March 2020 AdSense Earnings and Observations

And so it begins... Again!

[martinibuster]

Ha! Got the thread started on time! :)

[IanTurner]

The big topic this month is how badly are earnings going to be hit.

I'm guessing I could be down by 25-50% against last year.

[Sissi]

Lamentions are good
But we would learn more if we knew why some pages haven t suffered and while some others have.

Adsense would be less confusing if publishers would more open to each others.

[Still Not Shiny]

Lamentations is right, and Sissi, you're right too.
I know this thread is about March, but here's how my March started: Just a quick note of non-joy that even though there were corrections all along - Google has taken back 85% of the earnings we were showing for February. I wrote to ask them to confirm but of course, there's no real chance. I am heartbroken over here as I was stupid enough to hope that the corrections all along were accurate and enough. Not.

[bhukkel]

@Still Not Shiny

Normally Google takes <1% on my account but last month it was about 35%. I do not see any changes in traffic, for me cpc was a lot higher last month not the number of clicks.

[Still Not Shiny]

Yes, me too, Bhukkel. Glad it was 35% for you and not 85%. CPC was higher and clicks were higher too for me, though.

[kireb]

February came 20% lower than last year.CPC and RPM were the culprits. Clawback stood at 4%, much higher than usual. Lets see what March will bring

[Sissi]

@Still Not Shiny

I understand.
We are all affected.
What ads are working best, I have now replaced all ads links. As They are useless

[Still Not Shiny]

Hi Sissi(and everyone...)

I haven't got to the point of removing Adsense completely but that may be in the cards. We have got decent returns from Sovrn.

Here is a question...has any publisher ever seen a balance from Goog that went down (in the Adsense "balance" column) ever go back UP after having gone down? Ever? (my guess is no but hey a gal can dream, right?)

[immrrobot]

i thought it was only me that saw a huge spike in the clawback from Google. My 6% does seem low in front of 85%. But this is the first time i have crossed 5%. Don't know what's google upto

[Sissi]

Hi Still not Shiny

Never seen this.
My priority is now to find out which as format performs the best

[Still Not Shiny]

No, it is definitely not just you, or us, or Sissi, Mr. Robot. :) There are some comments also on Google's Adsense Support forum (not that Google staff seems to spend a lot of time there, mind you...) wherein some folks who say they are big publishers with a lot of traffic in the same boat as we are.

The 85% (no exaggeration) clawback came at a really rough personal time.

I know it's not personal but it really feels like it - it's just impossibly cruel timing for us. Ah well. There were probably few if any humans in my loop, so to speak....

[Sissi]

@ S N S
All bad things come together in life... can write a book about this!
Have the same with clawback always compliant with all imposed changes , mobile first, https, data protection, stopped smoking in order not to be banned from Adsense!

I m still reiterating my question which ads are working best for you?

[Still Not Shiny]

Hi Sissi,

I am running display ads, responsive ones through Adsense, mostly. I don't use a particular niche. I'm not sure what you're asking? Sorry I'm not quite sure...

[Sissi]

Hi SNS
Sorry for the confusion.
I have several niches and testing Display Ads and this is a disaster even in comparison to links

[gatormark]

Adsense took back 11% of my earnings for February (hundreds of dollars). That's almost the highest percentage ever. It's the highest percentage in 3 years, but I was making 2.5 times the amount then.

It just seems strange to me since my clawbacks had been decreasing as of late...at least for me. Then, WHAM, one of the biggest clawbacks ever for February.

[kireb]

CPC and RPM have dropped another 25% since Saturday.

[universenet]

Simple saying, Google destroying publishers, small and big publishers, CEO Google is from India so he expect and calculating that all we need earn like a people from India

[Wildchild00]

AdSense has really gone down, all my ranking down

[universenet]

I just see all that like a Boeing effect

[Still Not Shiny]

And this, my friends, is why there is a need for regulations and watchdogs with teeth. IMHO. Absolute power corrupts

[ember]

Analytics is showing double the number of clicks with the same number of pageviews that Adsense is, so something is afoot. I don't look at Analytics much. Does it record invalid clicks? I talked to an Adsense rep once who said that while the network is under constant attack, March is the worst for bots.

[Sissi]

Clawback <1% for Feb
CTR 9%
RPM > 20 down 50 %
My issue is more SEO related

[KaseyM]

Today is very slow.

Coronavirus is going to make this a rough year I feel.

When everything will slow to a crawl the first thing to be slashed will be advertising budgets.

[devoo]

My CTR is usually about 3-3.5% but since yesterday it is 2-2,5%. Are they not counting clicks correctly or not showing ads to the users at all?

[allhearts]

Brutal day so far here, worst in a couple of years, anyone else feeling the crunch?

[Sissi]

March is showing the way for all publishers.
At the end of this year Adsense will probably only use ads in the search results without sharing the revenues with the website developpers.
Good luck
Post scriptum: it s difficult to find out why some publishers are suffering more than others

[NickMNS]

@Sissi

Post scriptum: it s difficult to find out why some publishers are suffering more than others

If I were you I would be looking at factors such as:

CTR 9%

Whereas it is normal for CTRs to vary from niche to niche, but 9% is exceptionally high. That means nearly 1 in 10 impressions result in an ad click, and assuming that each session has many ad impressions that means that nearly every session results in a click. Did you mean 0.9% or 0.09%?

[breeks]

Big publishers are now going after the crumbs that small publishers used to survive on. The cake is getting smaller and there is a feeding frenzy. Bigs dogs are always going to win. :)

[Sissi]

Nick MNS

I mean NINE % I m having this for years with variations up to 12%

This is the page CTR means clicks against page views not against impressions.
Against impressions is less but not low