August 2019 AdSense Earnings & Observations

Discussion of AdSense Earnings for Month of August 2019

[Runfun]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/4951819.htm [webmasterworld.com] by martinibuster - 1:08 am on Aug 1, 2019 (utc -5)

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Well with ad units with a fixed size you can deliver a back-up ad but what with a responsive ad? I can't find the box to use a link.

I thought Adsense is going to end the function of back-up ads?

[azlinda]

@gatormark I use Media.Net. It has never ramped up. It's been at a standstill for months.

[CommandDork]

Ah yes, Media.net, Adsense's ugly cousin. I've been with them for years and they have never, ever impressed regardless of site niche, placement, number of impressions. Adsense has beaten them every day. They're a bottom feeder for me these days.

[ember]

Media.net was somewhat decent before a Chinese company bought them in 2016 "in 3rd Largest Ad Tech Deal Ever." After that, they went downhill and stopped answering emails. And for supposedly such a large tech deal, I never heard anything about it other than on the media.net website. I removed them from my sites months ago.

[gatormark]

Well, I need a fallback ad company and media.net doesn’t seem to be it. Any thoughts...I have about 30,000+ impressions per day to fill.

[friedclyde]

I'm kindof saddened with the state of my RPM these days, but then i check the ad revenue index on ezoic (the only ezoic service i use lol) and its comforting to know its lower than normal.

I use Bidgear as not an alternative but something to get some additional rev apart from adsense. It seems like a small company but it helps me make an additional $200 - 250 a month.

Adsense i'm not sure what's up and its scary iv been doing this for over a decade and well you gotto keep learning and improving is all that can be said

[Runfun]

Learning and improving, getting more visitors and less revenue... that's Adsense for 99 of the 100 publishers. Some say they earn more but that's mostly with a lot more visitors instead of a big increase of CPM.

[leebow]

I don’t think you can blame Adsense for the low money we are all earning.

1. Everyone is using Facebook - so advertisers just aren’t spending as much with Adsense.

2. Everyone is using mobile/tablets - advertisers just don’t pay as much for those little ads compared to the big 728x90 ads on desktop. Responsive site designs are nice - but fixed size desktop sites were where the money was.

3. Everyone is using ad blockers. People want free content and no ads! Basically they are killing the internet.

4. Everyone wanted Flash dead - flash allowed for tiny, fast loading, really interactive ads - they were like 4kb so our sites ran faster (canvas equivalent are massive), and advertisers paid more for
Interactive ads. Apple caused this problem to sell apps. Lack of Flash is now why there are so many errors on our sites, from missing JavaScript files and broken code. Flash was 100x better for ads.

5. For U.K. publishers - the low £ to $ rate is killing our earnings.

6. Google/Bing themselves are now competing with us - the publishers, to become a source of information instead of a search engine. A lot of times - google images, bing images, and the information people want is found directly in the search results, cutting down our visitor numbers. So we aren’t just competing with other site owners - we are competing with Google/Microsoft/etc.

7. Everyone wants video content now - forums, websites don’t match the instant content people want - so advertisers are spending more on YouTube ads. We are last decade content providers. (We are Block Buster!)

So what does this mean?

I’ve found these tips...

1. Fixed sized ads - you’ve got to serve the big money ads to desktop users when you can! Detect your user, serve them the right ad. (Because even if a desktop user goes to your site with their browser window shrunk, a responsive ad will serve a low paying mobile ad) And show correctly positioned mobile ads to mobile users.

2. If you’ve got a loyal user base - have a donation button.

3. Detect Adblock users - show a notification asking them to turn it off to support the site. Or show alternative ads. I don’t stop them accessing my site content - as Adblock users probably wouldn’t have clicked the ads anyway.

4. Try to get a subscription service going if your site is popular enough. Offer more content for a payment. Even if it’s a $1 for lifetime access - $1 is more then you would ever make off a visitor with Adsense. Even in the good old days.

I can only see Adsense and alternative services paying less and less each year. But it’s just the way consumers and technology are going.

I’ve tried 4 Adsense alternatives, none paid as well (no matter how low)

[MayankParmar]

The problem with AdSense is the decline in CPC/RPM or CTR versus the previous period for the same or more traffic. Obviously, AdSense is the king and we have no other options, at least those with information site where the affiliate isn't a worthy solution.

[gatormark]

@leebow

Yes! I do everything you mentioned above and it has saved me so far through this rough period. But, if Adsense maintains the downward trajectory, I’ll have to go back to corporate America, eventually.

[Runfun]

@leebow,

1) I thought the growth in users of Facebook is slowing down a lot. Mobile ads are my best paying ads...

2) As at 1, mobile ads are the best paying ads I have. Which donation button can you advice us? Does it earn some money? I've the function of paid premiumaccounts but only 0.5 percent of the community members have a premiumaccount (15 euro a year).

3) I use a notification for users of adblockers every page they visit. I've measured that about 12 percent is now using an adblocker. They don't need to click only viewing earns me some money too.

4) I've those premiumaccounts but I'll consider the donation button.

5) GBP and USD could be a problem these days but in my case most advertisers come from my country and only a part of another country share the same language. No currency problems here.

6) Till this moment my website isn't affected by the points you mentioned. Maybe in the future...

7) Unfortunately that's true. Advertisers use YouTube a lot and videos there are watched a lot. Still I've some doubts because like I've told here before my children of 3 and 7 watching YouTube a lot but see ads of cars, holidays, beer, etc. So not well targeted and those advertisers would be better of advertising at my website ;-) (men between 20 and 60 are most of my visitors).

[Mentat]

is peak holiday time...
September will be panic.

[leebow]

@Runfun

I’m glad mobile ads are paying well for you - there are always exceptions. Some sites might naturally lend themselves to mobile users - others may have been developed after the mobile revolution - so with mobile users content requirements in mind.

Let’s hope Facebook use does drop and people start wanting the individual websites again.

Regarding $/£ — I was more thinking about U.K. publishers, not revenue earned from U.K. clicks.

Being in the U.K. - and google being a US company (and most advertisers being US) - obviously the drop from $1.80 to £1, now being $1.20 to £1 — us brits are seeing lower earnings because of the markets. If I’ve worked that out right?

[MayankParmar]

Saturday was surprisingly good! Better than weekdays :)

[NickMNS]

Being in the U.K. - and google being a US company (and most advertisers being US) - obviously the drop from $1.80 to £1, now being $1.20 to £1 — us brits are seeing lower earnings because of the markets. If I’ve worked that out right?

When your home currency drops in value, it means that you need to exchange more of your home currency for each unit of foreign currency. Conversely, 1 unit of foreign currency will buy you more home currency. So for UK publishers selling USD ads, when the value of Pounds falls vs. you get more pounds per click, in other words weak pound should cause your earnings to rise.

[Runfun]

I guess Leebow is right that American advertisers pay less for ads in the UK. That's a benefit but also a risk when having websites in the English language. More competition (also more and better advertisers) but also more influence from currency fluctuations.

@Mayank, true if September will be the same as now I might even panic as well. I'm near testing another network but mostly the problem is that those other networks only fill about 10 percent or something like that.

[frostitomik]

Here is my theory:

90% of internet content is now trash (gossip, clickbait videos, top 10 articles etc.) and advertisers realized, this content just doesn't convert, so CPM dropped to the lowest in history.

Also, people are even more broke compared to the 2000s, so they don't spend as much as they used to. US debt is the biggest in history. The only reason there hasn't been another great depression yet, are the central banks and their strategy to create the biggest stock market bubble since the 1920s.

[leebow]

Also... to follow your theory...

“Advertisers” themselves, maybe there are less and less of them because of Amazon.

Most people now buy on amazon/ebay/Facebook. So maybe there are less advertisers buying ads, as they don’t have traditional websites any more - or have been put out of business by amazon.

Google 1st page results now anything product related is all amazon/ebay - you don’t see any small time sites in the rankings now. You’ve got to try DuckDuckGo go see more traditional search results.

[motorhaven]

Learning and improving, getting more visitors and less revenue... that's Adsense for 99 of the 100 publishers. Some say they earn more but that's mostly with a lot more visitors instead of a big increase of CPM

Can you quantify this with actual data?

[ember]

My RPM is the same that it was five years ago. EPC has dropped but CTR has increased, so it's a wash.

“Advertisers” themselves, maybe there are less and less of them because of Amazon.

Most people now buy on amazon/ebay/Facebook. So maybe there are less advertisers buying ads, as they don’t have traditional websites any more - or have been put out of business by amazon.

Back when Adwords started there was very little competition (and prices were high). Yes, Amazon, FB, Pinterest, etc. have taken a share of Google's advertising pie, but there are also more advertisers across the board now than there were back then.

Bottom line, if you provide high quality, original, useful content to a targeted audience and understand how to place ads, then Adsense still works.

[leebow]

It “still works” but not as well as it did - I think that’s the point.

I get the same number of visitors I have for the past 7 years - over 6 million page views a month. My revenue has more than halved.

My ad positions haven’t changed, the site has basically stayed the same.

I don’t blame Adsense - they are only the middle men. They take the same percentage they’ve always took.

Its just all the reasons that have been listed in other posts why money is down.

So when I see the “Adsense is broken|dead|etc” I don’t think it’s Adsense - I think it’s just the cpc market we are in. I’ve yet to find an alternative that pays as well as Adsense, or can offer the fill rate.

[Mentat]

Adsense is a barometer, and for some time is showing (economical) storm ahead.
I know that is not a good idea to generalise, but I see two situations that spell trouble:

1. People are partying like is '999 (holiday, expensive etc). It's a very hot summer in Europe.
2. Businesses are having a problem: expenses are rising, profits are plummeting and they cut expenses from that they can and the first expenses are marketing and ads.

[ember]

Mentat, you speak in generalities. What people are partying? What business expenses are rising? Whose profits are plummeting?

Leebow, if your ad positions haven’t changed and your site has stayed basically the same over the last seven years, then maybe that’s part of the problem.

[gatormark]

Bottom line, if you provide high quality, original, useful content to a targeted audience and understand how to place ads, then Adsense still works.

Of course Adsense can still make you money I just think that most people are saying that it’s not the same type of money that we used to make. This is definitely the case in certain niches. In my opinion, part of that has to do with the fact that there are many more websites out today. More competition. At one point, I was making double the money I am right now with the same amount of traffic.

[MayankParmar]

AdSense is doing much better now.

[leebow]

Leebow, if your ad positions haven’t changed and your site has stayed basically the same over the last seven years, then maybe that’s part of the problem.

No. If visitor numbers are same, if site is same, if ad positions are same, if ctr is slightly up, none of those things are the problem.

Believe me - no amount of moving ads, or change site design will recover a loss of 60% income. (It has been A/B tested)

I’ve said this already - some people are lucky, their sites are in a niche where maybe revenue hasn’t dropped too much. Or maybe people new to the game might think the current numbers are good.

The simplest way revenue could improve for most people is if Adsense tested advert external JavaScript libraries. Blank ads, and script errors stopping ads from loading are currently the biggest problem with Adsense themselves.

The rest are market conditions.

[gatormark]

Believe me - no amount of moving ads, or change site design will recover a loss of 60% income. (It has been A/B tested)

That's the Truth!

[Sissi]

I used to have 6 years ago a unique keyword combination in a foreign language in the loan sector. Let s say something like
Coconut life insurance
I was alone and number one, now I m page 4 and first ranking is with banks and insurances
SEO :
In some languages empty pages are ranking number one with 2 lines of contents and H1 keywords spams.

Yes there is an inflation of publishers but Google selection is low quality meanwhile.
Let s hope Q4 is far better than the first 3 quarters of 2019y

[MayankParmar]

[imgur.com...]

quality ad on AdSense ;)

[NickMNS]

@Mayank what was wrong with that. It was pretty good. I mean relatively speaking, here is one from a few month ago that I screen capped:
[imgur.com...]

You see! things are improving.

[Runfun]

Maybe interesting for the readers here. I was looking for advice to sell my ads directly and this article also mentioned the decline of CPM through the years: [promisemedia.com...]

Another advice about selling ads directly is the new subject here at Webmasterworld, it's about Ad Manager and you can use it for directly selling ads, serving Adsense ads, affiliate ads and so on: [webmasterworld.com...]