AdSense eCPM plunge this past 1-2 weeks

[KLB]

Has anyone else notice a steep decline in eCPM with AdSense in the past week or two? I'm not talking the traditional seasonal fluctuation in eCPM but a steeper than usual decline. I'm wondering if advertisers are tightening their ad budgets because of the current economic mess.

[Chris]

I've noticed a typical (for me) october uptick, though I have noticed an overall down trend for 2008 (just nothing escalating it recently).

I do think perception and worry has caused people to close their pocketbooks though, or think more about their spending, even if they still have the money. Anecdotally I believe I've seen a decrease in ecommerce because of it.

[Todd W]

I've noticed a down turn since approx. June.

[KLB]

My eCPM stats were holding stable to their normal trends until last week then they took a sharper than normal drop.

I've also discovered that the disparity between my Google Analytics page views and my AdSense page views has grown dramatically. Not a couple years ago, about 85% of my page views would result in AdSense impressions. For this month only about 60% of my page views are turning into AdSense impressions. I had been using the "allowed sites" option but I'm worried that because so many schools and businesses are now putting their users behind proxy servers using this option is costing me a lot of AdSense page impressions.

[Mike]

Definitely. Over the last couple of weeks I've got my rankings back and traffic has increased phenomenally, yet earnings haven't been as much as I'd expect.

[Chris]

My eCPM stats were holding stable to their normal trends until last week then they took a sharper than normal drop.

I've also discovered that the disparity between my Google Analytics page views and my AdSense page views has grown dramatically. Not a couple years ago, about 85% of my page views would result in AdSense impressions. For this month only about 60% of my page views are turning into AdSense impressions. I had been using the "allowed sites" option but I'm worried that because so many schools and businesses are now putting their users behind proxy servers using this option is costing me a lot of AdSense page impressions.
sigh...adblocking.

Ecommerce and subscription revenue is a great hedge against the further use of ad blockers.

[Todd W]

sigh...adblocking.

Ecommerce and subscription revenue is a great hedge against the further use of ad blockers.

Funny you mention that, I was thinking about my ecommerce projet again today... so little time :(

[KLB]

Over the past couple of years I have been focusing on adding content that is less targeted to the classroom. I suspect the bulk of my ad blocking is being done at the network firewall level in schools and since I can't make as much money from classroom targeted content, it doesn't make sense for me to put very much effort in that direction.

I'm thinking of ways to add some ecommerce to my site I just don't have a good grasp on what I want to do. The subscription model never worked very well on my site.

The issue of adblocking is really a two front war. What is driving the desire to block ads is obnoxious and intrusive advertising. If advertisers and publishers were more responsible and courteous they wouldn't be using the forms of advertising that annoys users so much that it drives them to implementing adblocking. On the other front, users really don't understand that it is advertising that is the engine that drives free content.

[Cutter]

At some point in the future I think we will see fully integrated advertising catch hold. Right now its super easy to filter ads just because of the domains they are served from.

An interesting thing to watch is the pubmatic.com adprice index: http://pubmatic.com/adpriceindex/index.html May not be super useful in niche markets, but it can give you a view of the general direction things are headed.

[Chris]

Well Ken, you don't need to do a ecommerce site based around your existing site. You could tackle a whole other topic matter.

I didn't have any site dealing with swords when I started mine. I made/bought some content after the fact.

I've noticed my laser hair removal ecpm drop, though again, not recently. Still, it is about 40% down. That makes sense, total consumer discretionary.

[KLB]

Well Ken, you don't need to do a ecommerce site based around your existing site. You could tackle a whole other topic matter.

True, but I'm already working on a HUGE new project for my existing site that has some potential for ecommerce. Not major ecommerce, but some minor stuff. The new section also has some very good potential of attracting some more partnerships (ala my partnership with CareerBuilder and Scientific American).

[achonu]

I am new to adsense...just joined last july and have been able to make about $27....oh too poor.Still wondering what I am not doing right as a blogger.I need some help really.

[KLB]

It can take a long time to build up good traffic numbers that bring in big amounts of Ad revenue. The most important thing is to build up lots of good original content that is useful to others. Another important thing is to produce content that is timeless. A single webpage/article can take years to earn enough revenue in and of itself to pay back the time you put into writing the article. As such you want to produce content that will still be relevant and useful years from now.