Content network impressions reduction from Aug24

[pbaddock]

I have witnessed a drastic dip in content network ad impressions served on my adwords campaign - the change appearing to occur from August 24 onward....and trending downward in a death spiral! (while far less targetted, our campaign advertises websites - a reasonably generic offering - and was getting good clicks (and conversions) from the content network before Aug24).

Before that date I was getting consistent 35,000 - 60,000 impressions with the odd busy day adn the odd slow day....but mostly consistent. Here's an extract of the stats (AUD):

11/08/200665,723500.10%$0.65$32.592.7
12/08/200687,976630.10%$0.65$40.712.8
13/08/200660,198520.10%$0.89$46.052.6
14/08/200638,135440.10%$0.92$40.362.8
15/08/200634,790360.10%$1.11$40.102.9
16/08/200645,708450.10%$0.89$40.182.9
17/08/200650,137440.10%$0.91$39.852.7
18/08/200634,922380.10%$1.06$40.192.8
19/08/200643,575440.10%$0.90$39.782.6
20/08/200649,235350.10%$1.00$35.162.6
21/08/200642,364480.10%$0.94$44.892.6
22/08/200659,638400.10%$0.98$39.312.6
23/08/200638,825390.10%$1.05$40.852.9
24/08/200637,759320.10%$1.10$35.212.9
25/08/200629,978150.10%$0.92$13.813
26/08/200633,586470.10%$1.02$47.892.9
27/08/200631,930220.10%$0.90$19.762.7
28/08/200635,511410.10%$1.14$46.783
29/08/200622,358360.20%$1.31$47.283.1
30/08/200625,261190.10%$1.01$19.272.9
31/08/200625,114190.10%$0.90$17.053
1/09/200625,740360.10%$1.10$39.562.7
2/09/200616,665160.10%$0.89$14.202.7
3/09/200619,209220.10%$0.94$20.672.7
4/09/200620,060200.10%$1.13$22.523
5/09/200622,161280.10%$1.16$32.483.2
6/09/200618,382270.10%$1.04$28.033.2
7/09/200616,515420.30%$1.07$44.873
8/09/200614,492190.10%$0.86$16.413.2
9/09/200610,520150.10%$1.09$16.383.2
10/09/200612,464150.10%$1.12$16.793.1

======

I've emailed google support, but they are a bit slow to reply....(4 days and waiting). I've spent time searching on this forum to try and track down any explanations but am struggling other than some general references to the content network being volatile - but this trend appears too clear to be influenced by a single site dropping off the serving list or similar. Help!?

Phil B

[pbaddock]

(hopefully this will be easier to read? I notice I can't edit a previous post on this forum - doh).

11/08/2006----65,723----50----0.10%----$0.65----$32.59----2.7
12/08/2006----87,976----63----0.10%----$0.65----$40.71----2.8
13/08/2006----60,198----52----0.10%----$0.89----$46.05----2.6
14/08/2006----38,135----44----0.10%----$0.92----$40.36----2.8
15/08/2006----34,790----36----0.10%----$1.11----$40.10----2.9
16/08/2006----45,708----45----0.10%----$0.89----$40.18----2.9
17/08/2006----50,137----44----0.10%----$0.91----$39.85----2.7
18/08/2006----34,922----38----0.10%----$1.06----$40.19----2.8
19/08/2006----43,575----44----0.10%----$0.90----$39.78----2.6
20/08/2006----49,235----35----0.10%----$1.00----$35.16----2.6
21/08/2006----42,364----48----0.10%----$0.94----$44.89----2.6
22/08/2006----59,638----40----0.10%----$0.98----$39.31----2.6
23/08/2006----38,825----39----0.10%----$1.05----$40.85----2.9
24/08/2006----37,759----32----0.10%----$1.10----$35.21----2.9
25/08/2006----29,978----15----0.10%----$0.92----$13.81----3
26/08/2006----33,586----47----0.10%----$1.02----$47.89----2.9
27/08/2006----31,930----22----0.10%----$0.90----$19.76----2.7
28/08/2006----35,511----41----0.10%----$1.14----$46.78----3
29/08/2006----22,358----36----0.20%----$1.31----$47.28----3.1
30/08/2006----25,261----19----0.10%----$1.01----$19.27----2.9
31/08/2006----25,114----19----0.10%----$0.90----$17.05----3
1/09/2006----25,740----36----0.10%----$1.10----$39.56----2.7
2/09/2006----16,665----16----0.10%----$0.89----$14.20----2.7
3/09/2006----19,209----22----0.10%----$0.94----$20.67----2.7
4/09/2006----20,060----20----0.10%----$1.13----$22.52----3
5/09/2006----22,161----28----0.10%----$1.16----$32.48----3.2
6/09/2006----18,382----27----0.10%----$1.04----$28.03----3.2
7/09/2006----16,515----42----0.30%----$1.07----$44.87----3
8/09/2006----14,492----19----0.10%----$0.86----$16.41----3.2
9/09/2006----10,520----15----0.10%----$1.09----$16.38----3.2
10/09/2006----12,464----15----0.10%----$1.12----$16.79----3.1

[sailorjwd]

Me thinks the 'other shoe' is dropping.

[holyearth]

I believe they are implementing QS on the content network...can anyone else comment on this?

[Khensu]

I think I hear the fat lady warming up.

[rbacal]

I think the other shoe fell on the fat lady who was trying to warm up, but having been badly crushed by the shoe, is now recuperating in Cupertino.

Next bozo level comment?

[steve40]

I agree
I think I hear the fat lady warming up. and starting to impact before she has sung , similar results here , the only thing I could do was create a seperate campaign with single but very relevent add and keywords to landing page which worked on both G and content.

Did change my monthly spend downwards but provided better ROI on the lower spend , still trying to work out how to go forward and obtain more clicks and sales from adwords in the run up to XMAS but not easy as the cpc seems to be increasing across the board

steve

[holyearth]

Are a lot of you seeing content pricing spiral?

[pbaddock]

Tks for the feedback....so should I conclude that I am left only with an option to
a) separate my search and content network traffic into separate campaigns (which I've tried in the past - but before it didn't materially impact my results - so I had re-consolidated for managability)
b) increase my keyword bids across the board on the content campaign

.....how would this compare to allowing separate content bids and just putting a higher figure in for content bids? (same I'm guessing given I currently have not need to separate out the keywords.

It's really frustrating to have to suddenly pay a bunch more for the same service you were getting before.....anyway - no doubt you guys are living my pain. I'm in two minds about waiting for google's feedback before changing anything, but I doubt I'm going to get much joy from your feedback. Anyway - tks again for the tips - any more thoughts / feedback / experiences would be appreciated.

:(

[aeiouy]

Well part of it looks like you slipped in overall ranks just a little bit, for whatever reason, which would mean less exposure and clicks. Also without being able to specifically track the sites you were appearing on, it would hard to eliminate issues with publisher sites. Sites that change content, block ads, pull out of the adsense network, get banned etc could all have an impact. If you were regularly appearing on one site/page that got a lot of traffic and that page is no longer was there, it could impact your numbers significantly. I think there are a lot of potential factors that could be causing this.

[Khensu]

There is a big difference being above or below three on content.

If you are above three you are likely to be in the first adblock or "the" adblock. Slip below and you are taking your chances.

How do you get 10% CTR, that is what I want to know?

[edited by: Khensu at 6:17 pm (utc) on Sep. 16, 2006]

[humblebeginnings]

Same horror here, Adwords traffic and spendings way down as of beginning of september. It appears Google wants to make less money.
How about some shareholders waking up? I hope that if Google realizes they have been tuning their algo a bit to far again they will repair it.

[anallawalla]

I don't have any publisher sites that display ads in this niche but I have closed down a few data-fed catalog sites that were supplementalled and producing almost zero AdSense revenue. I have met some others in this situation, so my theory is that Google is struggling to "improve" quality by the Quality Score initiative and algo tweaks, which cause:

• less duplication for searchers = more pages Supplementalled (including merchants)
  
• Affiliates closing down or leaving AdSense
  
• higher minimum bids for advertisers
  
• fewer content pages
  

[vphoner]

Today, I am noticing worse ranking and substantially worse clicks in the content network. I have also noticed bizzare activity in content almost daily. Not as consistent as it once was. Hoping that today is not a sign of doom.

[pbaddock]

Just as a follow up.... I upped my bids on my most popular keywords by 15 - 20% to push me above 3.0 ranking (per advice on this thread), and my clicks and impressions have bounced back (not to where they were....but a drastic improvement). Tks very much to all for the advice....it's an ongoing learning journey! (home the data below looks ok after posting).

15/09/06 --Websites --11,916 --18 --0.2% --$1.00 --$18.09 --3.2
16/09/06 --Websites --16,400 --18 --0.1% --$1.03 --$18.52 --2.9
17/09/06 --Websites --21,669 --32 --0.1% --$1.09 --$34.75 --2.7
18/09/06 --Websites --17,185 --33 --0.2% --$1.48 --$48.95 --3.0
19/09/06 --Websites --19,362 --30 --0.2% --$1.37 --$41.23 --3.0
20/09/06 --Websites --22,267 --32 --0.1% --$1.28 -$41.06 --2.8

[Khensu]

That looks better, you need to hang around or above 3 but not past 4. Beyond that you out of most pages with a single adblock. Single adblock pages tend to have a higher class of visitor. Even if it costs slighty more it is worth it, more clicks, better clicks and more likely conversions.

As an Adsense publisher I can say that mostly the one adblock per page is the dominant scenario.

If you can't pay the price for the keyword to keep it above 4 then dump it or expand it in a few variations to see if you can get a higher position.

I am sure a lot of seasoned people know this. In search the world ends at 8 in content it ends at 4.

[edited by: Khensu at 12:03 am (utc) on Sep. 21, 2006]

[vphoner]

When you say bidding on a particular keyword, are you referring to content only? I thought the separate bidding block for content overrides individual keywords.