Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I run a site that spans many different topics, so I'm not inclined to think it's related to competition. For the last couple of years, AdSense has provided fairly predictable revenue, and this is the first time I've seen such a dramatic drop. Have any of you guys seen something similar?
All day today I have been checking the many niche sites we have to see how each one is performing and it makes depressing reading.
We're now seriously looking at alternatives or considering the removal of Adsense completely from many sites!
Just why is there no Google Adsense Advisor to tell us what is happening? If I were to treat my clients like this I would get booted immediately.
probably because some of the higher paying EPC AdWords advertisers opted out of your site.
Of course that's the stock answer at the moment which I don't really buy being the #1 niche site in my industry.
More trade visitors, more retail visitors, more clicks, more of the industry coming to me every day asking if they can advertise direct rather than use Adwords since our sites are so focused.
I have always told them to go to Google since it was so much easier for me and it enables others the chance to advertise on our sites at reasonable cost rather than being blown out by the big money advertisers.
Nah, something's wrong somewhere and I'm prepared to live with it until the end of this week and then I shall commence making alterations.
More trade visitors, more retail visitors, more clicks, more of the industry coming to me every day asking if they can advertise direct rather than use Adwords since our sites are so focused.
I wouldn't pass up advertising for adsense - you can do both you know ;)
Whatever you decide, good luck and via con dios! I always appreciate your comments.
Definately seeing this. Ever since May 5th I've been making about 1/2 what I did before May 5th. Same clicks, same visitors just lower overall earnings.
Ditto that. I'm seeing the exact same across many channels. Yet another severe drop in earnings. Will pull off all (remaining) ads from my pages if this to continue past Friday.
Can't help but to think that the adsense party is over. For all I care, google can take their smart pricing (or what ever they call their recent no-sense cynical abuse of my ad inventory) elsewhere. What ever credibility they’ve had. It is clearly no longer the case.
I've emailed them as I don't buy the advertisers opting out excuse. My site is also in the top 3 sites for my niche, and the only one (strangely) that has adsense on it!
I'm used to stats that vary widely, but this is outside any pattern of variance I've seen before.
Or, dog forbid, they have manually rejigged the adwords auction system to drop prices and encourage more advertisers (this is hugely wild conspiracy theory type speculation and I don't really believe it - but if they decreased the value of clicks accross the board it would have the effect of making click-fraud less attractive and easier to catch with less losses to the advertisers).
Since February I've noted a sharp decline in EPC. CTR fractionally down but once again escalating impressions which tends to offset the negative affects.
Overall, compared to twelve months ago, I'd be earning twice as much a month [or somewhat more] than I presently am.
Very curious and this month has had some very weird gyrations.
My take on all this over the last three months? These possibilities are in order of my preference.
a) A static advertiser base in my niche but a growing number of publishers.
b) Smartpricing
c) Google taking a bigger slice of the pie.
Personally, I think it's A+B+C
My monthly impressions are extremely high by the standards noted here in the past. CTR is quite respectable, only EPC has dropped some 40% and it is still much, much higher than most figures regularly mentioned here.
Yes I don't have to work and, AdSense has now my principal source of income for almost two years and while I wouldn't earn this kind of money a month in my regular job it's still far and away from the BMW, lavish dining and champagne lifestyle I would obviously have been enjoying with pre-February averages. I've been with the programme almost since day one, coming up two years.
Would be nice if Google made some clarifying statement though.
PS: I'd already retired long before AdSense, it turned a mediocre retirement into something quite comfortable and enjoyable.
Would be nice if Google made some clarifying statement though.
Why would they? if they can keep the fog on and continue to take advantage of our ad space inventory while leaving us in the dark with minimum control over what might be showing over our sites.
I don't expect any clarification from G anymore. The lack of it over so many "adsense earning decline" threads tells a thousand words.
Post something over the adword$ forum and AWA normally reply within a couple of hours.
<end rant>
I've seen bad targetting before, but this is one the worst cycles I've seen to date. Weird.
I've seen some erratic targeting, too, which comes as a surprise after a long period of improvement. (What are Italy travel ads doing on a Paris travel page? Or sleazy "make $1,000 a week taking photos--not porn!" ads on a page about Paris sports and recreation?)
Maybe they updated their Smart Pricing algorithm?
I have three main adsense sites. One large global, two very local UK sites - all No.1 in their field and appealing to very different users/advertisers.
While dailys vary - variation is normally uncorrelated. Not anymore - all 3 have dived uniformily. About 40% in my estimation. CTR has dipped (badly targetted ads) but CPM is the main culprit.
Like others - I had given up individual ads as adsense made things so much easier & increased revenue. I'll give it a month, but if things don't stabilise I will have to reconsider....
Has site-targeting for advertisers come online? If so, this would support my prediction that some sites will benefit from being targeted whilst the rest of us will be left to pick up the scraps.
Having worked hard to build new content and double my impressions, even fighting back after the Allegra fiasco, I now find my earnings back down where they were months ago. What do I bother?
Definitely not happy.
I noticed a few things after 05/05/05.
- The ads being shown are not on target.
- This causes click thru rate to dive.
- Plus, epc is about 25% lower.
It is frustrating as you think you are just starting to get it... And then they pull the rug out from under you.
TJ
another pubisher here seeing same thing
off target adds
plus
low paying adds
income down 35%
steve
