In this article, we will Learn about the possible causes for decreased earnings and what you can do to bring your earnings back up again as seen in Adsense Support blog.
Now lets look at the problems first: The
first step in identifying what caused a decrease in earnings is to take
a look at the individual metrics: pageviews, CPC, and CTR. You can
view these metrics in the Performance reports tab in
your AdSense account. We recommend that you expand the date range to at
least the past six months to get a better picture of trends and
patterns, this method has been seen to be helpful.
Before We Proceed, Lets look at Some Publisher's Problems
Problem 1 - More Visitors Less Earnings - 35% drop
I have been using AdSense
for about 16 months and had steady increase month on month earnings
until about 4 months ago where it just leveled off at about €1k per
month. My visitors have increased month on month but the CPC drops so I
cannot go over €1k a month even though my traffic is up 60% from June to
September, the September earnings are just the same as June due to a
lower CPC and slightly lower CTR. Visitors per country are at the same
percent.
However since mid-October I started to see my earnings drop. My earnings per day went down to 25% from the normal daily rate and after 6 days of this I contact AdSense support. For the next few days (while awaiting a response) the earning went back to normal. Then after 1 week they responded and said "We've narrowed down the reasons for the drop to the changes that were made to our ad serving systems to address accidental clicks (which have been on the rise for you since the start of October)". I pointed out the CTR stats had slightly gone down since June along with my CPC and if anything I should be earning more since I have 60% more visitors for the month of October compared to the month of June. I have not changed my website. It seems like a machine sent this standard auto response email. After my reply they did not respond, and since then my earnings have dropped. Also at the end of the month (in which my earnings were now down 20%) my payable earnings are down another 17% from what I earned. So I am now down about 30-35% to my average monthly earnings even though I had more traffic that month than any other month. For the last year I am usually only deducted €1 for "Invalid Traffic - AdSense for Content", now they seem to be deducting €130 on top of my drop for that month? Some days I check and I earn X amount and later that day it goes down by half, I have never seen this happen over the last year. By this stage I should be earning €2k a month (comparing traffic stats) but instead €700 a month and dropping.
Last week I tweaked one page’s content (correctly) to get a high paying ads, it worked my earnings were up massively however when i checked later that night it was all deducted. I never click on any ads myself (obviously) but it seems I am stuck on my current earnings and decreasing. I was thinking of setting up a company and changing my personal account to VAT registered account. Do you think an unwritten rule exists that google AdSense treat personal accounts different from registered VAT company accounts? My only source of income for my site is Google AdSense and was only concentrating on increasing traffic as I thought double the traffic double the earnings, but this does not seem to be the case. My CTR is only at 1% which is pretty low. Any suggestions would be welcome as I am unsure how to proceed, but my website is growing (it’s not a blog) and I wanted to make my money through advertising and not charge users for the service my website provides. Has anyone experience anything similar to this? Has anyone experience anything similar to this since mid-October? I only use 2 ad units and was thinking about asking AdSense which ad unit is causing the accidental clicks; do you think that would be a good idea? Do you think I should contact adsense support again?
However since mid-October I started to see my earnings drop. My earnings per day went down to 25% from the normal daily rate and after 6 days of this I contact AdSense support. For the next few days (while awaiting a response) the earning went back to normal. Then after 1 week they responded and said "We've narrowed down the reasons for the drop to the changes that were made to our ad serving systems to address accidental clicks (which have been on the rise for you since the start of October)". I pointed out the CTR stats had slightly gone down since June along with my CPC and if anything I should be earning more since I have 60% more visitors for the month of October compared to the month of June. I have not changed my website. It seems like a machine sent this standard auto response email. After my reply they did not respond, and since then my earnings have dropped. Also at the end of the month (in which my earnings were now down 20%) my payable earnings are down another 17% from what I earned. So I am now down about 30-35% to my average monthly earnings even though I had more traffic that month than any other month. For the last year I am usually only deducted €1 for "Invalid Traffic - AdSense for Content", now they seem to be deducting €130 on top of my drop for that month? Some days I check and I earn X amount and later that day it goes down by half, I have never seen this happen over the last year. By this stage I should be earning €2k a month (comparing traffic stats) but instead €700 a month and dropping.
Last week I tweaked one page’s content (correctly) to get a high paying ads, it worked my earnings were up massively however when i checked later that night it was all deducted. I never click on any ads myself (obviously) but it seems I am stuck on my current earnings and decreasing. I was thinking of setting up a company and changing my personal account to VAT registered account. Do you think an unwritten rule exists that google AdSense treat personal accounts different from registered VAT company accounts? My only source of income for my site is Google AdSense and was only concentrating on increasing traffic as I thought double the traffic double the earnings, but this does not seem to be the case. My CTR is only at 1% which is pretty low. Any suggestions would be welcome as I am unsure how to proceed, but my website is growing (it’s not a blog) and I wanted to make my money through advertising and not charge users for the service my website provides. Has anyone experience anything similar to this? Has anyone experience anything similar to this since mid-October? I only use 2 ad units and was thinking about asking AdSense which ad unit is causing the accidental clicks; do you think that would be a good idea? Do you think I should contact adsense support again?
Problem 2 - Sudden, harsh drop in adsense CPC
I recently made some changes on my website; added "noindex, follow" to the meta robots tag on a gallery, for all pages >1. From that point, my adsense dropped daily and continued to drop until my income was literally cut in half. I've left it, as I figured it would work itself out, but it's not. At present I'll lose thousands per month unless I can figure out why this has happened. Adsense isn't displayed on any of the effected pages. But the effected gallery pages, link to the download page, where the adsense ad is located. One theory, is that the referring gallery pages, now have a lower quality score due to the fact they're no longer indexed. And perhaps the quality of the referrer has an impact on the value of the click? The CTR is stable, but the CPC is what's had the dramatic drop. Any suggestions?
I recently made some changes on my website; added "noindex, follow" to the meta robots tag on a gallery, for all pages >1. From that point, my adsense dropped daily and continued to drop until my income was literally cut in half. I've left it, as I figured it would work itself out, but it's not. At present I'll lose thousands per month unless I can figure out why this has happened. Adsense isn't displayed on any of the effected pages. But the effected gallery pages, link to the download page, where the adsense ad is located. One theory, is that the referring gallery pages, now have a lower quality score due to the fact they're no longer indexed. And perhaps the quality of the referrer has an impact on the value of the click? The CTR is stable, but the CPC is what's had the dramatic drop. Any suggestions?
Solution 1
First thing you need to realize is the difference between "accidental clicks" and "invalid clicks"
Accidental clicks could possibly be because of user confusion on your site - you want to make sure your ads aren't too close to the navigation, that they have enough contrast not to be mistaken for navigation, or that they're not too blended in with your content.
It's important that you figure this out, because this could put your account at risk. One quick way to see if it's an issue on your end is to turn up the contrast on your ads - add a header that says "Advertising" or "Sponsored" (and nothing else!) and maybe add a background or a border that is different from the rest of your site. Run that for a month and see if you accidental click rate goes down.
Invalid clicks can include bogus clicks from invalid traffic. You have something of a better chance of keeping your account if you have these, because Google has gotten a lot better at detecting them and is less likely to ding you if they don't think you're responsible for them.
Accidental clicks could possibly be because of user confusion on your site - you want to make sure your ads aren't too close to the navigation, that they have enough contrast not to be mistaken for navigation, or that they're not too blended in with your content.
It's important that you figure this out, because this could put your account at risk. One quick way to see if it's an issue on your end is to turn up the contrast on your ads - add a header that says "Advertising" or "Sponsored" (and nothing else!) and maybe add a background or a border that is different from the rest of your site. Run that for a month and see if you accidental click rate goes down.
Invalid clicks can include bogus clicks from invalid traffic. You have something of a better chance of keeping your account if you have these, because Google has gotten a lot better at detecting them and is less likely to ding you if they don't think you're responsible for them.
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I don't know how you're doing this, but Google isn't crazy about this (specially if they think you're writing for ads and not users) and that might be why you got all your revenue taken back.
There's no difference in personal accounts vs company accounts; I've had both.
Another thing that is happening is that the invalid bot traffic activity has gone WAY up over the past year. I never had much in the way of adjustments either, but Google actually told me I had some kind of ad clicking bot network hitting my sites hard - they said they were aware of it, so my account wasn't at risk, but despite repeated pleas they won't give me any more information so I can block or identify this traffic. Very frustrating, but AdSense is what it is.
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Finally - fix this. Start working on alternatives. If your traffic is valid and it's growing, start now at developing direct advertising, explore other ad networks or affiliate ads. You're already experiencing problems with AdSense - you don't want to be in the position of being completely stuck if something happens and your account is suspended or closed. Google protects the Advertisers at all costs, and if your account is considered to be a significant risk to them (even if you did NOTHING wrong - all that has to happen is that your account for some reason attracts trouble) you could be at risk.
You have to think about whether you want to base all your income for the site on another company, in a situation where you really have very little control. AdSense can be great, but it's good to have alternatives too.
You're under the wrong impression. Two myths need to be understood:
1. Traffic does not equal income.
2. More traffic does not always equal more income.
Those are two misperceptions that are common to AdSense publishers. In order to experience success, publishers must stop associating traffic with earnings. The two are not often linked. I know that seems counterintuitive but your experience is proof of it. Please keep reading so I can explain why traffic does not always equal income.
What determines income is the reason for the traffic. Some keywords convert into sales. Most keyword phrases do not convert to sales and will not result in income. On the average website, most traffic does not convert into a sale or a click. Your problem is not adsense. Your problem is not your ads. Your problem is your traffic.
Your symptom is indicative of non-sales traffic. Increasing non-sales related traffic to your site will not increase clicks and income.
Many AdSense publishers will benefit from getting into the mind of an affiliate marketer. No better place to start changing your thought processes than on Rae Hoffman's blog, starting with the Affiliate Marketing [sugarrae.com] section of her blog. I have known Rae for over a decade, she's been involved in affiliate marketing for a long, long time. She doesn't publish photos of fake checks with six figures on it. She tells the truth.
1. Traffic does not equal income.
2. More traffic does not always equal more income.
Those are two misperceptions that are common to AdSense publishers. In order to experience success, publishers must stop associating traffic with earnings. The two are not often linked. I know that seems counterintuitive but your experience is proof of it. Please keep reading so I can explain why traffic does not always equal income.
What determines income is the reason for the traffic. Some keywords convert into sales. Most keyword phrases do not convert to sales and will not result in income. On the average website, most traffic does not convert into a sale or a click. Your problem is not adsense. Your problem is not your ads. Your problem is your traffic.
Your symptom is indicative of non-sales traffic. Increasing non-sales related traffic to your site will not increase clicks and income.
Many AdSense publishers will benefit from getting into the mind of an affiliate marketer. No better place to start changing your thought processes than on Rae Hoffman's blog, starting with the Affiliate Marketing [sugarrae.com] section of her blog. I have known Rae for over a decade, she's been involved in affiliate marketing for a long, long time. She doesn't publish photos of fake checks with six figures on it. She tells the truth.
GOOGLE ADSENSE SUPPORT
Simple Steps involved to officially increase Earnings
The method is very simple as explained by Google Support; To add metrics for pageviews, CPC and CTR, hover over the metric in
the interactive scorecard of your Performance report and click its tab.
Now you have to try to evaluate which of your metrics is driving down your revenue
the most over your recent history. it will definitely help.
Google has provided some solutions and insights below. See possible solutions in the list below;
With all this said, you are on your way to successful increase in your Adsence CPC to increase your monthly revenue but if you’re not finding any clues about your declining revenue during
your review of these metrics, try taking a look at some more ways of analyzing declining revenue from the related links below.
Source: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/160523?hl=en
Read this for more: Reasons Why Your CPC Earnings Dropping In Adsense
Inside AdSense: The do's and dont's to increase cost per click
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/03/dos-and-donts-to-increase-cost-per.html
Inside AdSense: The do's and dont's to increase cost per click
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/03/dos-and-donts-to-increase-cost-per.html
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/4628024.htm