There's word around the Webmaster World forum that publishers have been experiencing a sharp decline in AdSense earnings over the past month. There's been little consensus, lots of possible explanations, but nothing you might call conclusive.
A small poll at Search Engine Roundtable (43 participants as of this writing) shows just over half reporting a decrease in AdSense earnings, the other half reporting that things are on the level or increasing.
It's hard to say that's a representative sample with just 40 respondents, but it does match a bit with the reports at Webmaster World: some are losing, some aren't.
Many plausible explanations have been proffered without any real, thorough site examinations, as no URLs have been given by those complaining. The center of conversation though, has been around Google's "smart pricing," and whether that is the cause of lower returns on ad clicks.
An ad's cost-per-click is determined by a number of factors, according to the AdSense blog's explanation:
"More than conversion rate goes into determining the price of an ad: the advertiser's bid, the quality of the ad, the other ads competing for the space, the start or end of an ad campaign, and other advertiser fluctuations."
Keep in mind also that Google has the leader in CPC inflation rate, also.
Google denies that clickthrough rates affect the price of an ad click, though they don't go into how much weight is put on user action beyond the click, i.e., sales completed, forms filled out, engagement on the site that follows. Google describes smart pricing this way:
"Google's smart pricing feature automatically adjusts the cost of a keyword-targeted content click based on its effectiveness compared to a search click. So if our data shows that a click from a content page is less likely to turn into actionable business results -- such as online sales, registrations, phone calls, or newsletter signups -- we reduce the price you pay for that click."
But observers are right also to note that the higher quality the site, the higher likelihood the publisher gets high quality, costlier, better-converting ads. AdSense Publisher Support pretty much says so, reminding publishers that content is king:
"[Smart pricing] leads to higher payouts for publishers by drawing a larger pool of advertisers and rewarding publishers who create high quality sites…. The best way to ensure you benefit from AdSense is to create compelling content for interested users.
"This also means driving targeted traffic to your site -- advertisers don't gain as much ROI when paying for generic clicks as they do for quality clicks that come from interest in your content. Good content usually equals a good experience for user plus advertiser, which can be much more valuable than CTR."
So, this is Google's usual stance: create some relevance and we'll help create you some revenue.
Things like that have added to the cynicism in the aforementioned forum, as one member notes the lack of examples to test, and, without naming names, notes that some complaining members' sites are nothing to write home about with potential quality problems like:
Webmasters also reported conversations they had with the Google AdSense team, who told them the sharp decline likely has to do with advertiser budgets, many of which would understandably be tightened after the holiday crunch, and perhaps even more so during economic uncertainty.
So recession in the economy might mean recession in your AdSense take-in, too.
An interesting frustration was also presented. Google's smart pricing, according to forum members applies account-wide. A webmaster with many sites but one AdSense account could experience a hit on all of his or her sites, instead of just one or two. This brings down the revenue potential of the more popular sites the webmaster owns.
The suggestion, then, is that Google adjust so that smart pricing affects individual sites and pages, rather than targeting an entire account.
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Comments
Earnings
They will keep on going down, to keep the share holders happy - Happy days.
Got to have a lot of traffic to make some dollar!!
I think a lot of people are
I think a lot of people are struggling at the moment including google so adsence will be the first to be hit.
Payouts
From my projects I think it's true that payments are down.
There's also the issue across the marketing and ad industry that revenues companies have to fight for a shrinking pool of revenue even when it comes to things like UK Promotions Staff.
Advertising revenues can still be had. There are still people paying and there are still some great minisites out there which are performing better than ever. But of course no one is going to feed you these marketing and promotional secrets...
It's hard work.
Profits
Google must be making some serious money, if profits are down they pay less out may be?
Its Getting Harder
Things will get a lot tighter with the harder times ahead- wiki search may be the new comer!??
cool design web blog
how about 10,000
I went from 10,000 a month to a few dollars a month.
Google steps on the little guy again... I also would like to know about cpa ...
of course
This was bound to happen, most quality sites don't use adsense therefore the spam sites of the sites that could be seen a little spammy have dropped in rankings and their adsense dollars dropped as well.
car lease swap lease auto
car lease swap lease auto lease
buy car sell car used cars new cars
swap lease transfer lease car lease
Its in the Balance
So websites adsense earning down! It has to be a win win situation for both parties = people advertising / site owners, as a lot of money is lost by clicks that amount to nothing and anyone that has used adwords knows how quickly your bill adds up. Google has to iron out the system to make it work for both otherwise a client blows all their marketing budget for little return. This is a longer term bussiness plan. More sales more marketing budget!!
Best Remortgage Rates
Adsense losing it's sense
I just started using adsense - and I intend to forget about it very soon. EVERYONE is saying that Google have manipulated it so that smaller payouts are the name of the game. I'd rather go with affiliates, e-books etc, because the more we fuel this monster, the less we are going to make!
Wow...relieved it isn't just me but what to do?
My AdSense tanked to almost half, with a "good" day tossed in maybe once, twice a month. Was making no sense to me, now I find this so a huge thanks for this article and all the comments. I watch the Adsense and Adwords forums but don't seem many people stating things just as they are like you're all doing here.
I could write a litany on this here -- been successful with AdSense since its inception and cannot believe what's happening and don't know what to do. Anyone know any good alternatives? How about YPN? Anyone try that one?
Earnings down
I have seen a slight drop but again not sure if it is Google or something I have/have not done to make the sites optimise.
As of November 15
Anyone who claims to have his/her Adsense increase in the last 90 days either 1. isn't paying attention, 2. is deliberately misleading others or 3. just opened his account and started with zero.
Sad truth is that, on or about November 15th of 2007, practically all publishers saw a large drop when Google made it so that the only clickable part of the Adsense banner is either the hyperlinked title or the URL itself. Prior to that, the entire banner was a big juicy hot spot. For practically all publishers, that alone caused a huge income droppage. Big G called it a safety measure to prevent accidental clicks. Ok, whatever. Go argue with that.
Next came this smart pricing concept on or about the same time. Clicks that previously brought in significantly more now pay only $0.05-$0.10 -- if you are lucky. Sure some categories still pay a little more, but practically all took a beating.
Take a moment and think about this from Google's point of view, though. With the previously higher payouts, they got publishers to use their product in droves, they established themselves as the de facto place for companies to allocate advertising dollars, and they kicked the corporate tushies of MSN and Yahoo. Great strategy.
If you were them, you too would probably realize that the time has now come to cut back on the publisher payouts and to keep the payments within the stock holder family. They are well aware that most of their publishers will be too lazy to switch and/or not be concerned with the drop in earnings.
Will the Microsoft's purchase of Yahoo make G re-address their lower publisher payout decision? Perhaps, but that may or may not ever happen (ie, anti-trust concerns). And, even if it does happen, it may never be a threat to G anyways. It may be too late for Microsoft to turn that sinking oceanliner around. Remember that IBM bought dying dog Lotus thinking they could turn it around. Novell bought dying dog Word Perfect thinking the same thing. When was the last time you used either Lotus or Word Perfect? (Anyone remember Altavista?) Well, now Microsoft is going to buy Yahoo. Maybe they will resestablish it into a real contender ala Facebook or maybe they are just wasting their precious $44,000,000,000.00 (Wow, that's a lot of money!). I predict the latter and that Google will not only end up as a winner, but that Microsoft will then have $44B less to spend in their warchest.
So, if you are a publisher...what to do? Relax. We are all in the same boat. Even those that say otherwise.
Remember when you first started with Adsense and/or Overture and were really happy to be earning enough to buy yourself breakfast on a daily basis? Then lunch...and soon, it became a dinner? Soon, it was a really nice dinner and desert, and eventually it covered your mortgage or more. As a eminder, your daily Adsense income continued to grow as you continued your hard work, experimented with different banners and ad types, created channels and added content, content and more content. Ok, so you took a hit, but you'll recover. Not the end of the world. Just dust yourself off and get back on the horse. It still beats working.
Speaking of working, if any of you know someone looking for a job, my latest project can be seen at http://www.Professions.Com. Yes, it has Adsense on it.
Earnings halved
Yes, I noticed a huge drop suddenly in the middle of April. The daily average dropped from $60-70 to $30-35. Click through rates and traffic remained constant over this period, but the value per click rate suddenly halved.
I've been running Adsense for 2 years and this is the biggest, sudden drop I've experienced. I run a quality, information website with unique content.
This drop combined with the fall of the US dollar has crippled my earnings. So the site is now effectively on hold, since its not worth my time to expand it any more.
I also wonder why Google earnings aren't increasing. Half of my visitors are European, so surely half of the click throughs should be Euro- rather than US$ advertisers. But even though Google receives Euro income, they only pay out in US$. I wonder if they are giving European advertisers extra-cheap rates because of the low exchange rate or simply not passing on the difference to the website owners.
Middle of March, I mean!
Middle of March, I mean!
I agree that payouts have
I agree that payouts have decreased. I reached the peak in the summer with about 200 dollars a month. Since then I have enriched my content non-stop, have gotten more hits, but my earnings fell as low as 70 dollars in December. It sucks because I was feeling that my hard work was paying off and that I would observe an increase in my earnings, just the opposite happened.
Down by over 50%
I can confirm for sure that earnings are WAY down.... at least by 50% or more. The big hit started around the end of Feb....
I'm slowly getting out of adsense and looking for other revenue streams as this is simply insulting.
Yes lower earnings
It all started with the new format from google adsense the one that had active links on the title and the url the description section is now in-active, so the users now have to click at particular positions for valid click. Google did this to control accidental click.
I guess not too many accidents happening now :-(
Waste of time
Through the comments here I've checked on my account and found that my alot of my ads are inactive yet still appear on my site, is Google using free advertising with us now?
Crappy ads
I was optimistic about adsense because of the way it was sold to a forum where a Google consultant spoke. But what I've noticed and what has been conveyed to me by my visitors is that some if not most of the ads are utter rubbish, pyramid schemes and irrelevent to my page content.
My earnings were never much as I've recently started and I thought I lost revenue because of my server, but now I'm wondering if it's got something to do with the crappy ads Google shows.
I'll leave the ads on my site cause it costs me nothing, but if I find a better option, Goodbye Google.
My earnings are increasing...
Well... I did not see any decrease of my earnings... all my web sites are making more money than ever... so... I do not think there are any problem...
yeah
I've noticed a decline in adsense money lately. I do plan to put my own monetizing thing on my website once it gets a reputation and a lot more traffic. Maybe one day I'll end up doing away with google ads.
http://www.stocks-simplified.com
adsense
I Was using Adsense and paying for google ads, I did not make any money on adsense, or google ads, So now i have changed to someone else, who is not as big as google, but i am making more money. my advice is to forget Google and go somewhere else.
www.fantasysextoysrus.co.uk
hmmm
so that explains some of it...my earnings have plummeted in the last month
Rice Rocket Import Racing
Great site. Disgruntled adsense users
I love it when people talk about some new ad agency getting involved in the market place. This would be a great thing. But how many times have people talked about it? Lots. And how many tries? Some.
I know one thing for sure. Everyone is greedy - Each of us is looking out for our own pocketbook. But, if as a group of 5000 people got together and donated 100 -200 bux to create a new company to create a new adsense - it could be done. The problem: Everyone is greedy. Few people can stand back and say, ok Max - heres my hundred, I like your plan, now Go to town!
I think there is strength in numbers, and I know it could be done if everyone focused not only on his own well being, but also on the well being of others. Create a company with one objective: Advertising
Concerning "Advertising Agency" Proposal?
Hey "Puppies For Sale", concerning your quote, "But, if as a group of 5000 people got together and donated 100 -200 bux to create a new company to create a new adsense - it could be done", you caught my attention.... I'm listening. Get back to me with specific details on this idea proposal. You just might be on to something there.
Google Adsense Drop in Earnings
Regarding the comment posted on 02/02/08
"Anyone who claims to have his/her Adsense increase in the last 90 days either 1. isn't paying attention, 2. is deliberately misleading others or 3. just opened his account and started with zero."
One of our sites is a niche site online since 1996. Our Adsense revenue has been increasing during the past year and we are now averaging $131.00 per day during the past 4 months. We do not get tons of traffic, perhaps 100,000 visitors per month, but the information we offer matches perfectly to what some advertisers in this particular niche market are looking for. This particular site is generating the vast majority of the revenue.
The increase seem to come about after we changed the location of our Adsense ads in late September, utilizing the 300x250 on the left side of pages (above the fold). Perhaps you should try this to see if helps increase your revenue. Prior to that date we were averaging $115.00 - $120.00 per day.
Hope this helps.
My earnings have been flat despite huge traffic increases
My traffic has been doubling about every three months, and yet my google adsense earnings have only slightly increased - basically flat. I am looking for good alternatives. Let me know if you discover any!
Take my case for instance,
Take my case for instance, about 120 clicks daily and average daily earnings about $5. Is this smart pricing or what?
Adsense's ups and (much more) downns
My impression: Google decides that one given Website deserves for instance 600 U$ a month. If you get much more than U$ 20 in a certain day, Goggle will pay you less in the next days, so your daily average will come to the U$ 600 at the end of the month. I may be wrong, but this is my impression.
Yes, in the past I have
Yes, in the past I have noticed that.
My daily earnings in the month will start off quite high, but after I reach a certain $ limit, say around the 20th or so, the cost per click suddenly drops. The net effect is that the earnings are capped at around $1000 per month. The stats for the first couple of weeks of the month suggest earnings should be much higher, were it not for this "approaching end of month" adjustment.
Adsense's ups and (much more) downns
I have to agree with that. As a rule if I have good earning on a particular day for sure expect a very sharp fall the next day after, even if I have more clicks.
done with adense
My experiences with adsense over the last year or so has been ok, but in the last 3 weeks it has been miserable. They have been posting ads up there that are so far from my blogs content that I finally said something - their repsonse, "we're working to improve your experience."
Gotta love that.
Cheers,
Justin
Cruise To Cash
adsense make easy
many people find is hard too make income from adsense this days
AdSense is BACK
Oh well, try to put REFERALS instead Ads in your page.
Some referals pays up to 30 USD for registration or something.
I doubled my income in a last two month ))))
Down and Down
I observed drop in income. Please check your ads are active or not as it happened with me. One day I opened my account and noticed that my image ads were shown inactive but they were showing on my web site. So be careful.
I do agree with the comments of Guest above:
Google needs a competitor a real competitor.
Take care
Adsense
Well, I know this might sound a little to amateurish for you guys, but I moved some ads around and added doubled up on a certain area of the pages and my adsense income doubled!
UP UP UP
Content IS king. I see so many crappy sites with adsense plastered all over them, it's a wonder they don't get shut down. I have oodles of content that people want to read. I know what is working and what isn't and I constantly tweak what's working an d dump what isn't.
My adsense revenue is going steadily up, about 20% per month since September!
Make a site people want and they WILL CLICK!
Down
I seen my revenue cut by over 2/3 in the last two weeks.
About 10% from earned in last month
In January on similar number of pages and clicks I earned just about 10% from what I earned in December. So I expect that google changes something in ravenue politics in their "smart system" or they have some big problem on some other side.
Adsense not Count Click's
Hi!
I relized that some tme adsense do not count's Clicks on our site , which vistor click's on our site. I also relized that they paid us on 32 click's just US 1$ , it is so strange , Adsense is doing also farad with us & down click rates also. Adsense click's rate down day by day.
Am I write ? please reply
I agree
I agree
Adsense payout decreasing!
I am very new to the whole adsense thing.I started only in Jan 2008.However,i noticed i've the last 4 days that my adsense payouts have halved.I kept thinking that i must have done something for that to change so drastically.The funny thing is that i increased my pages from 4 to +- 900 and added some adword campaigns.My click through rate for adwords have increased,but my adsense clicks have halved?
Then i noticed something.I go into my websites a couple of times during the day and noght and noticed that the google ads are not displaying on my pages.I check into my control panel to make sure that the adsense codes are there and i discover that although the code is there,it is greyed out(like invisible code).When the google ads are being displayed,your adsense code is now "black" again.
"Someone"/"something" is causing our google ads not to be shown on our pages?What's going on?Any answers?
-
A question for
A question for Cindy...
Forget about the AdSense - how did you manage to increase the number of pages from 4 to 900 in 2 months?!!!
Google adsense
I agree with Pacific Northwest post that more and more people are now using ad blockers. Social networking sites based on a theme (like our Indianwildlifeclub.com) attract limited traffic only and earnings are nothing to write about as it is. But the proliferation of ad blockers has put paid to whtatever expectations we had!
Also blocking hunting ads or adult ads seem to affect income drastically. Any comment or suggestion on how we can aspire to get some income?
I learned about adsence
I learned about adsence early on when I lost 600 with 0 return by forgetting to deactivate my content ads in google adwords.
I then learn about the little potential for anything but spam and fraud.
So I never really started and I would not click on those ads because the look like spam me, in fact I have stopped al PPC ads and to tell you the through it hasn't hurt me, on the contrary I was wasting time and money.
Losing out on adsense!
My consistent reductions of Adsense income have stretched over 4 months. I have removed adsense from lower perfoming sites & blogs which appears to be a legitimate issue. I rarely trust that my traffic is not clicking my google ads, however there is not way to monitor...
monitering clicks
there is a script that i have in my possesion that will tell you EXACTLY which ads people have clicked and on which page,which exact ad,how often, plus time and dates.
you upload to your server, then you ad a bit of code to the page where your ads are, 500 pages, ad 500 bits of code
you login to your back office of the script and hey presto, real time results
interested then email me
loppy212@aol.com
comes with full instructions
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