Why is My Adsense CPC Dropping Through the Floor?

[The Expert]

I have two sites on which I have adsense. The older site reviews guns and holsters and stuff. The newer one has reviews on gyms.

The older site never had a high CTR or a good CPC. Right now it is showing 11,000 page views with 100 clicks (0.9% CTR) and a CPC $0.32.

The new site, though, has keywords that according to the Keyword Tool and Contextualized Targets modules should be paying out at $1.00.

In fact, I WAS getting about $1.00 p/click but that's been steadily sliding until I am now only getting about $0.42 p/click. It's really bugging me and I'm going to start rotating in some CPA offers because the entire site's effort vs. return factor isn't seeming to promising at this low CPC level.

Does anyone know if the First Site (the one with the 0.9% CTR) might be causing my payouts on my other sites to be pulled down? Should I break that one out and put it on a different adsense account? Can I even do that?

[mgreener]

Hi,

The two sites shouldn't affect each other.

Is there anything in the Adsense TOS that states that pricing will dropped depending on performance of your site or something? Could it be that people are spending less on advertising gyms? (although you would think that this is the biggest month for gyms...).

I would move away from adsense if possible and find better ways to monetize.

[rob1123]

Is this a very recent drop? If so it could just be that the 'lose Christmas weight' niche is coming to a close, I assume those sort of ads would be contextual to guy reviews. Of course it could be any number of things, you could always try altering the text so your site shows higher paying kws.

[aygabtu]

My CPC is in the toilet this month as well. Not sure if December was really good because of advertisers fighting for eyeballs and this month that all went away, but I know have days that my CPC is 1/3 what it was last month!

[Zeb]

It could be that you were smart priced. Adsense does this for accounts that doesn't convert for awhile and adjusts it's ads to lower paying ones. It should get back higher again in due time. This is just one reasons, other than the ones that were posted above.

[Bofu2U]

I still think it's because the conversion rate data reset for advertisers on the 1st. At least that's my theory, heh.

[Bambu]

If you are being smart priced by Google, it will effect all of the sites in your account. Some Adsense publishers segregate their sites. So the better performing sites aren't effected by the low converting sites.

[mosthost]

Google Plus Your World could be having an impact.

It might be time to experiment with new ad formats. A/B testing. This is no time to get complacent with Google.

[mrgood]

Well, I have also notice that my CPC is dropped down. I have same earnings now with 3 % CTR and before 2 months when my CTR was below 1 %. If the CPC is remain the same, my earnings would now be 3 times higher then before.
Some people says this is normal for January, and in February will everything go back to normal.

[The Expert]

I'm going to do some experimenting with CPA. I signed up with Ad Angler and will rotate it in on a A/B basis with the 300x250 Adsense ad, run it for a week and see which one pays better.

[ericnelsonator]

Looks like smart pricing into play! Try to find out where ad/position is converting the best and then remove all other adblocks but one located at the best converting position on your site. You should see your CPC rise as only the higher paying ads will show up there. As your overall CTR goes up and earnings are better, your smartpricing effect should reduce.

Hope this helps!

Eric

[johnben1444]

Just like traffic CPC is not stable. A lot of the business model i use to know when i first began IM are no longer profitable or exist. Its nature, learn to adapt by diversifying and multiplying your sites.