Forum Moderators: martinibuster
1. There's a very poor economy (duh)
2. It's that time of year when people become more "outdoorsy", so perhaps they're just not surfing
3. But more importantly (and something that I've been thinking about over the last few months)... Google are increasingly under pressure from investors to widen their margins. Particularly in this weak economy, Google are under tremendous pressure to make themselves look as strong as their market cap suggested over the last few years.
It's pretty likely (in my view) that Google will start paying you less for your AdSense clicks in order to retain as much of the income as possible on their balance sheets. I mean, let's face it... it's not like they have much competition forcing them to keep the payout rates high, so why leave that money on the table?! What are you going to do if they lower the rev-share that they give to you? Complain on a forum? But I don't think you're likely to remove AdSense unless it drops significantly, which of course they won't do.
In the micro-sense, intra-day monitoring of AdSense incomes will just make you go crazy - don't bother (been there, done that, and not going back).
[edited by: Chico_Loco at 9:46 pm (utc) on Dec. 8, 2008]
People are getting tired of the internet...guess that fad is over!
LOL.... so the future is history? :)
People are getting tired of the internet...guess that fad is over!
Tell that to all the bloggers, Facebook users, and iTunes customers. :-)
The Internet is doing fine. AdSense has been doing pretty well, too, to judge from Google's earnings reports. However, that doesn't mean advertisers' budgets are infinite, or even that advertisers' budgets will necessarily keep pace with the growth in the number of Web pages that display AdSense ads.
People are worried about job security and are cutting back on non-essential spending. Businesses are trying to stay afloat and are spending less on advertising... a) because there is little point in advertising to non-existent buyers... and b) to hoard cash at a time when money is tight.
The majority of products purchased online involve discretionary spending... i.e. things that you can get by without until times get better. That is exactly the type of spending people are cutting from their budgets and exactly the type of business cutting back on their advertising spend.
IMO its to be expected that fewer people will be checking websites for products to buy, therefore lower traffic numbers, and as there is less advertising dollars in the kitty, Adsense rates will fall.
If your sites sell products that rely on discretionary spending, then its not surprising your Adsense income will drop.
2. It's that time of year when people become more "outdoorsy", so perhaps they're just not surfing
Are you in the southern hemisphere?
Tell that to all the bloggers, Facebook users, and iTunes customers. :-)
I was joking when I said that.
Let's get back to discussions about important things, like GoogleGifts! :D
/running for cover
Wouldn't know this is supposedly a shopping season, or time for people from elsewhere to consider coming here, from ads I see checking a few pages: instead, more like this is time for anyone here (well, expats really) to get out now.
Again, reflecting changes in economy; handful of different advertisers seeing opportunities.
I am a XML search publisher - not adsense, and average rpc (revenue per click) is dropping radically.
The volume of advertisers is dropping very fast now, particularly over the past 4 or 5 days - keyword competition in some industries is becoming low and bid prices are dropping drastically.
At least all the people that were calling for the end of MFA and arbitrage will be happy as that is dead - as publishers you are going to see the beginning of irrelevant ads etc. as the inventory is empty (which is what some are starting to report) - ironically you could probably do with some of the players back to get some ads in there.
You get what you wish for - but in a non-competitive marketplace, you get nothing.
In terms of Google's earnings, most of their revenue is from Google & Google network, the margins on content are low and high maintenance. The earnings report consolidates adsense for content and search partners together so it is misleading if you take the figures as adsense for content only.
That is why Google has spent the last year rationalising their partner network and maximising the return from it - for example a search network partner might deliver $500k per month with zero management, to make the same from adsense for content takes many more staff and systems etc.
[edited by: Swanson at 1:46 am (utc) on Dec. 9, 2008]
I blame Google quite honestly because at the top of the serps for most of my keywords you now find "sponsored links" first followed by "related searched" followed by "shopping results for" and every once in a while a google map too. Getting that #1 ranking now means being on the bottom half of the page anyway in a lot of cases.
People are getting tired of the internet...guess that fad is over!
I highly doubt that but the number of "attractions" online is growing which reduces the odds of visitors finding you. BIG companies are also getting very good at placing a stranglehold on the most searched keywords.
Perhaps the biggest is Google for the reasons mentioned above.
[edited by: JS_Harris at 2:06 am (utc) on Dec. 9, 2008]
Let's get back to discussions about important things, like GoogleGifts!
Ron, are you so desperate for the highly improbable email greeting we most likely will not receive from AdSense this Christmas?
Mate, you're as desperate as I am for love and affection.
What a sad pair we obviously make <G>
BTW - Merry Christmas!
Yesterday I disabled graphical ads because I keep seeing CC ads and other similar junk (garbage) from Google's DoubleClick network in AdSense.
Guess what? CTR went back up today!
There's a shocker...
Are you in the southern hemisphere?
Na, Miami :) ... but yeah I guess weather isn't an issue if that's what you were getting at.
I really meant that people are spending time with family and friends in the holiday spirit..
What I do not understand myself is that our numbers are rising in both ctr and epc for other ad networks.
CTR is really tanking now
Me too and what's most annoying today is that my EPC is really good! Tuesday's are my traditionally busiest days therefore this does not bode well at all.
If I did accept today's incomplete stats at face value, I'd be neither thrilled nor disillusioned: CTR is down a bit, EPC is up slightly, and eCPM is just a few cents higher than the month-to-date average.
In case any one is wondering we do encourage these free downloads for our widget industry to use on their own sites since they are of very good quality and highly representative image samples.
It is called tweaking at googleplex.
I think international publishers have faced huge drops in earnings much before their American counterparts.
I'd imagine that would depend, to a great degree, on the publisher's audience (remember, Google uses geotargeting) and currency-exchange rates.
Many, many factors influence a publisher's earnings--not just the obvious things like advertiser bids, smart pricing, and clickthrough rates. And with AdSense offering a wider range of products than it once did, along with more advertiser control over placement and filtering, the number of influences on a publisher's earnings has increased significantly in the past year or so.
That may be a small part of it, but here's a scenario you aren't going to like. Adwords advertisers lowering their bids running for cover. If you advertise and make less money you lower bids to improve ROI. Some might argue deep pockets would raise bids in that scenario, and they are right, kind of...Many advertisers might raise their bids in fear that maybe a competitor is flanking their PPC keyword positioning, but alas in time they break down and lower their bids if ROI doesn't manifest. It's math, less sales, lower bids, = less adsense revenue
One in ten households are facing foreclosure in the USA. Companies are slashing budgets, masses of people are being laid off by the day. That being said, let me offer some hope.
If you can actually create something of value or work with a company who has, and one that deals with a real world problem, then you can do very well.
That does not explain a sudden burst of MFA ads all over
Right now, I have my doubts. There are no bright, white lights, only darkness, and at the end of the tunnel, where they say you see the white light, all I see now is a red glow.
That red glow came on Saturday, and intensified on Sunday. I am talking about 25% of normal revenue for this time of year. Call it what you want, but I am calling it the gates of hell.
By supper time every day, my normal advertisers budget's are tapped out. There is nobody left but low bidders due to daily caps being met, which is not adding up, though my traffic is still good. It looks like this past weekend the advertisers who have been displaying on my site for several years, had their ads on hold. Traffic was good, but only low bidders, some I never see at all.
I am expecting to close out this month at 25% of what I made on the lowest same month, the past three years. Advertising budgets have been pulled back, big time in all of my sectors, which covers a wide range of products and services.
Next month, I see those gates opening up and those behind me in line pushing me through them. It doesn't look pretty.
The good news is... I have managed to find one industry that is still doing very well for traffic, has high ad bidding, and plenty of clicks with a high ctr, still to date. I started that little site a long time ago, kind of left it on the backburner, and now it is suddenly a hot topic with no end in sight. Now, to expand that little site enough to compensate for the dismal revenue the others sites are suffering from.
[edited by: MsHuggys at 11:04 pm (utc) on Dec. 15, 2008]
