maybe it's just that a lot of advertisers plan their ad budgets quarterly. and now that april has rolled around they've decided to cut their spend.
if advertisers aren't spending as much then google aren't making as much either -- so we won't get as much.

[edited by: londrum at 7:05 pm (utc) on April 14, 2009]

There are other things that can account for that too. Assuming that Google's "cut" is the major factor behind such changes is vastly over-simplifying.

I haven't seen anything that would suggest any kind of across the board cuts in payouts to publishers.

Advertizers dropping out or lowering bids seems like a more likely cause for income drops.

Mine tanked on 1st April. It was brilliant before then.

Mine tanked on 1st April. It was brilliant before then.

Mine too, but it seems to recover Easter Monday.

EPC is increasing, what is complete the opposit of his theory.

I haven't seen anything that would suggest any kind of across the board cuts in payouts to publishers.
Advertizers dropping out or lowering bids seems like a more likely cause for income drops.

Can you share with all what you have seen that demonstrates that advertisers are dropping out or lowering bids?

Can you share with all what you have seen that demonstrates that advertisers are dropping out or lowering bids?

I'm an example. I pretty much cut my adwords budgets by about 80% in the last 6 months. Just trying to cut down my expenses. I use to bid on keywords just for branding. It was getting too expensive for me with the economy in decline.

I figure if I'm doing, a lot of other folks are probably doing it as well.

yeah! google is cutting shares! since april 1st everything is different, I have websites with different topics, very diverse - and on ALL sites revenues have dropped MASSIVELY. and: NO changes in traffic!

Can't say I see an effect at all, certainly not a cut by 80%
(if any, it's an effect for better CPC, which I do appreciate.)

My April EPC and CPM are both running ahead of last month's. So, if I were a conspiracy theorist who believed that anecdotal evidence is universally applicable, I'd have to assume that Google has increased the publisher share since April 1. :-)

I concure with signor_john

My EPC and CPM are fine. It's the CTR that has dropped for me, and that's not because Google's taking a bigger cut.

Perhaps WebmasterWorld could do a survey on AdSense publisher earnings? I would volunteer to host one...

The survey should include other keys statistics, like: total earnings, traffic and general industry.

I would like to see more information from each side of the publisher earnings equation.

Comments?

Comments?

Would that be within adsense TOS?

Perhaps WebmasterWorld could do a survey on AdSense publisher earnings?

What would be the point? There's far too many variables and far too few participants to be statistically significant.

>>The survey should include other keys statistics, like: total earnings, traffic and general industry.

You can only talk about total earnings. If you add traffic into the equation, then eCPM can be calculated which is against the TOS.

Back on topic - traffic continues to climb in the month of April and eCPM is better than March.

Over the last 12 months our traffic has basically doubled, and our eCPM dropped by around 10 - 20%. I attribute this drop to a shift in rankings (ranking for slightly lower paying keywords).

We also tweaked one ad layout and were able to pull in another 5% from that change.

Epcm is up, but Google is not reporting about 1/3 of our page impressions, so revenue is down significantly since April 1, 2009.

What would be the point?

The big picture? It's an old person thing...

I'm probably older than everyone here, but I still don't think we're going to glean any insight from a survey. But g'ahead, if you've a mind to.

April is down about 30% for me compared to March. Might turn off interest based ads if this keeps up.

I think the problem is the lack of transparency on Google's side.
No specific data about clicks payouts or advertisers or smartipricing.
Google wants to run a business with Adsense.
Google wants advertisers to run their businesses through Adsense.
Somehow the only ones who can't build a real business through adsense are publishers, because of the lack of control, stability and predictability.

I think the problem is the lack of transparency on Google's side.

I agree. Google can change their cut whenever they like and the publisher don't get told. I wouldn't be surprised if this bites them in the rear in court someday.

Somehow the only ones who can't build a real business through adsense are publishers, because of the lack of control, stability and predictability.

As netmeg has said, AdSense "is what it is." Google never suggested that people should build businesses around AdSense, or that AdSense would offer "control, stability, and predictability." AdSense can be a nice way to earn additional revenue from your site, but if you're betting the farm on it, you'd better have a day job and a house in town.

I wouldn't be surprised if this bites them in the rear in court someday.

People have been saying this at least since I joined AdSense, which was in 2003. AFAIK no lawsuit has been filed using G's lack of transparency as a basis....

All I know is that if Google is messing with my payout percentage, they must have found a way to tap the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, because what they are passing through to me is much more than I could manage on my own. Keep that in mind. If you can do better elsewhere or on your own, go do it.