AdSense Earnings and Observations - July 2023

[allhearts]

Month is starting out very bad, so far it's the lowest earning day since I started with adsense, many moons ago.

[ember]

@MMedi26, it is more traffic, better fill rate, higher EPC or higher CTR?

[purpal]

Is there a way to increase page RPM?

[MMedi26]

@ember traffic is up and ctr is increasing.

[MMedi26]

Just sharing some motivation for those going through a hard month with your site. I started the month off down probably 40% but today I’m up 80%. Keep fighting. I was so upset last month and the beginning of this month that I could cry but things turned around.

[christianz]

Ad rates are microscopically low right now. Lowest in years and years and years. Lower than January 1st. No decent content can be produced with ad rates like this.

[purpal]

What happens if I use my adsense account on different websites I have which are targeting different niches? For example, SEO, travel and so on.

[Soulofmonk]

I am still down 25% compared to last year.

[ember]

@purpal, you can use your Adsense code on other websites you own, but if they haven't had the code on them before, then Google will have to approve them. You can add them under Sites in the main menu and then wait to see what Google says.

[MMedi26]

I’m actually shocked at how well mines is performing. I’m up 103% today.

[christianz]

MMedi26, assuming that you are a real person, I think it is not uncommon to have outlier cases but for 99 out of 100 AdSense earnings (CPM) are well down this year compared to last.

[christianz]

One cohort that could be up I could imagine to be some indian spammer who used to make 50 cents / day but now thanks to GPT and greater spam generation potential is making +100% ($1).

[MMedi26]

@christianz what made you think I’m not a real person and I’ve been typing in this group for a while? Lol. I’m confused.

[MMedi26]

I think my niche is the main reasoning for my increase. My views are up from it.

[Pistoche]

It's just a coping mechanism: "I am down year over year, so everyone else must be down as well".

I am above over 2022 as well. From reading through these comments, it seems closer to 60-40, with 60% down YoY, while 40% are up.

Even looking at the stock market, it is up over last year. The real trouble will be next year when the recession will hit.

[christianz]

I am down year over year, so everyone else must be down as well

I wish it was just me so I could just change some things and fix it but sadly its not the case. Ad rates for vast majority (except Google themselves) are record low right now.

[gatormark]

Interesting numbers for this July versus July 2022:
Traffic is up 6%
Revenue is up 14%
Clicks are up 28.8% (wow)

[gatormark]

@christianz

How are your traffic and click numbers compared to last year? Also, what country(ies) do your websites target?

[christianz]

Traffic is modestly higher than last year and sites are global with healthy % of tier 1 countries. Ad rates in AdSense and other platforms (which do still rely on Google AdX) are down -40% YoY.

Vertical/niche is not covid specific. It's perfectly normal evergreen vertical.

Interestingly my AdSense dropped further off a cliff as Google Analytics 3 stopped processing and I removed it from site. That could also just be coincidence.

[christianz]

So Google just posted its quarterly earnings and they beat on ad revenue.... YET at the same time, according to Ezoic ad revenue index (large representative data set, mostly using Google's own AdX), publishers are down 25%.

Can anyone explain this?

[gatormark]

@ christianz

As far as explaining Google’s earnings, that’s easy. Their revenue is based on the entire pool of websites and not just a few like us. So, their revenue will grow because of this and the fact that their “competitors,” and I use that word lightly, are falling by the wayside and their advertisers are moving to Google. For example, 5 years ago I used 4 programs to monetize my sites. Now I use one: Adsense! Additionally most of their revenue, I believe, comes from search. They are still king in that area.

[christianz]

Their revenue is based on the entire pool of websites and not just a few like us.

Ezoic ad revenue index includes very sizable cross section of Google's partner websites. If that segment is down 25% the overall pool of non-Google publishers can not be much better off.

Part of that YoY "growth" is no doubt the ad stuffing they do in Google search and YouTube. But it still can't explain the huge divergence between what publishers get paid and what Google keeps.

[gatormark]

@christianz

However, Google’s pool of websites GROWS each year, so its revenue will grow. If you look at all publishers as ONE publisher, the percentage paid is still the same.

[christianz]

Google’s pool of websites GROWS each year

And some of that pool is now rapidly growing AI generated spam. That also could be part of explanation. But I think majority of this is due to other factors.

[Mentat]

End of the month, eCPM is going down like a big rock!

[Soulofmonk]

YoY stats of my site
Traffic: Up by 14% ~
RPM: Down by 25% ~
Earnings: Down by 15% ~

[MMedi26]

I’ve tripled what I’ve made in July 2022. I can point out that I had very little experience a year ago as I was figuring things out and it was my second year with a site.

[allhearts]

I'm happy for you @MMedi26, it is nice to see others doing well, it does give some of us hope.

[Sissi]

@MMedi 26
Doubling and tripling revenues is feasible if you are at lower revenue levels Let s say from 1 USD to 3 USD or 1 cent to 3 cents.
Some of my sites have seen their revenues multiplied by 10 on a YyY basis ( from 1 to 10 USD)
This is different if you are making 200 USD a day

[MMedi26]

Thank you @allhearts and @Sissi I had very poor revenue 2021/2022. My revenue started to pick up at the end of 2022 and I learned more about how to navigate having a site as time goes. I’m just happy I’m making more and excited to see what the fall/winter will be like because it is a season where things are usually up.

[MMedi26]

Also want to point out that what I’m making is probably less than a lot of you guys who are down because you possibly have way more experience than me.