Date: Fri, Mar 7 2008 11:27 pm
From: Inside AdSense
Welcome back to the second part of our series designed to help you
better understand revenue fluctuations. If you're just joining us now,
or if you'd just like to brush up on those reporting terms before we
dive in again, feel free to visit our previous post from earlier in
the week.
Choose the right treatment
You're finished investigating the cause of the revenue fluctuations,
and it's time to take action. Find the symptom you identified below
for suggested treatments.
Page impression changes
* Check for AdSense technical issues or public service ads (PSAs). If
ads aren't being served on your site, we aren't registering page
impressions.
* Don't miss out on search traffic. Use Webmaster Tools to make sure
that Google is properly crawling and indexing your site.
* Consider the promotions you have running for your site. Did an ad
campaign end, causing a drop in traffic? Has a popular site linked to
you, causing a spike in page impressions?
CTR changes
* A drop in CTR can be caused by a user interface (UI) that's not
optimized or by poor targeting. Readers won't click on ads they don't
see or find irrelevant. To improve the relevance of your ads, you
might want to try section targeting.
* Check for crawl problems. If our system can't crawl your page, we
can't serve relevant ads.
* If you've implemented or changed your ad server, check that there
are no new targeting problems.
* Have you changed the look and feel of your site? Follow our
optimization best practices whenever launching a site redesign. An
easy way to start is to match the ad colors to the design of your site
and choose a top performing unit such as the 300x250 medium rectangle.
* If your CTR has been in a slow decline, your readers may be
experiencing ad blindness. Try testing new ad formats, placements, or
colors.
CPC changes
* CPCs are determined by advertiser bids and are not directly under
publisher control. Most large CPC changes are seasonal. For example,
certain ad verticals attract more spending during the holiday or back-
to-school seasons.
* CPCs can also fluctuate as advertisers begin and end their
advertising campaigns.
* You can always improve your CPCs by choosing ad formats that support
all ad types: text, image, video, flash, and gadget ads. More
competition means higher advertiser bids.
Placement targeting revenue changes
* If overall targeted revenue is changing, determine what your average
placement-targeted revenue has been for the past few months. Your goal
is to determine if the changes in your recent earnings are part of a
trend or a short-term earnings fluctuation.
* Publishers can experience spikes in placement-targeted revenue when
advertisers run limited-time campaigns. For example, an advertiser may
run a large placement-targeted campaign only during the opening week
of a summer blockbuster movie.
* If you want to increase placement targeting over the long term, set
up ad placements. This will make it easier for advertisers to find and
target your site.
Finally, two more things...
Where are the changes happening?
Many AdSense publishers run multiple websites or have site sections
that perform very differently. For example, the article section of a
cell phone review site may have a higher eCPM than the forums.
Whenever you notice revenue changes at the account level, always
determine which of your sites or sections is causing the change. You
can set up URL and custom channels to track all the important parts of
your account separately. Knowing exactly what is changing and where
will allow you to make the smartest decisions about what to do.
Taking seasonal fluctuation into account
Take a broader view and look for historical fluctuations in the
metrics described above. Over the same time period last month or last
year, you may find similar volatility in your eCPM, revenue, or page
impressions. For example, you can compare the Mother's Day performance
of a flowers and gifts site for 2006 and 2007. Is your current account
performance consistent with the previous time range? If so, the
revenue change you're investigating might reflect a recurring pattern.
I hope this series will help you get the most out of AdSense, and the
next time your revenue changes, I hope it's for the positive.
Posted by Christian Ashlock - AdSense Optimization Team
Friday, March 07, 2008 at 9:08:00 AM
TOPIC: Diagnosing and treating revenue fluctuations (Part II)
Date: Fri, Mar 7 2008 11:27 pm
From: Inside AdSense
Welcome back to the second part of our series designed to help you
better understand revenue fluctuations. If you're just joining us now,
or if you'd just like to brush up on those reporting terms before we
dive in again, feel free to visit our previous post from earlier in
the week.
Choose the right treatment
You're finished investigating the cause of the revenue fluctuations,
and it's time to take action. Find the symptom you identified below
for suggested treatments.
Page impression changes
* Check for AdSense technical issues or public service ads (PSAs). If
ads aren't being served on your site, we aren't registering page
impressions.
* Don't miss out on search traffic. Use Webmaster Tools to make sure
that Google is properly crawling and indexing your site.
* Consider the promotions you have running for your site. Did an ad
campaign end, causing a drop in traffic? Has a popular site linked to
you, causing a spike in page impressions?
CTR changes
* A drop in CTR can be caused by a user interface (UI) that's not
optimized or by poor targeting. Readers won't click on ads they don't
see or find irrelevant. To improve the relevance of your ads, you
might want to try section targeting.
* Check for crawl problems. If our system can't crawl your page, we
can't serve relevant ads.
* If you've implemented or changed your ad server, check that there
are no new targeting problems.
* Have you changed the look and feel of your site? Follow our
optimization best practices whenever launching a site redesign. An
easy way to start is to match the ad colors to the design of your site
and choose a top performing unit such as the 300x250 medium rectangle.
* If your CTR has been in a slow decline, your readers may be
experiencing ad blindness. Try testing new ad formats, placements, or
colors.
CPC changes
* CPCs are determined by advertiser bids and are not directly under
publisher control. Most large CPC changes are seasonal. For example,
certain ad verticals attract more spending during the holiday or back-
to-school seasons.
* CPCs can also fluctuate as advertisers begin and end their
advertising campaigns.
* You can always improve your CPCs by choosing ad formats that support
all ad types: text, image, video, flash, and gadget ads. More
competition means higher advertiser bids.
Placement targeting revenue changes
* If overall targeted revenue is changing, determine what your average
placement-targeted revenue has been for the past few months. Your goal
is to determine if the changes in your recent earnings are part of a
trend or a short-term earnings fluctuation.
* Publishers can experience spikes in placement-targeted revenue when
advertisers run limited-time campaigns. For example, an advertiser may
run a large placement-targeted campaign only during the opening week
of a summer blockbuster movie.
* If you want to increase placement targeting over the long term, set
up ad placements. This will make it easier for advertisers to find and
target your site.
Finally, two more things...
Where are the changes happening?
Many AdSense publishers run multiple websites or have site sections
that perform very differently. For example, the article section of a
cell phone review site may have a higher eCPM than the forums.
Whenever you notice revenue changes at the account level, always
determine which of your sites or sections is causing the change. You
can set up URL and custom channels to track all the important parts of
your account separately. Knowing exactly what is changing and where
will allow you to make the smartest decisions about what to do.
Taking seasonal fluctuation into account
Take a broader view and look for historical fluctuations in the
metrics described above. Over the same time period last month or last
year, you may find similar volatility in your eCPM, revenue, or page
impressions. For example, you can compare the Mother's Day performance
of a flowers and gifts site for 2006 and 2007. Is your current account
performance consistent with the previous time range? If so, the
revenue change you're investigating might reflect a recurring pattern.
I hope this series will help you get the most out of AdSense, and the
next time your revenue changes, I hope it's for the positive.
Posted by Christian Ashlock - AdSense Optimization Team
Friday, March 07, 2008 at 9:08:00 AM
From: Inside AdSense
Welcome back to the second part of our series designed to help you
better understand revenue fluctuations. If you're just joining us now,
or if you'd just like to brush up on those reporting terms before we
dive in again, feel free to visit our previous post from earlier in
the week.
Choose the right treatment
You're finished investigating the cause of the revenue fluctuations,
and it's time to take action. Find the symptom you identified below
for suggested treatments.
Page impression changes
* Check for AdSense technical issues or public service ads (PSAs). If
ads aren't being served on your site, we aren't registering page
impressions.
* Don't miss out on search traffic. Use Webmaster Tools to make sure
that Google is properly crawling and indexing your site.
* Consider the promotions you have running for your site. Did an ad
campaign end, causing a drop in traffic? Has a popular site linked to
you, causing a spike in page impressions?
CTR changes
* A drop in CTR can be caused by a user interface (UI) that's not
optimized or by poor targeting. Readers won't click on ads they don't
see or find irrelevant. To improve the relevance of your ads, you
might want to try section targeting.
* Check for crawl problems. If our system can't crawl your page, we
can't serve relevant ads.
* If you've implemented or changed your ad server, check that there
are no new targeting problems.
* Have you changed the look and feel of your site? Follow our
optimization best practices whenever launching a site redesign. An
easy way to start is to match the ad colors to the design of your site
and choose a top performing unit such as the 300x250 medium rectangle.
* If your CTR has been in a slow decline, your readers may be
experiencing ad blindness. Try testing new ad formats, placements, or
colors.
CPC changes
* CPCs are determined by advertiser bids and are not directly under
publisher control. Most large CPC changes are seasonal. For example,
certain ad verticals attract more spending during the holiday or back-
to-school seasons.
* CPCs can also fluctuate as advertisers begin and end their
advertising campaigns.
* You can always improve your CPCs by choosing ad formats that support
all ad types: text, image, video, flash, and gadget ads. More
competition means higher advertiser bids.
Placement targeting revenue changes
* If overall targeted revenue is changing, determine what your average
placement-targeted revenue has been for the past few months. Your goal
is to determine if the changes in your recent earnings are part of a
trend or a short-term earnings fluctuation.
* Publishers can experience spikes in placement-targeted revenue when
advertisers run limited-time campaigns. For example, an advertiser may
run a large placement-targeted campaign only during the opening week
of a summer blockbuster movie.
* If you want to increase placement targeting over the long term, set
up ad placements. This will make it easier for advertisers to find and
target your site.
Finally, two more things...
Where are the changes happening?
Many AdSense publishers run multiple websites or have site sections
that perform very differently. For example, the article section of a
cell phone review site may have a higher eCPM than the forums.
Whenever you notice revenue changes at the account level, always
determine which of your sites or sections is causing the change. You
can set up URL and custom channels to track all the important parts of
your account separately. Knowing exactly what is changing and where
will allow you to make the smartest decisions about what to do.
Taking seasonal fluctuation into account
Take a broader view and look for historical fluctuations in the
metrics described above. Over the same time period last month or last
year, you may find similar volatility in your eCPM, revenue, or page
impressions. For example, you can compare the Mother's Day performance
of a flowers and gifts site for 2006 and 2007. Is your current account
performance consistent with the previous time range? If so, the
revenue change you're investigating might reflect a recurring pattern.
I hope this series will help you get the most out of AdSense, and the
next time your revenue changes, I hope it's for the positive.
Posted by Christian Ashlock - AdSense Optimization Team
Friday, March 07, 2008 at 9:08:00 AM
TOPIC: Diagnosing and Treating Revenue Fluctuations (Part I)
Date: Wed, Mar 5 2008 3:25 pm
From: Inside AdSense Team
You love your website and you want it to thrive. You create content,
manage your community, and keep an eye on your AdSense performance. If
AdSense revenue is down, you're understandably concerned. If AdSense
revenue is up, you're happy, but you want to know why. Revenue
fluctuations are obvious enough when they occur, but the root cause
isn't equally clear. It can be challenging for both new and experienced
publishers alike to analyze their AdSense data and respond effectively
to changes.The goal of this post, and our follow-up later this week, is
to help you understand the AdSense revenue model so you can diagnose
and treat revenue fluctuations like an experienced MD.Study upThe first
step is knowing how the figures reported in your account (such as eCPM,
CTR, and page impressions) interact to describe your total revenue.
Think of each number as a variable in the revenue formula for your
site. At the highest level, you can calculate revenue by multiplying
your page impressions by the effective cost-per-thousand impressions
(eCPM) and dividing by 1000.Revenue = Page Impressions * eCPM /
1000eCPM = Revenue / Page Impressions * 1000The eCPM metric provides an
estimate of how much revenue you can expect to earn for every 1000 page
impressions. For example, if you serve 10,000 page impressions and earn
$40, your eCPM is $4. If page impressions increase to 30,000, you can
predict that you'll earn $120 given the $4 eCPM.Most AdSense ads pay on
a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, so eCPM is really a measure of your
average ad performance. Breaking eCPM into the click-through-rate (CTR)
and the average cost that advertisers pay per click (CPC) gives you a
more accurate measure of performance.Revenue = Page Impressions * CTR *
average CPCOnce you know your average CTR and your average CPC, you can
predict how much revenue you'll earn for a given amount of page views.
You can also analyze your revenue by looking at placement-targeted ads
versus contextually-targeted ads.Total Revenue = Revenue (contextual) +
Revenue (placement-targeted)While contextually targeted ads always pay
per click, advertisers can pay for placement-targeted ads by impression
(CPM) or by click (CPC). To account for both of these bid types, you
should look at the average eCPM for placement-targeted ads. More
simply, you can just add placement-targeted revenue to your
contextually targeted revenue.Revenue = (Page Impressions
(contextual) * CTR * average CPC) + (Page Impressions
(placement-targeted) * eCPM (placement targeted) / 1000)Revenue = (Page
Impressions (contextual) * CTR * average CPC ) + Revenue
(placement-targeted)Even though we're looking at contextual and
placement-targeted revenue separately, don't forget that these two
types of ads compete against each other in the auction. We'll always
show the best performing ad, regardless of targeting type, so more
competition creates higher winning bids.Identify the symptomsNow you're
ready to diagnose any revenue fluctuation. Just like the revenue
formulas above, let's start simple and gradually get more complex.The
first question to ask is: Did either your page impressions or your eCPM
change? You can compare trends in both page impressions and eCPM using
the Advanced Reports in your account.If your AdSense page impressions
have declined, you should determine if traffic to your entire site is
declining as well. A web analytics tool such as Google Analytics can
provide you with this information. In addition, you should check your
pages for unpaid public service ads (PSAs).If your eCPM is down, you'll
need to dig one level deeper and find out if your contextual or
placement targeted ad performance has dropped. You can also find this
data in the Advanced Reports tab using the options shown below.Let's
consider your contextual ads first. The two key metrics to investigate
are CTR and average CPC. CTR is given in your reports, but you'll need
to calculate your average CPC using your favorite spreadsheet. (My
favorite goes without saying). Please keep in mind that this is still
an average CPC for your account and doesn't necessarily correspond with
the price paid by any specific advertiser. Once you've narrowed the
change to CTR or average CPC you're ready to start treatment.For
placement-targeted ads, you should analyze how much total
placement-targeted revenue you are receiving and the average eCPM.
Changes in either of these metrics usually indicate that advertisers
are beginning or ending campaigns targeted to your site. Again,
placement-targeted campaigns are more likely to be short-term than
contextual campaigns.That's all we have time for today -- now that you
have a better understanding of what factors can affect revenue, don't
forget to check back later this week for the second part of this
series. We'll be treating ways to treat revenue fluctuations based on
the symptoms you've discovered.Posted by Christian Ashlock - AdSense
Optimization Team
--
Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 3/05/2008 03:25:00 PM
From: Inside AdSense Team
You love your website and you want it to thrive. You create content,
manage your community, and keep an eye on your AdSense performance. If
AdSense revenue is down, you're understandably concerned. If AdSense
revenue is up, you're happy, but you want to know why. Revenue
fluctuations are obvious enough when they occur, but the root cause
isn't equally clear. It can be challenging for both new and experienced
publishers alike to analyze their AdSense data and respond effectively
to changes.The goal of this post, and our follow-up later this week, is
to help you understand the AdSense revenue model so you can diagnose
and treat revenue fluctuations like an experienced MD.Study upThe first
step is knowing how the figures reported in your account (such as eCPM,
CTR, and page impressions) interact to describe your total revenue.
Think of each number as a variable in the revenue formula for your
site. At the highest level, you can calculate revenue by multiplying
your page impressions by the effective cost-per-thousand impressions
(eCPM) and dividing by 1000.Revenue = Page Impressions * eCPM /
1000eCPM = Revenue / Page Impressions * 1000The eCPM metric provides an
estimate of how much revenue you can expect to earn for every 1000 page
impressions. For example, if you serve 10,000 page impressions and earn
$40, your eCPM is $4. If page impressions increase to 30,000, you can
predict that you'll earn $120 given the $4 eCPM.Most AdSense ads pay on
a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, so eCPM is really a measure of your
average ad performance. Breaking eCPM into the click-through-rate (CTR)
and the average cost that advertisers pay per click (CPC) gives you a
more accurate measure of performance.Revenue = Page Impressions * CTR *
average CPCOnce you know your average CTR and your average CPC, you can
predict how much revenue you'll earn for a given amount of page views.
You can also analyze your revenue by looking at placement-targeted ads
versus contextually-targeted ads.Total Revenue = Revenue (contextual) +
Revenue (placement-targeted)While contextually targeted ads always pay
per click, advertisers can pay for placement-targeted ads by impression
(CPM) or by click (CPC). To account for both of these bid types, you
should look at the average eCPM for placement-targeted ads. More
simply, you can just add placement-targeted revenue to your
contextually targeted revenue.Revenue = (Page Impressions
(contextual) * CTR * average CPC) + (Page Impressions
(placement-targeted) * eCPM (placement targeted) / 1000)Revenue = (Page
Impressions (contextual) * CTR * average CPC ) + Revenue
(placement-targeted)Even though we're looking at contextual and
placement-targeted revenue separately, don't forget that these two
types of ads compete against each other in the auction. We'll always
show the best performing ad, regardless of targeting type, so more
competition creates higher winning bids.Identify the symptomsNow you're
ready to diagnose any revenue fluctuation. Just like the revenue
formulas above, let's start simple and gradually get more complex.The
first question to ask is: Did either your page impressions or your eCPM
change? You can compare trends in both page impressions and eCPM using
the Advanced Reports in your account.If your AdSense page impressions
have declined, you should determine if traffic to your entire site is
declining as well. A web analytics tool such as Google Analytics can
provide you with this information. In addition, you should check your
pages for unpaid public service ads (PSAs).If your eCPM is down, you'll
need to dig one level deeper and find out if your contextual or
placement targeted ad performance has dropped. You can also find this
data in the Advanced Reports tab using the options shown below.Let's
consider your contextual ads first. The two key metrics to investigate
are CTR and average CPC. CTR is given in your reports, but you'll need
to calculate your average CPC using your favorite spreadsheet. (My
favorite goes without saying). Please keep in mind that this is still
an average CPC for your account and doesn't necessarily correspond with
the price paid by any specific advertiser. Once you've narrowed the
change to CTR or average CPC you're ready to start treatment.For
placement-targeted ads, you should analyze how much total
placement-targeted revenue you are receiving and the average eCPM.
Changes in either of these metrics usually indicate that advertisers
are beginning or ending campaigns targeted to your site. Again,
placement-targeted campaigns are more likely to be short-term than
contextual campaigns.That's all we have time for today -- now that you
have a better understanding of what factors can affect revenue, don't
forget to check back later this week for the second part of this
series. We'll be treating ways to treat revenue fluctuations based on
the symptoms you've discovered.Posted by Christian Ashlock - AdSense
Optimization Team
--
Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 3/05/2008 03:25:00 PM
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