How does Google compute adsense?

Yes cableguy you got the question right thank you.

Over 95% of my traffic is for the exact keyword I am targeting so the discussion above is not really relevant. I am very confused about the payouts. If Google is paying 65% (as has been argued on the boards - not trying to rehash this), they are getting $0.26 per click and passing on $0.17 to me, vs a max cpc of $3.12.

It just doesnt seem to add up. Am I missing something? Any suggestions on a better way to monetize this traffic? I got 6 clicks today (an all-time high for me but a grand total of $.78 which of course I promptly deposited into my kids college fund, vs. what I hoped would be closer to $10 - $12. Kind of discouraging.

Thanks

Definitely make sure you have ads set to both text and image. Image ads usually pay more because they buy out the whole ad block, and you'll be getting the highest bidders possible.

I don't know exactly how Google determines these things but all i'll say is if you find the right niches the payouts should be great. I rarely get clicks less then $1 and most of the time for much more and I have sites in tons of different niches.

Just choose your niches wisely. Rule of thumb I always use. Shoot for high paying niches unless you see a niche with tremendous traffic potential. I have sites that make $25 a day off of 15 visitors and 4 clicks and a site that makes $25 a day off 5000 visitors and 100 clicks. All niche dependent.

How many ad blocks are you showing? Let's say you are using a very common practice and using the maximum 3 ad blocks. That represents 12 individual ads on your page (four in each block).

Only one of those ads might reach that maximum click price. Each of the other 11 ads are going to be progressively lower in price, that is just the nature of adsense/adwords.

Also, the odds are very high it is only a percentage of your CPC number since people buying ads on the content network will pay less than on the search. So, even though your maximum CPC for the phrase is $3.12 on search, it might only be $1.00 on the content network. Which means your maximum CPC for those 12 ads is now $1.00 and gets progressively lower through the other 11.

Then factor in you only get 68% of that value (not speculation, Google's reported amount). That means your maximum earnings for a click might be starting off at $.68 on that $3.12 CPC you saw. Then when you start flowing down through those other 11 ads it could get extremely low by the time it reaches the last ad.

Getting a $.17 click on a keyword which shows a $3.12 CPC in Adwords is not uncommon, it is actually very common.

There is a bidding war for The Content Network, and you are referencing the Search Network cost average APPROXIMATION. The Content Network cost is usually much less than Search Network.

There is no debate on what Google pays. They have admitted that they pay 68% of WHAT THEY GET for the ad. And that could be anything. You have to realize that the inventory they have to deliver changes by the second. When your page is downloaded, there may only be lower bids available for rotation. There really is no way to tell. So we are all guessing.

There really is very little relationship with the Search Network CPC you see on the key word tool and what bidders are paying when they bid for The Content Network. Using search numbers to determine what you should get from Google is the wrong thing to do.

Idk what keyword you are getting traffic for to your website, but I do know that I always use a safe estimation formula that always works for me

Estimated Traffic * .2 (20 percent of traffic if you rank within top 5) * CTR of 5% * CPC * .2 (little bit less than 1/4 of what CPC is estimated by GAKT to be)

I averaged the 4 estimated CPCs that you displayed, and found the average to be $1.85

you should expect to receive somewhere close to this


1.85 * .2 = $0.369

^^^I would say that you are pretty darn close there

All of my sites seem to follow this formula.

Obviously you can raise the CTR and if you rank #1 you will get more of the estimated traffic, but I like to play it safe.

My 20% of estimated CPC is playing it safe, and its a number than you can always rely on.

As you can see from the calculations

Hope that helps buddy!

- Sam

For the guys who are smarter about Adsense than me... Is it possible that the dime payout might be as a consequence of a foreign click which might pay less? I have seen lots of penny clicks over time and I read somewhere that this is the reason.

Norm