EPC as a percentage of advertiser's bid

trying to determine what % the EPC is of the bid.

[cranberry13]

Can anyone out there approximate the EPC as a percentage of the advertiser's bid? I am curious to know what Google is paying. I'm interested in seeing if two people will have different EPC even though the two separate advertisers's bids are the monetarily the same.

[ken_b]

A number commonly tossed around here is that EPC is about 60 - 70% of what the advertizer pays.

The impoirtant part of that statement is "what the advertizer pays". Which may not be their maximum bid, or anywhere even close to it.

Smart Pricing and who else has ads that are in the cue at the moment make finding the kind of numbers you are asking about almost impossible.

[ken_b]

Excuse my manners, I forgot to welcome you to WW and the Adsense Forum!

[hunderdown]

Due to smart pricing, the amount that the advertiser pays varies, but that doesn't mean necessarily mean that Google keeps a larger share.

Let's say an advertiser bids $1 for a particular keyword. On a particular site, at a particular time of day, Google's smart-pricing algo determines that a click is worth only 33 cents. In another instance, maybe it determines that it's worth 80 cents.

Google then shares that payment with the publisher. According to what people have been able to figure out from SEC filings, Google pays out about 3/4 of what the advertiser pays to the publisher, though that average is likely skewed by large sites that have negotiated a larger cut. We small fry may only be getting 60%.

So to answer your question (though the premise is a bit faulty): yes, different sites will have different EPCs for the same keyword. The range is probably pretty wide, but what matters is what you get on your site....