An Adsense Story: Is Adsense still lucrative?
"Right now this is a developing story across the internet, and many publishers and bloggers are reporting this strange phenomenon.
From the last year Adsense is already not considered as one of the lucrative source of earnings online but still majority of online wannabe millionaires are working hard day and night to earn some decent amount of money from Adsense, and as a result lot of scammer gurus are taking benefit of these innocent publishers by offering them same rehashed stuff in the form of e-books, scripts, and software, full of promises to open a floodgates of money on any person who would buy their crap.
Jorge who runs /www.sirjorge.com/ said “I too have seen a major decline in the last 48 hours, where as before I was getting a few clicks here and there, but now with a lot of views, nothing.”
Terra Andersen of betterforbusiness.com also said “One day it was very high, and the next four days it fell almost 40%, and hasn’t recovered.”
Geek who runs www.howtogeek.com said” The Adsense roller coaster has gone much more sharply up and down for the last two months or so.”
Some other publishers are saying that earnings have dropped even though the CTR has increased and traffic has been at an all-time high. Some have noticed their Feedburners’ 50% drop in subscribers over the weekend and after a little research it was all from Google Feed-fetcher.
The webmaster of http://www.trinigourmet.com/ reported that he checked his Feed-burner stats and also saw a significant drop, and also primarily based on Google feed-fetcher number.Some publishers are reporting that sites have had quite a big fall in the average PPC. CPC is always up and down for more, but everything seems to have taken a dive, CPC and CTR.
There are various theories circulating around, from Google increasing their cut of earnings, to it being linked to the new features available to Adwords advertisers, to some large advertisers pulling out of Adsense, to it just being a new way of reporting statistics, to it being an update in their Smart Pricing algorithm.
According to thread at Webmaster World, it seems like a few noticed a similar increase at the same time that others noticed the decrease.
Another theory put forward is that it has got something to do with the recent change in formats announced by AdSense. Although right now a very few advertisers must be in the beta stage, but probably the oldest and most highest spenders must have been chosen for that.
This creates a double effect, first the CPC from those beta testing biggies is at least reduced if not completely stopped.
Secondly, since this is an auction system, there must be a significant decline in the overall bids due to absence of big players.
One interesting thing is that the price of mortgage-related terms in pay per click searches is rising, so expect to see more mortgage blogs seeking to capture AdSense revenue.
According to one point of view the bulk of advertisers would eventually wise up and realize that they’re not recognizing sufficient revenue from these clicks and cut back or shift their budgets. Some specific sub-markets could obviously have higher demand. Google’s plan to allow advertisers to target specific sites will also tend to hurt all little guys.
Good advertisers are getting better at getting high CTR's and therefore paying less.
With a high CTR many advertisers get clicks for 2-3-4 cent each. The advertisers willing to pay 20 cent per click are pushed off the page.
According to a forum member at Webmaster World : “I've heard many people report that there seems to be an algo-change-day or Smart-pricing-takes-effect-day whichever you believe in. We've been getting the duplicate ads for almost a year, and we told Google then, (especially since it used to be somewhere in the TOS that you should not display identical ads on the same page, and THEY were causing it) but to no avail. It seemed to start when we started using Google-ad-region. We just started removing the extra ad blocks since they were obviously redundant and seldom got any additional clicks. I had one interesting observation the last couple days. Our earnings have been down since Feb right around the time we started noticing something new. It seemed that ads on all pages account-wide or at least site-wide were leaning towards two particular sub-topics. These two topics were those, which in our channel level reports had the overall highest CPM compared to other pages, but are in a relatively narrow topic which does not necessarily appeal to most of the rest of our site. However while the ads did very well CPM-wise, by virtue of either high CTR or high PPC, on the pages where they were APPROPRIATE, they did NOT do so well on the rest of the site. Since they were not applicable to the other pages, they tended not to get clicked. More of them were of the lower PPC variety, so even when they were clicked, they tended to lower the overall CPM of the pages they were now on inappropriately.
For example, say the site was about all different power tools (our actual case couldn't be further from that topic), with a single page on various jackhammer bits, and another single page on electric screwdrivers.
Ads for electric screwdrivers get a nice 35% CTR on their page and jackhammer bits get a lower CTR but since they have a much higher PPC still get a very nice CPM for on their page.
The electric screwdriver page, in this example, is our most popular entry point and a #1 for its keyword phrase on Google, but has a relatively low PPC of only .10.
But, because of the high CTR we wind up with a hefty $35.00 CPM there. The jackhammer bits page is relatively low traffic, but has a decent CTR and a very nice $1.50 PPC, so it winds up with probably a CPM of $85.00.
Yet when those same ads start bombarding the radial saw pages, the electric drill pages and even the precision lathe pages, they get relatively no interest and the CPM on those pages has dropped below $2.00 due to the much lower average CTR.
Our overall CPM, PPC and Overall earnings dropped to about 1/2. Then just the other day I decided to try removing the ads just from those two offending pages, totally.
It only took about 12 hours and suddenly all the ads went back to the way they used to be a year ago in happier times and our CPM and PPC skyrocketed almost back to the previous levels!
I've replaced the ads now (they were rather lucrative in themselves) to see what happens. I'm beginning to think there has been a new flawed algorithm added with good intentions, but bad results, which is doing this and is causing a lot of advertisers’ earnings to fall.
Perhaps it works very well for some types of sites (perhaps ones where the entire site is very focused and ads are interchangeable across all topics), but not for slightly more diverse sites like ours, where visitors viewing one part of the site are not interested in ads from another part! “
Another member reported the following: “Update a couple of weeks after the initial fall and my average EPC has recovered however not to previous levels:-(
8-21 June compared to:
1-7 June: -15.18%
All 2007: - 7.63%
Interestingly my CTR is also down 6.36% compared to all year metrics.
What is more disturbing is that compared to the same period 2006:
eCPM -32.3%
CTR -24.29%
Visitor numbers up, page impressions up.
How long before I start paying Google?
Has the AdSense novelty factor for Joe Surfer worn off after 4 years? “
And finally another member posted the following update in the last week of June: “Updating, the 21st was the highest-earnings day of June. However, today, the 22nd, I'm showing Page eCPM at the lowest level I've ever seen, ever in my 2+ years with AS. Abysmal, and ridiculous, less than one would get with a really terrible CPM campaign. Unbelievable!
Either Google has some serious reporting issues going on, or they're keeping most of the money for themselves. I usually get between .06 and .14 per click, today, it's less than .02. “
Some possible cases suggested for this phenomenon are:
1. CPC way up for some, way down for others
2. Very bad targeting,
3. Very slow website and site diagnostics not working
4. The recent arbitrage measures"
From the last year Adsense is already not considered as one of the lucrative source of earnings online but still majority of online wannabe millionaires are working hard day and night to earn some decent amount of money from Adsense, and as a result lot of scammer gurus are taking benefit of these innocent publishers by offering them same rehashed stuff in the form of e-books, scripts, and software, full of promises to open a floodgates of money on any person who would buy their crap.
Jorge who runs /www.sirjorge.com/ said “I too have seen a major decline in the last 48 hours, where as before I was getting a few clicks here and there, but now with a lot of views, nothing.”
Terra Andersen of betterforbusiness.com also said “One day it was very high, and the next four days it fell almost 40%, and hasn’t recovered.”
Geek who runs www.howtogeek.com said” The Adsense roller coaster has gone much more sharply up and down for the last two months or so.”
Some other publishers are saying that earnings have dropped even though the CTR has increased and traffic has been at an all-time high. Some have noticed their Feedburners’ 50% drop in subscribers over the weekend and after a little research it was all from Google Feed-fetcher.
The webmaster of http://www.trinigourmet.com/ reported that he checked his Feed-burner stats and also saw a significant drop, and also primarily based on Google feed-fetcher number.Some publishers are reporting that sites have had quite a big fall in the average PPC. CPC is always up and down for more, but everything seems to have taken a dive, CPC and CTR.
There are various theories circulating around, from Google increasing their cut of earnings, to it being linked to the new features available to Adwords advertisers, to some large advertisers pulling out of Adsense, to it just being a new way of reporting statistics, to it being an update in their Smart Pricing algorithm.
According to thread at Webmaster World, it seems like a few noticed a similar increase at the same time that others noticed the decrease.
Another theory put forward is that it has got something to do with the recent change in formats announced by AdSense. Although right now a very few advertisers must be in the beta stage, but probably the oldest and most highest spenders must have been chosen for that.
This creates a double effect, first the CPC from those beta testing biggies is at least reduced if not completely stopped.
Secondly, since this is an auction system, there must be a significant decline in the overall bids due to absence of big players.
One interesting thing is that the price of mortgage-related terms in pay per click searches is rising, so expect to see more mortgage blogs seeking to capture AdSense revenue.
According to one point of view the bulk of advertisers would eventually wise up and realize that they’re not recognizing sufficient revenue from these clicks and cut back or shift their budgets. Some specific sub-markets could obviously have higher demand. Google’s plan to allow advertisers to target specific sites will also tend to hurt all little guys.
Good advertisers are getting better at getting high CTR's and therefore paying less.
With a high CTR many advertisers get clicks for 2-3-4 cent each. The advertisers willing to pay 20 cent per click are pushed off the page.
According to a forum member at Webmaster World : “I've heard many people report that there seems to be an algo-change-day or Smart-pricing-takes-effect-day whichever you believe in. We've been getting the duplicate ads for almost a year, and we told Google then, (especially since it used to be somewhere in the TOS that you should not display identical ads on the same page, and THEY were causing it) but to no avail. It seemed to start when we started using Google-ad-region. We just started removing the extra ad blocks since they were obviously redundant and seldom got any additional clicks. I had one interesting observation the last couple days. Our earnings have been down since Feb right around the time we started noticing something new. It seemed that ads on all pages account-wide or at least site-wide were leaning towards two particular sub-topics. These two topics were those, which in our channel level reports had the overall highest CPM compared to other pages, but are in a relatively narrow topic which does not necessarily appeal to most of the rest of our site. However while the ads did very well CPM-wise, by virtue of either high CTR or high PPC, on the pages where they were APPROPRIATE, they did NOT do so well on the rest of the site. Since they were not applicable to the other pages, they tended not to get clicked. More of them were of the lower PPC variety, so even when they were clicked, they tended to lower the overall CPM of the pages they were now on inappropriately.
For example, say the site was about all different power tools (our actual case couldn't be further from that topic), with a single page on various jackhammer bits, and another single page on electric screwdrivers.
Ads for electric screwdrivers get a nice 35% CTR on their page and jackhammer bits get a lower CTR but since they have a much higher PPC still get a very nice CPM for on their page.
The electric screwdriver page, in this example, is our most popular entry point and a #1 for its keyword phrase on Google, but has a relatively low PPC of only .10.
But, because of the high CTR we wind up with a hefty $35.00 CPM there. The jackhammer bits page is relatively low traffic, but has a decent CTR and a very nice $1.50 PPC, so it winds up with probably a CPM of $85.00.
Yet when those same ads start bombarding the radial saw pages, the electric drill pages and even the precision lathe pages, they get relatively no interest and the CPM on those pages has dropped below $2.00 due to the much lower average CTR.
Our overall CPM, PPC and Overall earnings dropped to about 1/2. Then just the other day I decided to try removing the ads just from those two offending pages, totally.
It only took about 12 hours and suddenly all the ads went back to the way they used to be a year ago in happier times and our CPM and PPC skyrocketed almost back to the previous levels!
I've replaced the ads now (they were rather lucrative in themselves) to see what happens. I'm beginning to think there has been a new flawed algorithm added with good intentions, but bad results, which is doing this and is causing a lot of advertisers’ earnings to fall.
Perhaps it works very well for some types of sites (perhaps ones where the entire site is very focused and ads are interchangeable across all topics), but not for slightly more diverse sites like ours, where visitors viewing one part of the site are not interested in ads from another part! “
Another member reported the following: “Update a couple of weeks after the initial fall and my average EPC has recovered however not to previous levels:-(
8-21 June compared to:
1-7 June: -15.18%
All 2007: - 7.63%
Interestingly my CTR is also down 6.36% compared to all year metrics.
What is more disturbing is that compared to the same period 2006:
eCPM -32.3%
CTR -24.29%
Visitor numbers up, page impressions up.
How long before I start paying Google?
Has the AdSense novelty factor for Joe Surfer worn off after 4 years? “
And finally another member posted the following update in the last week of June: “Updating, the 21st was the highest-earnings day of June. However, today, the 22nd, I'm showing Page eCPM at the lowest level I've ever seen, ever in my 2+ years with AS. Abysmal, and ridiculous, less than one would get with a really terrible CPM campaign. Unbelievable!
Either Google has some serious reporting issues going on, or they're keeping most of the money for themselves. I usually get between .06 and .14 per click, today, it's less than .02. “
Some possible cases suggested for this phenomenon are:
1. CPC way up for some, way down for others
2. Very bad targeting,
3. Very slow website and site diagnostics not working
4. The recent arbitrage measures"
Labels: Is Adsense still lucrative
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