Google AdSense Publishers Upset Over Recent Earnings

Since late January and early February, I have been seeing sporadic complaints about Google AdSense earnings and how they have plummeted for many publishers. I received these complaints via email mostly, but all I saw were random threads from disgruntled publishers.

A WebmasterWorld thread has a thread from over the weekend with tons of feedback from publishers on this issue. The thread creator said:

I would really like to know if anybody else has experienced collapse in CTR+ECPM+CPC-wise starting in February (Jan 31 was totally normal day).

Facts:
- Same traffic
- Same advertizers with the same budgets (small niche, everybody knows everybody)
- Everything was rock solid the last year
- Last minutes of January looks normal

... then... February starts and CTR drops 20%, eCPM 25% in one second and has stayed at the new level every since.

This is exactly the type of reports I heard via email and from several friends in the industry.

Most people in the thread are saying "me too" type of responses. But some are saying they are not seeing any drop at all. I am not sure exactly what is going on, because I have seen some examples sites that seem legit and should not have a reason to have a reduced eCPM from the looks of it.

Have your earnings with Google AdSense dropped significantly (as a percentage) in February from January?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Like The Story? Vote For It On Yahoo Buzz! Or On Sphinn!

posted rustybrick in Google AdSense at February 8, 2010 8:06 AM Comments (9)

Comments

What this shows is that based on forum threads, as a group, web developers appear to be schizophrenic.

On one hand we have threads complaining about AdSense revenue drops and on the other hand we have threads arguing against Google's proposed greater transparency in publishers' split of AdSense revenues.

At least if we knew what the revenue split was, we could rule this out as a factor in AdSense revenue fluctuations.

I think what we see with these types of threads is that: 1) people like to have something to complain about; and 2) people are more likely to start new threads when they have something to complain about.

Posted by Ken in Maine at February 8, 2010 10:48

All webmasters should have the exactly the same opinion.

Posted by Colin at February 8, 2010 11:45

My AdSense revenues are okay. I don't see what people are complaining about.

Posted by Michael Martinez at February 8, 2010 13:27

Could be because they, as did I, had a substantial INCREASE in earnings during January and now the earnings have stabilised again.

Posted by Alan at February 9, 2010 00:33

Comparing the last 7 days in Jan to the first 7 in Feb, across all sites combined I had a 0.21% drop in ctr. However, the number of clicks remained about the same and the ecpm showed a rise, resulting in greater earnings. This means that the ecpc was actually higher for me this month.

Posted by Michael VanDeMar at February 9, 2010 03:56

We've seen record Adsense earnings so far for the first 2 months of this year.

Posted by No Name at February 9, 2010 14:34

Earnings are up, but only because traffic is up. ecpm is slightly down. Didn't notice a 'stroke of midnight' effect when the month changes.

Posted by Lea de Groot at February 10, 2010 08:00

I can only report increase in earnings.

Posted by Webmaster at February 22, 2010 07:58

Two months has been passed no earning from google adsene wha can i do

Posted by Zaheer at March 13, 2010 02:06