I'm in computers since 1980s but I'm a total idiot when it comes to this se stuff. Can someone enlighten me?

I was with my friend, he looks at ads on our website and finds a business school ad he's interested in. I'm looking him, he clicks, register, download a brochure because he's interested in an MBA degree from Europe. He repeated it on another ad from a business school. So, I saw that.

Our earnings that day: 0. How can that be? I saw him with my own eyes: two ads that interest him, he don't usually pay attention to them, he clicked and whatnot, and our earnings zero. What the heck?

Earnings is not by click... google do statistic and google decide how many clicks will be...
You can not calculate clicks more...
Google doing own statistic how many clicks is per day for your websites
ALways is leess of real clicks
After statistic give out results earning per lcick, PPC...RPM... CCC... DDD..ZZZ..CHGTRS and ther things what you like or not like
You can not earn money because somone was interested in click in your website and you earning ...not anymore
You will be part of dayly statistic what is part of monthly... you can not go out from that

@Histerius welcome to Webmaster World. Your question is regarding Adsense more than Google Search so technically it is posted in the wrong forum. The mods may come along and move it. But that wont stop me or others from answering.

My guess is that the your friend clicked on the ad when looking at your site from your IP address. AdSense, takes note of your IP and potentially other signals, and will not pay you for clicks on your own ads. It also important to note that one should not click on one's own ads as this can lead to your account being disabled. If it happens once, it is not an issue.

What @universenet says is categorically false. Adsense, will deduct invalid clicks which may cause a change to estimated values reported, but the reporting remains reliable and trustworthy.

1.invalid clicks are clicks on ada on page what is no valid by google..site indexed
2.you earning money only from visits what coming to your site from google search

Ok, maybe it's in the wrong forum, I apologize. Mods can move it, no problem.

That happened on friend's computer, I never in 10 years clicked on my ads, I know that since 2007, so the IP was different.

That situation came like I ordered it because now I think, and right now that Google is charging advertisers but keeps publishers's money for themselves. There's no other explanation.

What does this mean: "you earning money only from visits what coming to your site from google search."?

So, people who are coming regularly to our website, and we have a number of "fanatics" that are with us since day one, if the come from the bookmark, we don't earn? Please elaborate.

in some way visitors need search things and this should be stored in cookies...google valid clicks search from google...this is logical..if someone click by accident..google ignore it...imagine that someone want destroy your adsense acccount clicking 1000 x on adsense per day in your websites..so google simple ignore it and you will never know about thus activity..google pay only clicks what are sure for market.and this is even ok..all other is not safe and not enough argument for real interest for some product on adsense

You must be kidding. Why would 1000 clicks destroy the website? People used to earn that way for God's sake!

before few years activity like this made to close adsense accounts...if clicks coming ftom same IP...now google doing more sofisticated...and forced clicjs google just ignoring

The following message was cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4944194.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 4:38 pm on May 18, 2019 (PDT -8)

You must be kidding. Why would 1000 clicks destroy the website? People used to earn that way for God's sake!

Histerius... you can not earn more of medium.. imagine that you have all time unique visits and every visit click on adsense in your website...
but just EVERy... so if you have 5000 visits you have 5000 clciks ..this will be susspected activity for google... and google will not valid it
because going much out of normal activity for people

Exactly... people always clcicking more in ads of waht google accepting ... google just can not calculate all clicks because calculating only totaly "safe" for market clicks... I hope you understand now
google deciding what kind of clicks is good and not how many clicks you will really have

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 1:25 am (utc) on May 19, 2019]
[edit reason] Cleanup after thread split to new threads [/edit]

google just can not calculate all clicks because calculating only totally "safe" for market clicks... I hope you understand now

It's confusing what a "totally safe for market clicks" mean, do you mean stock market?

Selen...digital internet market

That ad could be a CPM based ad not CPC. That is the only reason.

Earnings is not by click

Yes, it is.

Earnings is not by click


Yes, it is.

Is not by every click like people thinking ( is some percent of clicks)
So... is not by click
In many clicks you will not get notihng ...google calculating just some of clicks
So.. is like not by click
Earning is by showing interest for product displayed on your website through adsense account
If google decided that some click not show enough interest so google will just ignore it
So.. you can have example 5000 visits and only 100 clicks... this is not real... real is more clicks but google calculating only clicks from people who are really interested in products in image or text displayed in adsense on your website
You will never know how in real was number of clicks...
So... is earning by clcik? think about... maybe name for this can be better "earning by decided click or no... from google"

If you have website with only return visits and not new visits .. even can be more of 2000 visits per day to your website but imagine only returned visits... and from google search zero visits ... in this case you will earn almost zero
because no chance that same people will have interested for clicking all time in your website .. So is not by click
is by interest... for google is not important click if that visit are not really interested in this what click... and google very easy discovering it
So... is earning by interest...
Google always doing sure in way that only people who coming from google search can bring some money to you like real visitor for adsense
Other source is not valid for google or is much less valid
Website what have same "public" (visitors) all time will not earn much from adsense or will earn just minimum even if many people coming in that way
Goolge want all time some percent of new visitors to your website ... return visitors are just for show reputation of website but not for earning money
If you have forum with maybe 100 000 people and they coming to your website directly... and regulary every day... and not anybody from google search or some minimum people ,... so in this case you will earn minimum...very minimum..even if they clicking you wil not earn some important money
Now are mostly visits from mobile devices... so in this case for google is more easy detect real visitors interesting for some things... all is perosalized now.. android is from google...google know about every visit how many years have and number of shoes...and what movies watching... what music listening... what kind of ciecream like.. what restaurants visiting... google know all about you
Artificial inteligency discovering what you will maybe do tommrowow..
ALL is by INTEREST
WELCOME IN MODERN ADVERTISED WORLD

Just checking ... this is webmasterworld ... not Science Fiction Fantasy Ad Click World, right?

I have been here a while and I am pretty sure what universenet is describing is not close to how it works.

Next he's going to tell us that Google shot JFK.

Google uses certain systems to remove invalid clicks. That is for certain. Perhaps your account was associated with his computer or IP address. Maybe you logged in adsense while on his home network? Or proximity? Who knows whatever the logic their system runs on.

Anyways, Google system deemed that "your friend" is the same as you, so in Google's AI's eyes. You clicked on your own ad, registered, and did the work. So no earning in that regard. A clever way to figure out CPM, is to change currency into a really weak one like Japan Yen, and see if you at least get a few $0.01 penny (1 percent of a penny) based on that view.

Adsense is now a bigger mixture of CPM and CPC. I reckon "CPC" is sometimes really CPM, with AI actions with setup such as...85% confidence to obtain 1 click every dollar kind of logic.

What universenet is describing is the direction we are moving towards as a whole eco system. The auction system is mostly run on AI that will almost adjust bids in real time based on whatever ROI metrics that they run on.

Sure we will see "clicks" as a metric, but what is more important at the end is the ROI metric for advertisers which is hidden from our end. Observing what most people are experiencing, their CPC based MFA models sites are continuously declining, ie link units. It is what it is. And we are moving towards CPM, Viewability branding, and ROI conversion based modeling / auction.

Personally with my publishing business, I care less and less about Clicks or CPC. I try to maintain a decent grade of viewability metric, and work on my traffic as primary focus. And I leave the rest to Adsense and other ad network. I believe traffic and basic layout, is much easier to control as a publisher.

Read between the lines and figure out what Google is doing and what they are heading. First Price system is their latest push. This is not a push towards CPC, but a further push on CPM model to incorporate competitors (Amazon) and header bidding CPM based logic.

Lastly, interest, location, and intent based ads are on the rise. This is in line with the CPM based model. This is in line with the further decline of CPC. With this said....A contextual site that matches, interest, location, and intent has highest "per click CPC". A CPC ads that is served at the right place, right time, to the right person, will have highest potential CPC (edge case when all the stars are aligned). But this also means that, OVERALL AVERAGE CPC across the whole system will continue to be lowered, because stars do not align most of the time.

May it be publisher content competition increase, or advertisers getting better at buying the perfectly aligned ads. The observation of declining CPM/CPC is real and is here to stay.

frankleeceo...I totaly agree with you..things are changing and only some people undeestand it
is not enough that visits to your website click on adsense...they need be discovered by google like visits who are really interested in what they clicking and that they are potential buyers...in other way if google no discovering them interesting so click will be for nothing
Even googke using forecast earning for every website..they give money by forecast of earn..and they never losing..
Forecast earning you can discover if see now example earn today 15$ and in half hour you see arround 13$ ...less..why less? it was forecast..and google discovered was not in that direction and give you less...all is forecast..what google expect from your website a day
we are part of expecting statistic from google
Forecast from google is results of paid campaignes from advertisors.. somtimes google need finnish advertising in decided date (like new year... easter... end of some holiday) so google do forecast how spend money per day and per website... and campaign from advertisers in that way can finnish in exactly real decided time..
important is how much money is in game and how many websites and visits all together...all other is just statistic... from statistic we can not see all.. just some things
ok... maybe poeple now understand more about what I said... google working with forecast..for every day how much spend money and how much give to every publisher

[edited by: universenet at 7:28 pm (utc) on May 21, 2019]

Well to add to this:

[support.google.com...]

"How vCPM and CPC bids compete
Ads with different bid types can compete for the same Display Network placements.

To keep things fair, when CPC and vCPM ads compete for the same Display Network placement, the two types of ads are compared apples-to-apples on how much they're effectively willing to pay for the impression. With a vCPM ad, the max viewable CPM bid represents how much the advertiser is willing to pay for each 1,000 viewable impressions; with a CPC ad, Google estimates how many clicks the ad might receive in 1,000 impressions to get the comparison."

And if Adsense auction is second price. CPC value does get processed down, if the CPM bids is lower than the CPC value. I would not call it "forecast" though, but rather procedure by design.

every publisher from day to day is inside google plan how much money spend for every day (or earn for publishers)
google doing this because know with which money... how big money need spend per day ( depends of advertisers)
so.. we.. publishers can not go much out from this plan... even if more clicks on our website without some reason google will not allowed it...
because is out of plan...all is calculated how much money every website can earn depends of traffic... and depends of quality of visitors
All is paid in advance to google so google doing plan how much money put in game every day
So.. is all about clicks? IS NOT

(In January your visits can click on adsense like a crazy.. but you will not eanr much more because all money is mostly spent to end of year..
plan for january is poor... )
all is about forecasted plan what is result of paid money to google from advertisers

.they need be discovered by google like visits who are really interested in what they clicking and that they are potential buyers..

This has always been the case. Google likes traffic that converts for advertisers.

ember ... for advertsiers is diferent of publishers.. publishers never can know real number of clicks ... only what is displayed in adsense.. is that real?
we can not know if visitor left website by click or just go to other website
only we know what google give in statistic
for advertisers is very important number of clicks and cost per click.. and advertisers can see if visits coming to own websites and how many.
Publishers never can not control it.. we just have info from google

Again, that has always been the case. It is Google’s game. We play by Google’s rules. In return, we get a fairly hassle-free way to monetize our content.

Ideal scenario can be that advertisers know from which publisher website visits coming (url address)... and how many visits (paid visits)..and what kind of visits..
So advertisers can make select what publishers are better of other
in that way can be much more useful

Full disclosure will break the game. Not likely to happen. :)

hehe.. yes.. I understand .. even is possble that advertisers and publishers can make deal about direkt advertising so my idea is not possible

I am not sure if question is good .. but is maybe possible that in game (advertising) is too much money and not enough good visits getting back?
Maybe this can be stupid question for someone but can be very interesting too
or good visits are just delivered to other "department"?

but what if google really missing good visits for sending to advertisers websites?
So.. if you want good visits you need put extrem big bid..because not enough interesting people for all on market?