a couple of days (Wednesday & Thursday), but yesterday and today my earnings are down, just wondering if this has anything to do with me creating the ads.txt and/or using Ad Balance, both since early yesterday, any thoughts?

[azlinda]

It is my understanding that ads.txt will not be enforced until 2018, but I could be wrong. Nevertheless, I put the file on my server.

[rspwfaq]

Although ads were showing up sporadically through the day, they all disappeared again tonight, so I escalated it to Adsense support and now they're investigating for me.

[Pistoche]

Same here, Adsense is behaving weirdly now. Hope they fix it soon. I might have to resort to putting up an "ads.txt" file if this keeps up. @rspwfaq please let us know what Support says to you.

[keyplyr]

Hi rspwfaq and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

[Mentat]

I see ads, nice ads, but CTR is going down, also CPC/eCPM.
Traffic is litl up.

So, we work more for less, less, less...

[andymorris]

CTR very low today as well, weird weird weird

[rspwfaq]

Yeah, it was ads.txt. I put one up, and 24 hours later everything magically started serving again. My ad impressions had dropped from 80,000 to 7,000 yesterday while I was waiting for Adsense to get back to me, and it's already back to normal levels again this morning. So an entire day's revenue lost over this nonsense when someone from Google could have just told me in advance that I needed one. The need to have it in the root directory is a huge pain, though, because I use Wordpress and don't have access to root without having my webhost put it there for me.

[rspwfaq]

I should also note that everything from Adsense support was focused on "Which browser are you using" and various ways it could be something I'm doing. So that wasn't much help.

[nubchai]

What's the ads.txt file used for and where do I get it? I didn't receive any notice from Adsense. Thanks.

[nubchai]

Also where do you get the data for ads.txt ?

[azlinda]

From Digiday:

So WTF is ads.txt?
It is an IAB-approved text file that aims to prevent unauthorized inventory sales.

How does it work?
Publishers drop a text file on their web servers that lists all of the companies that are authorized to sell the publishers’ inventory. Similarly, programmatic platforms also integrate ads.txt files to confirm which publishers’ inventory they are authorized to sell. This allows buyers to check the validity of the inventory they purchase.

[nubchai]

Thanks Azlinda. I did some research and it looks like the ads.txt file for Adsense compliance has to include:

google.com, publisher id, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

This seems reasonable. Is it sufficient?

Thanks

Sandy

[MayankParmar]

No problem here without Ads.txt file. Today is good in fact.

[RedBar]

I think this gives the answer:

[support.google.com...]

Do/will we need to include both lines?

google.com, pub-0000000000000000, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
google.com, pub-0000000000000000, RESELLER, f08c47fec0942fa0

[ember]

The file is optional. Google is not requiring it. And you probably don't need it unless another site is spoofing yours.

[nubchai]

@Redbar you need the second reseller line if this applies to you:

"A value of 'RESELLER' indicates that the publisher has authorized another entity to control the account indicated in field #2 and resell their ad space via the system in field #1. Other types may be added in the future. Note that this field should be treated as case-insensitive when interpreting the data.

Google publishers who do not directly control the account indicated in field #2 should specify 'RESELLER'. For example, an Ad Exchange account using Network Partner Management should specify 'RESELLER' for inventory the account doesn't directly manage."

[nubchai]

Thanks Ember.

[keyplyr]

@azlinda

Helpful links:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[jbayabas]

I spoke too soon. My video venture didn’t do well as I had hope. My Adsense earning is also collapsing. My online business is my life and identity. It’s heartbreaking that I’m failing. I work so hard yet earn so little. This forum helps me overcome my sadness. I hope it gets better.