Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Just after new year the good days are over again.
eCPM below middle December values,
only impressiona rising to compensate.
Traffic got whacked for two weeks by the usual Holiday index problems at G, during which eCPM fell. As traffic returned when rankings came back, average eCPM accross dozens of channels climbed to the highest in 2 years.
My point was that if Google isnt performing for you the way it should be stop complaining about it and take action.
Look at your business, is it 100% reliant upon Google for revenue?
If so you do not have a business, you are just a google independent contractor.
Now if you have
30% coming from Google
30% coming from Microsoft
20% coming from Yahoo
20% from affiliates and direct sales
well now your on the right track.
Nothing you do will change what Google decides to do, whether they decide to keep more revenue share or its just that Googles inventory is more vulnerable to the market downturn or purple striped zebras are now in charge at the plex, it just doesnt matter.
The net effect is that you are out a certain % of monthly gross income.
Focus on what you can change, not what you cant. You will be much more productive and happier in the end I promise you.
I have to painfully agree with you. However, if Google continues to go down the same road, they'll find their publishers are going elsewhere and Google will be only used for search conveniences on websites. Until somebody else comes around, and then I may even switch this feature out as well.
I just started doing what you've been talking about here. I'm looking for additional revenue outlets, such as direct sales and referrals from those sales. Last month actually offset about 40% what I lost from Google. I was surprised. If I continue to channel my web pages so they are more directed for sales referrals, I might even surpass my monthly Google revenue.
When that happens, I'll probably drop Google Ads entirely just because they are becoming an inconvenience at times when an advertiser has some screwed-up ad which takes a long time to download on a page.
For a small percentage of Google publishers, you're making some damn good money just because of the niche you're in. However for most of us, we're not, and we are struggling. So, in addition to drall's post, my suggestion is to even focus on referrals and direct sales of 50% of your income.
...stop complaining about it and take action.
I have taken various actions but will not stop complaining, if you don't like my complaints stop reading them. It is my right and responsibility to complain and let others know how I feel. If my complaints are unjust then that's for the reader to judge.
I don't expect you to stop complaining, as you do have every right to. I have a lot of questions myself. Problem is, you and I may not get the answers until a few years from now. Until then, I highly suggest if you have high traffic, you try other advertising methods.
Personally, I noticed a serious drop since April 2008. Been fighting it ever since. The only solution I had was to find other ways of getting income with the traffic I have.
Now if you have
30% coming from Google
30% coming from Microsoft
20% coming from Yahoo
20% from affiliates and direct sales
I'm in the Uk therefore:
Google - Allowed
Microsoft - Not allowed?
Yahoo - Not allowed
Affiliates - Nothing in my industry therefore only Amazon type of sites
Direct sales - Yes, that's my prime source
Focus on what you can change, not what you cant.
Definitely but when there is no choice it's a trifle difficult however you are correct.
[perspicacious.co.uk...]
Focus on what you can change, not what you cant.
Definitely but when there is no choice it's a trifle difficult however you are correct.
It's incredible! Is this the economic crisis ? It's just me ?
It's incredible! Is this the economic crisis ? It's just me ?
There always seems to be some new "economic crises" striking after each maintenance. Pretty consistent I'd say.
It will be very Interesting to see how the "economic downturn" reflects on their quarterly report.
[edited by: Web_speed at 2:05 pm (utc) on Jan. 13, 2009]
someday a better solution than Google will rise to meet it.
This makes me laugh. Google pays out at around 80% of what they charge Advertisers for ads... (some folks estimate 85%).
With over a million advertisers in their network... I am quite pleased with the service they provide, and the payout. No other network has ever come close to them... At least for my site(s).
Google pays out at around 80% of what they charge Advertisers for ads
What's the standard for traditional CPM networks? 50%? I do believe Google is one of the most generous on that matter.
Google pays out at around 80% of what they charge Advertisers for ads
...on average.
This does not mean that everyone gets 80% or 85%. There may be sweetheart deals for big publishers that exceed 80%/85%, and there may be many thousands of small publishers that get way less than 80%.
We don't know.
Well at least I have something to figure out this month.
[edited by: JerryOdom at 11:05 pm (utc) on Jan. 13, 2009]
There may be sweetheart deals for big publishers that exceed 80%/85%, and there may be many thousands of small publishers that get way less than 80%.
Or there could be quality scores, or a traditional sliding scale, or a reverse sliding scale, or something else. As you say, we don't know, but we do know that Google's average payout is far above the industry average, probably because a largely automated auction-based network is less-labor intensive than traditional ad networks are.
As for the Christmas holidays being over, they're over regardless of what percentage Google is paying to you, me, or NYTimes.com. For some publishers, January represents the launching of the new season; for others, it's the lull after the old season.
My company has spent over 7 figures a year advertising on google and their content network in previous years. We estimate our google spend to be less than 1/10th of previous years due to the cumbersome nature of using their services, and the lower advertising costs of comparable services.
If I were a publisher, relying on AdSense for an income, I would seriously be looking hard for other ways to monetize my site - things are going to get far worse before they get better, and for many reasons. You have to understand that Google as a publicly traded company has to please their holders first and foremost. That being said, first quarter of 2009 is anticipated to be googles first major decline in revenue. If you think they aren't fudging numbers everywhere possible to prevent this, you would be fooling yourself. Advertising costs are not going down on Google in scale with their dwindling inventory. They are taking the money out of advertiser and publisher pockets alike. Many advertisers are starting to look at Google as the WalMart of the internet. They've played their hand, and we're telling them how we feel by spending our money elsewhere.
If you really want to know how bad they are getting you - just setup a quick adwords campaign... have a puke bucket nearby.
You guys need to start looking for ways to eliminate AdSense from your sites. Take a good hard look at the ads that frequently appear on your site, and try to do what the advertiser is doing. Most of the advertisers you see on your sites don't have a product or service of their own... they are simply a middle man, driving leads for a CPA network.
I can tell you this, because I run ads on your sites - and in many cases, I'm just a middle-man. I can also tell you that I see ROI's of over 300% on many content network campaigns. You do the math... you probably get 50% of my ad spend if you are lucky... and all I'm doing is taking your traffic and monetizing it better than you are. You don't need Google, and neither do I.
[edited by: NoLimits at 5:31 pm (utc) on Jan. 14, 2009]
Even for people like myself where the majority of advertisers actually sell things I'm wondering whether I couldn't sell things a little better than they can. They can't attract traffic without paying for ads, while I'm swamped with so much of the stuff that server costs are becoming a big consideration.
This year is the year of the partnership for me. I'm not prepared for the hassle of selling stuff, but I am planning to team up closely with someone who does.
you can probably attribute your lackluster earnings as of recent to googles wide, sweeping, arbitrary removal of tens of thousands of websites from the content network.
Are you talking about publishers or advertisers? If publishers were being purged en masse, the noise level in this forum would be much higher than it is.
Google has been toying with their quality algorythms for the content network and it is driving marketers out by in large.
Landing-page quality scores may be bad news for direct-to-merchant affiliates and click arbitrageurs, but if they're needed to improve the AdSense user experience, more power to Google for having them. For what it's worth, I've seen a steady increase in AdSense EPCs over the past year, and the average EPC for January, 2009 is at a level that I hadn't experienced since 2003 and early 2004 (before Google introduced smart pricing and separate bidding for the search and content networks). From where I sit, Google's attempts to discourage direct-to-merchant affiliates, click arbitrageurs, etc. seem to be paying dividends.
