Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Is anyone else, who has an editorial site and writes their own original reviews, features, articles, FAQs, helpdesk, comments, observations and anecdotes seeing this trend?
Anyway, yesterday (15 feb 2005) was a record for this year, but it seems to be JUST a spike...
EPC is almost exactly the same as January's, and CPM is down ever so slightly (probably because of a slight change in my traffic mix and a big jump in affiliate travel bookings, which may be at the expense of clicks on ads).
Like ronin, I have an editorial site that consists mostly of original articles, reviews, etc.
Each page on my site has one AdSense leaderboard, and I rely on "organic" clickthroughs: i.e., I don't try to optimize for maximum CTR at the expense of advertiser conversions. (This may be helping to prevent high "smart pricing" discounts and a corresponding drop in EPC.)
I did make a change to the ad layout on my pages about Feb. 1st or 2nd. I am new to this and have been experimenting with different configs about every other day.
Here is what I did.
I removed the one leaderboard at the top of my page and inserted 2 button ads into the context of my page.
My ctr skyrocketed well over 300% and for that day my epc was good. However, after that one day my epc dropped to 10% of what it once was and has remained steady around $.06
I have to run the numbers and see what configuration was earning the most. Even if I change it back I do not believe that my epc will rise again. I am going to test it out and see.
P.S. I have also signed up with Kanoodle and am trying them out today. What I have learned so far is that the EPC is much better than my current rate with G. But the ads are not as relevent.
Of course, this thread isn't about Kanoodle, so I'll get to my point. I just started with Adsense on my personal site this month so I don't have much to base it off of, (and I had no real expectations before hand) but if this is a good month for me, I'd hate to see what March will be like, heh
I am seeing the OPPOSITE. Allegra was no fun in my house. BUT earnings are holding ok . . .
It seems that the pages that are still seeing traffic were worth "more"?
Who do I talk to about adding those days back in Feb?
I always calculate earning expectations over a period of 30 days and thought of being able to break 5k this month (not only Adsense) but then I realised that there are only 28 days in February :(
Who do I talk to about adding those days back in Feb?
Dr. Richard Henry, a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins, would love to help you do that. See his Calendar Reform page at:
[henry.pha.jhu.edu...]
Yes, *average* earnings per day in Feb at least 50% higher than ever before, though with a few poor (though respectable days). Traffic levels about normal.
For me the latest update seems to have been a good thing, though I did also increase site capacity and shut out a bunch of bandwidth thieves to improve performance...
And yes, I forgot that two less days in Feb mean that my grand total will be a bit less than first blush mental arithmetic suggested! %-P
Rgds
Damon
Here is what I have found out.
G 1.8% ctr epc $0.105
K 2.1% ctr epc $1.78
The clear winner here is K
One note in the TOS for K is that they hold 10% of your earnings for any chargebacks or invalid clicks. With this much difference I do not care. One other benefit I have noticed is that K's ads open in a new window so your visitor stays on your site. I am also going to start a new thread on this topic. Just thought I would update everyone that read my previous post.
And before anyone complains that I violated G's TOS for stating the epc. I do not care. It is so low it is worthless to me anyway.
Jb
I myself am going to have a record feb. but not because google is paying out more. My traffic increased and my clicks have gone up about 40%. In terms of EPC, it is still down about 30% from previous levels (and still falling).
so my "record" month would have been MUCH HIGHER, had google not decided to play with the EPC.
K's ads open in a new window
I'd really like to see Google add that at least as an option.
Earnings per day is also a useless stat for the purposes of this thread, which I assume is to discuss the issue of google payouts being lower/higher. Earnings per day are affected by higher/lower traffic.
What we all want to know is... Is google paying out less per click? I say yes. EPC is the only measure that will show this.
What we all want to know is... Is google paying out less per click? I say yes.
Not all publishers are experiencing a decline in EPC. For example, my February EPC is virtually identical to January's EPC, and both are up about 20% from December's.
EPC is the only measure that will show this.
Depends what you mean by "paying out." EPC doesn't show what percentage Google is giving the publisher, which is the usual definition of "payout" on this forum. It shows only the publisher's average net earnings per click, which can be affected by any number of things: supply and demand (bids), advertiser discounts (smart pricing), monies deducted for invalid (not necessarily fraudulent) clicks, Google's compensation formula, and so on.
As for effective CPM, it's an industry-standard metric that's used for a simple reason: to help you determine the performance of the space you're devoting to AdSense ads. You can calculate effective CPM for affiliate sales, banner ads, competing PPC networks, or any other revenue streams that you may be using, and you can then compare the numbers to decide whether AdSense (or any other revenue source) is worth keeping on your pages.
Is anyone else, who has an editorial site and writes their own original reviews, features, articles, FAQs, helpdesk, comments, observations and anecdotes seeing this trend?
That's pretty much what my site is like (give or take some features) and Feb started well, but has dropped a great deal over the past week.
My traffic is up slightly from some natural links and minor increase in Google traffic. CTR is fairly constant.
ECPM has dropped dramatically over the past few days (around 50 to 70% of what it was). An example, Tuesday this week I had exactly the same amount of clicks as Tuesday last week, similar impressions, yet earnings were 60% of what they were last Tuesday.
My industry has a natural high this time of year, which usually drops to normal levels around March, so I didn't expect Feb to be as good as Jan was. Traffic levels don't reflect the change in earnings though.
All I can see is an abundance of ebay ads (which btw are completely irrelevant for my content type) appearing in ad blocks that didn't usually show before (as well as some other unrelated stuff).
I've just filtered them, so I guess I'll see how that pans out in the next few days.
Scott
Not as much as the last few days of January and the first two days of February (about 300% increase these days), but still much higher than December and January.
Depends what you mean by "paying out." EPC doesn't show what percentage Google is giving the publisher, which is the usual definition of "payout" on this forum. It shows only the publisher's average net earnings per click, which can be affected by any number of things: supply and demand (bids), advertiser discounts (smart pricing), monies deducted for invalid (not necessarily fraudulent) clicks, Google's compensation formula, and so on.
I know all of this. My definition of payout is the same as yours. And yes, your average EPC will vary depending on those factors listed. But, chances are those factors will be CONSISTANT on YOUR site. So when I say my EPC dropped 40%, it is a reliable comparison to PREVIOUS months which would have relatively the same factors involved.
If your EPC dropped, the most likely reasons are (1) Google is paying out less or (2) Bids have gone down for your keywords. The other reasons that you mentioned will tend to average out. So, I believe it is not (2) because the adwords show that the keywords have not gone down in price (my case). The only other possible explaination is (1).
Smart pricing, and other factors will affect the EPC but not by 40% compared to previous months.
As for CPM, I know what that is too. Yes, it is an industry standard way to compare performance. But, with google it is E-CPM. This number is affected if you ad or remove an adblock. It is unreliable as a comparison between months. UNLESS you know you haven't removed or added any ad blocks in the months you are comparing.
With EPC, there is no problem with this. EPC is a more direct measure of what google is paying out.
My site's CTR varys by way of of few tenths of a percent day to day. I feel I notice that I see a slightly lower CTR on days that also have low CPM.
My interpretation is that low CPM days are days when the "good" advertisers aren't participating in Adsense. Maybe a budget limit has been reached. Maybe the "good" advertisers have opted out of Adsense "content".
It's sad. CPM is even 1/3 of what it was in November on some days. But I think it's the ebb and flow of how things go and no doubt based on ROI. I don't know if its related to click fraud of the Adsense system, the feeling that content ROI isn't as good as SERP's ROI or what but the collective concensus of what an Adsense ad is worth to an advertiser or even an advertiser's interest in participating in Adsense seems to wax and wane over the months.
1) What kinds of sites do they have? Affiliate sites, e-commerce sites, editorial sites, or...?
2) What are their topics or sectors? Travel, finance, computers, hobbies, or something else?
3) Have they done anything to encourage higher clickthrough rates, such as switching to large rectangles in the middle of text or using colors that make ads blend into the page background?
4) Have they switched to multiple ad units, or have they been using multiple ad units all along?
5) Do they have sites with many different subtopics, or are their sites built mostly around a limited number of topics or keyphrases?
Similarly, what do publishers who continue to prosper have in common? (Several have mentioned having editorial sites; beyond that, what do we know, if anything?)
With AdSense feeling ill the last few weeks, we've even responded to some of the over-the-transom inquiries from would-be ad buyers that we might have ignored a month or two ago and have, as a result, signed a few new clients who we'd have turned away when AdSense was spewing cash.
Also, while complaining bitterly about abysmal AdSense earnings, I looked at the stats and noticed that -- while far below the last few quarters -- this Feb. is just about identical to last Feb.
2) What are their topics or sectors? Rather not say, but a very general subject area that is of particular interest early on in the year to a wide cross section of people.
3) Have they done anything to encourage higher clickthrough rates, such as switching to large rectangles in the middle of text or using colors that make ads blend into the page background? I did in Novemember and saw a huge jump in CTR and earnings and the December stats relfected these changes on par with traffic levels, as did January. Feb started on track, but took a dive this week.
4) Have they switched to multiple ad units, or have they been using multiple ad units all along? Varies from page to page, but most have a single ad unit at the end of the article.
5) Do they have sites with many different subtopics, or are their sites built mostly around a limited number of topics or keyphrases? Hard to say. A large amount of traffic comes from one sub-topic area, but the site does have a varied amount of traffic coming from all sub-topics in the main subject area.
Further to my previous post, I did remove the ebay ads and a couple of other ads (affiliate sites relating to stuff that had nothing to do with my subject area) and my ECPM has risen to around what it was (more or less).
Scott
1) What kinds of sites do they have?
A. Reference information, current news articles, editorial, referral links.
2) What are their topics or sectors?
A. Very popular year-round travel destination.
3) Have they done anything to encourage higher clickthrough rates, such as switching to large rectangles in the middle of text or using colors that make ads blend into the page background?
A. Had just finished optimizing through December and saw tremendous results all through January. Feb 2 saw a plummet that continued through Feb 15 or so.
4) Have they switched to multiple ad units, or have they been using multiple ad units all along?
A.Multiple ad units, but no more than 4-8 ads per page which has not changed, in fact we've cut back a few.
5) Do they have sites with many different subtopics, or are their sites built mostly around a limited number of topics or keyphrases?
A, One wide topic, but rank highly under a lot of diversly related keywords for the topic.
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Further to my previous post, I did remove the ebay ads and a couple of other ads (affiliate sites relating to stuff that had nothing to do with my subject area) and my ECPM has risen to around what it was (more or less).
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Sounds like your problem was mostly traffic suckers who are constantly creeping up. In our case we've already elminated as many of them as readily identifiable and continue to do so daily. Our problem COULD be one major one that is accross many categories, but I'll be darned if I can locate it. Or on the other hand, maybe we accidently filtered out our alltime highest paying bidder! I don't think so, but you can never be totally sure since G tells nothing.
Ya know, I'm thinking of unfiltering all but the most obvious and seeing if anything changes. Theoretically, by now, Adsense should KNOW what normally does well on my site and put up the RIGHT ads, so it should only put up a previously filtered one if they are RIGHT (huh! yeah right). Anyway, can't hurt, I doubt, they can get any lower.
If your hypothesis were correct, I'd be witnessing a decline in EPC because most of my 4,200 or so pages are "evergreen" and I average only about 10 new pages a week. But so far this month, my EPC is almost exactly the same as January's, which was significantly higher than December's.
