May 2019 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[Mentat]

April 2019 was a kick in the teeth for most /some of us.

Easter (Catholic and Orthodox) and very low payment made April a very bad surprise.

May is here and it's starting with a non-working day (1st of May - International Workers' Day) in many countries.

Hope the best, expect the worst...

[kireb]

Same here, 30% -40% lower than usual yesterday and today.

[trebuchet]

What I want to know is, where have all the contextual ads gone?

My guesses:
1. Google Search
2. Facebook
3. Amazon

The lack of contextual ads has, I suspect, been behind my drop in earnings. I can recall a few years back seeing ads for tech equipment, professional services and niches closely linked to topics on my sites. I think the last time I saw such an ad was a week ago. They are quite a rare thing these days.

[glitterball]

What I want to know is, where have all the contextual ads gone?

As posted in another thread, I cannot target my ads to run on the websites related to my contextual topic, since Google has removed those sites from the list (presumably because their traffic has dropped below some threshold).

[nubchai]

Dismal.

[Malanje]

#contextual
And because (g bought) adblockers block display ads but not search ads. So an advertiser has more chances to reach the goals through search engine ads.

[ember]

So according to the ad review center, no one is advertising on my site starting on about May 1st. The only problem with that is that I do have ads showing and I am making money. So I have my doubts about the ad review center.

[kireb]

My RPM has not recovered since the stats were frozen on May 1st. Significantly lower earnings since. Are the higher cpc ads withdrawn?

[Mentat]

The final numbers on 1st of May are -30%, the usual lie about unaffected revenue is just a lie.

The revenue is very low on Adsense, and lower on Adx = no ads

[Runfun]

Same here since the frozen stats even lower revenue with Adsense and it makes it more easier for competitors to take over this market. Google can stop this when taking a smaller piece of the cake, if not with lower revenue more publishers will look for other solutions and Google will earn even less.

[gregmaks]

AdSense Service updates: 5/3/19 (problem is still ongoing)
[ads.google.com...]

We're investigating reports of an issue with AdSense. We will provide more information shortly. The affected users are able to access AdSense, but may not have access to the most recent data. A number of duplicate events were recorded across the whole AdSense platform. Engineering is aware of the issue and is working on fixing the issue and removing the duplicate data. Duplicate data is currently not being recorded but reports will likely have incorrect data for April 30th and May 1st until the duplicate entries will be removed. Additionally, Reporting data for May 1st and 2nd may be inaccurate or unavailable while we resolve this issue.

Adwords 5/4/19 (problem is still ongoing)
[ads.google.com...]

Our team is continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by 5/8/19, 12:30 AM with more information about this problem. Thank you for your patience. On May 1, at approximately 5pm PDT, a bug caused Google Ads reporting for April 30 and May 1 (Pacific Time) to be incorrect. We are actively working on correcting the data from 12:01am on May 1 to 4:00am May 2 (PDT). All other data is now accurate. This bug impacts reports in all Google Ads interfaces and downloads via the AdWords API, Google Ads API and Google Ads Scripts. Google Ads Rules and Scripts that reference performance stats may also be impacted. Google Ads bid strategy users do not need to take any action, as our bidding models are not impacted by the incorrect data. Google Ads Billing will be automatically updated as the data is corrected. We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

Patience guys :)

Google Ads Status Dashboard: [ads.google.com...]

[nmbrsk]

April was my personal best ever month, making almost £3k. However, I had to more than double my traffic and pageviews from my second best ever month (January), where I earned a little over £2.5k. I can’t complain because I made a fair bit, but the RPM and CPC is down by far.

May has started even worse when it comes to CPC, I’m getting about £0.10, when in January I was getting upwards of £0.25 and last month I averaged out £0.14.

Hoping for the second week of May to pick up.

[gregmaks]

There is a serious problem with Adwords and hence AdSense.. So let us wait till they fix the buggy bug..

[gregmaks]

Hoping for the second week of May to pick up

May be June! (Fingers crossed)

[Sissi]

Reports are recovering slowly to the 2019 level.

Hopefully 2020 will be better :)

[Runfun]

Don't count on it, if Alphabet (Google) reported a double figure drop in both CTR and spendings for CPC between Q1 2018 and Q1 2019 it won't recover. Advertisers get more or even better opportunities and we are left behind with a lot of crap ads. When I look at my website the last year I already switched to more impressions for other networks and affiliates so more and more publishers will do the same.

[Sissi]

Depends on the region
Continental Europe is still limited in terms of alternatives.
The good side: less publishers good niches and RPM almost stable

[gregmaks]

[ads.google.com...]

So The disruption continues till today

Search Ads 360
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager Data Transfer
AdWords
and finally AdSense

[riccarbi]

I register abnormally low adsense numbers today, indeed. When I woke up this morning there were 1100 pageviews for Analytics and 100 pageviews and 1 click in Adsense. Utterly impossible. Now I still see very low numbers and abnormally low revenue in Adsense. Adsense pageviews are now half of those reported by Analytics when they are usually only a 25% less . Something is rotten in Mountain View, perhaps...
Meanwhile I've resuscitated my affiliate links.

[edited by: riccarbi at 5:49 pm (utc) on May 6, 2019]

[Sissi]

Probably regional wise
My reports are working with some stop and go.
However better than April

[Runfun]

I only watched the page RPM of the last 3 years and it's by far the lowest level in this period. Unbelievable and my niche is finance, I'll change views even more in benefit of my affiliate banners.

[trebuchet]

Several thousand PVs today, no clicks. Something is up again.

[franciscosalek]

Im having the two click penalty again... every month is the same, adsense support doesn't help
My CTR is down and I have nothing wrong with my site...

[Runfun]

I just noticed the huge impact of my website revenue because Admanager is also having problems. Lead banners served by Admanager aren't served and it costs me a minimum of €100 a day. Well done Google, about 5 days with problems is missing more than €500 of revenue.

[skaterpunk]

I pulled the last Adsense ad off my site today. I don't see a turnaround in the near future to continue with crappy ads that ruin the flow of my articles and site in general. I spend at least 30 minutes daily going through ad review, get thousands of impressions daily, and all this for pennies a day since the the big update last Fall. I believe forum member Redbar mentioned months ago, that we are just giving FREE advertising at this point.

Time to either start job hunting, focus more on affiliate links, target direct advertising, or maybe all three.

[gregmaks]

There is a serious flaw (buggy bug) in the entire Google Ads Eco System (7-8 days and counting). Things have not resolved yet. Check the dash board. [ads.google.com...]

[gatormark]

Thanos snapped his finger and now 1/2 of all ad revenue is gone!

[ember]

With disruptions lasting this long, you'd think Google would say something. I see the dashboard stats and there is a cryptic note in the Adsense help forum, but that's about it. A note on Twitter about a fix ETA or an update from the Adsense rep in here would be nice.

[Gracie]

I'm leaving Adsense for 3 months at the end of May to try another ad company. Fed up of the ever decreasing revenue! Hopefully it will pay off but if not I will begrudgingly be back to adsense.

[Runfun]

I've partnerships with affiliatenetworks that compensate after errors. A while ago I got a mail that the counting of leads wasn't right even when I didn't noticed anything, they compensate with a few hundred euro's. That's partnership and working together to get both a decent revenue. With Google it's them the most of the pie and we the crumbles...

[Pixby8]

I noticed that adsense today just stopped showing updated clicks or revenue changes since about noon or so (for the last six hours). So, this "disruption" continues, unfortunately. Was working fine this morning, but now it's down again. No idea what they're doing about it.