Bots are running rampant and they are affecting Adsense page RPM. Google cannot filter them out. I was successful for a couple days, but now I’m getting bots from a dozen countries. They caused my largest website to crash today. I know they are all AI bots training their algorithm.

Today was the worst Adsense day in 13 years.

awful figures here as well

I put a notice on my websites that they are not to be used for AI training. I'm sure they don't even care! They just run rampant and do whatever they want. Talk about copyright violations!

I think Adsense has hit rock bottom, and it's dragging all of us along with it into the Abyss.

The real problem was the shift from clicks to impressions and the introduction of networks with ridiculously low CPMs, not to mention the self-imposed limitations and AI bot traffic.

Google Adsense revenue is dropping down to nothing. This is with a legitimate 23,000 page views a day. It seems like all the advertisers are disappearing from Google. I guess, this is the end of Adsense for me.

December has always been the strongest month for my main website (food recipes). That was consistent for years. Since the shift from CPC to CPM, things changed, and lately, nothing feels normal anymore, no matter the month.

@levforever,

Yeah, it’s never been the same for me since the move to CPM. Even on my best days, I’d hit around 5,000 pageviews, and for sites like mine with similar traffic, I knew things wouldn’t return to how they were. On top of that, I lost my biggest traffic source on social media when my group was hijacked. Combined with Google seemingly disappearing from the conversation altogether, that pretty much is the final blow.

I sometimes wonder if Google now regrets that move. Google Ads has always been its bread and butter and most profitable business, followed by YouTube, and then Google Cloud which will eventually overtake the other two if Google Ads ends up pushing up daisies.

Hello,
Is anyone else using AdSense for Search (AFS) experiencing a significant CPC drop around December 12?

We’ve seen a sudden 55–60% CPC decline overnight, affecting all of our websites globally. We contacted AdSense support, and after reviewing our account they said this reflects a global market trend, which frankly is hard to believe - especially given that this is typically a high-season period. A uniform drop across all countries from one day to the next doesn’t align with normal market dynamics.

I’ve also noticed other publishers here mentioning increased bot traffic that closely mimics human behavior. We initially suspected our traffic changes were causing the RPM and CPC drop, as we observed fluctuations when adjusting our settings.

We’re also seeing indications that some bots are now able to solve Cloudflare CAPTCHAs, which is particularly concerning.

Would be very interested to hear if others are seeing the same patterns or have additional insights.

Thanks,
Imre

@levforever

I still do not understand the switch to CPM. I’ve been trying to determine the rationale for moving to that model and I haven’t come up with anything.

It is especially bad for niche websites. There are certain websites that cater to a small and exclusive club. It makes absolutely no sense for those sites to be paid on a CPM model. CPC is much better and does not hurt small niche websites that can charge more per click

does adsense youtube though still makes money?

My french website went from $6 RPM to $2 this month in AdSense ......

My sites are down 41% from last year at the same time.

@azlinda

Down 62% for me. :-(

@makintocheplus,

my RPM went from $10 plus to under $2 in a month and a half, no idea what exactly happened.

Christmas time is over. The drop in end of December is somewhat normal. January and February will also be horrible.

Merry Christmas folks!

Maybe - just maybe - the 2026 version of Adsense will be more of what we expect. Dreaming is free.

Unless, of course, you happened to score that sweet $1.7b jackpot in Powerball last night ; )

@gatormark That is sad.

New month, new thread here: [webmasterworld.com...]

[edited by: not2easy at 11:46 am (utc) on Jan 2, 2026]
[edit reason] New month, new thread [/edit]