AdSense 'smart pricing' broken?

Should optimize based on site, not based on domain name?

[GeorgeK]

A lot of folks have realized that they can do a lot better in their earnings by removing AdSense from pages that are not "performing", i.e. by sending Google fewer overall clicks and impressions.

Is this a sign that smart-pricing is broken, because it is calculating its "penalties" not on a page-by-page basis, but instead on the entire domain?

I'm now at the point where I have reduced AdSense to a trickle, but my earnings are comparable to when I was sending them 10x more traffic, because the earnings per click have risen so much on the remaining inventory.

This is not wise optimization on the part of Google, in my opinion. The act of adding/removing their code from one part of my site should have no material impact on the revenues/optimization on a different page if they were doing things right.

It's like if Pepsi is buying billboard space in Toronto, and advertises in 10 different locations. If I'm the owner of all 10 locations, and suddenly remove their ads from 9 spots, leaving only 1 location with Pepsi ads, I'd not expect my revenues to stay roughly the same. But, with AdSense smart-pricing, this is exactly what is happening.

As more folks realize this, it'll encourage substitution of ad space between YPN (when it launches) or other contextual ad programs. This doesn't make Google better off. If their optimization was working "properly", they could be getting 10x the number of clicks, and the publisher would be getting more like 3 or 4 times the revenues.

If we draw a graph of total clicks on the X-axis, vs total revenues on the Y-axis (verical axis), that graph shouldn't ever be negative sloping, if the optimization was working properly. Right now it seems to be like an inverted U curve, and reducing inventory actually can make you better off.

The solution would be for Google to calculate smart-pricing penalties per page instead of per domain. This shouldn't be too hard, esp. when there are a statistically significant number of page views for those pages (e.g more than 100/day).

[GeorgeK]

Oops, the subtitle of this thread should have been "Should optimize based on PAGE, not based on domain name?"

[sailorjwd]

I agree somewhat,

I've removed adsense from most low EPC pages and my earnings haven't been affected - but of course they wouldn't since the pages didn't make a single % to begin with. So, in my case I can't really say that removing them has done anything other than make my site look less like an adsense lady-of-the-evening site ;)

[ownerrim]

"As more folks realize this, it'll encourage substitution of ad space between YPN (when it launches) or other contextual ad programs."

That occurred to me a long time ago, but don't the new adsense tos prohibit that?

[hunderdown]

The solution would be for Google to calculate smart-pricing penalties per page instead of per domain. This shouldn't be too hard, esp. when there are a statistically significant number of page views for those pages (e.g more than 100/day).

IMHO, they already do this. Site-wide CTR is factored into smart pricing. That's why taking AdSense off pages that don't get clicks improves EPC. Page-by-page conversion (based on advertiser stats) is ALSO factored into smart pricing.

[frox]

Should optimize based on page, not based on domain name?

I have read postings here suggesting that it's even wors, being based on ACCOUNT!

That would make it even worst: a bad performing site would affect all your other sites too..

Anyone has more solid information about this?

[methodman]

Interesting...But you can have only one account, so that shouldnt even matter.

[sailorjwd]

It is possible to have two accounts.

I've noticed what appears to be account-level pricing.

[wheelie34]

where does smart pricing eventually stop? surely at some stage it bottoms out, I have been steadily declining over the past 2 weeks or so, I am now at about 70% of the eCPM I had when I thought to myself, "this is ok, I am making what I think my site size and traffic could possibly make" judging by others traffic stats on this forum, I have done a lot of seo work and coincidently over the last 2 weeks, while eCPM was on the down, my traffic was on th eway up, so there is more proof that more traffic does not mean more earnings, just similar but with lower eCPM.

Whens it stopping is the question, and does it stay there for eternity, has anyone else experienced this?

[hunderdown]

wheelie34, I think how much smart pricing affects you varies widely, depending on your focus and your visitors.

I experienced a steady though slow decline from April to September, during which my EPC was cut about in half.

Since then I have put into practice some of the suggestions I've read here, and my EPC is back or nearly back to April levels. Since I also managed to more than double my CTR, earnings are up nicely. Now I need to work on traffic.

So it is possible to recover, though how possible must vary.

[swoop]

An interesting topic. Most of us probably worry more about Earnings than EPC, CTR, eCPM and other metrics. Will removing excess ads, perhaps even leaving some under-performing pages ad-free, increase Earnings?

[hunderdown]

swoop, that was one of the things I did to bring my earnings back up. Proceed with caution, though, as it doesn't work for everybody and can be taken too far.