My adsense cpc is down

It doesn't matter what niche your website is in, publishers need to understand how the system works. On the advertiser side, dBurk uses the term "CPC myopia" and I think it's just as good a term on the publisher side.

How CPCs are calculated. To understand how this applies to you as a publisher, the root of it is on the advertiser side.

Advertisers want to spend as little as possible. Google wants to make as much as possible but also serve the best ads as often as possible. This is accomplished by their Quality Score system, the biggest portion by far being an ad's click rate. The QS affects you too as a publisher.

Google will try to maximize their revenues (and thus yours) on the display/content network which as a publisher is what you are in their eyes. Therefore what's good for Google is good for you.

CPC has little to do with it. It's the ad that will get them (and you) more revenues. Which do you prefer? An ad paying $0.25 and getting a 1% click rate or an ad paying $0.30 getting a 0.5% click rate? For those not mathematically inclined, the first one would get you $2.50 per 1,000 views and the second only $1.50 so you should prefer the first one, the ad paying $0.25 because Google (and you) make more money.

You also need to understand that the system is in a constant state of flux. Advertisers come and go. There are advertisers that are better than others and frankly, many use the content network in a poor way. They stop and go their campaigns. They try to improve their quality, at least those who understand this and make the effort. They change their bids which affects where their ads show and how often. All this affects which ads are being shown on your site and what the CPC will be (higher QS ads (those getting higher CTR) are rewarded with lower CPC). The advertiser's cost (and thus your payout) is also dependent on the QS and bid of other advertisers. There is no reason at all to expect it will always be the same.

But as I said, Google wants to maximize their profits - it's really a simple and great system - so basically you have nothing to do and let the system do its thing.

Correction: there is something you can and should do. You can build your site to help the system determine what your site is all about. If it is unclear, it will serve ads that have little or nothing to do with what may interest your visitors. This will drop your click rate and reduce your potential ad revenues. Obviously, your particular site is about mesothelioma. But is that how Google sees it? Probably.

The other question to ask is who would want to advertise on such a site? You seem to want to attract lawyer ads (presumably those specializing in mesothelioma), a very niche segment. If that's the case, you are not doing a very good job. The ads I saw were for other things, some may be remarketing ads specifically to me.

You also have too many ads in my opinion but that's another issue. But Google may lower your site's quality (yes, it works both ways) because of this. They also repeated, the same ad showing 2,3 times on the page.

Now, most advertisers use keywords but if I was a mesothelioma lawyer or had a product or service for those afflicted, I would target sites like yours. But most advertisers don't seem to be aware of this or take the easy, lazy way with keywords, if they advertise on the content network at all. So what I would do is find and approach these advertisers (and non-advertisers too and tell them about PPC) and ask them to target your site since it is where they want to advertise. A win-win for both of you. Any site owner monetizing with ads should do this but I doubt any ever do. If they don't know how to do that, send them my way.

So that's it in a nutshell. Don't suffer from CPC myopia.