Adsense, CTR & Smartpricing

Just keeping on the theme of adsense I have noticed something quite interesting recently with my adsense revenue. Perhaps someone can shed some light on what is going on.

Throughout recent times of visitng forums etc I have heard of smart pricing - this is where all of a sudden your value per click seems to go down - It didn’t really worry me as I was getting some decent values for clicks - sometimes $2 for a single click - and the average day left me with $5 or so in general. I always knew I was getting sometimes a minimal amount per click but this was balanced with occasional nicer valued click - I always assumed this was simply down to the keywords used on that page the ad was clicked + the ad the clicker chose to click on.

This particular site that earned a reasonable amount was pretty much the only site I had Adsense on. Around Christmas last year I had Adsense on one of my larger shopping sites - this gave a good amount of earnings though low CTR - but as it was Christmas there were a lot of visitors shopping so it didn’t matter - my best day was $60 across a couple of sites - averaging around $40 per day over the run up until Christmas.

After Christmas there was a huge drop which is what I anticipated - back down to $5 or so per day across the sites. I felt that Google Adsense was potentially jeopardising the integrity of my store - after all it doesn’t look too professional to have adverts on a store you intend to sell products from. With the benefits being so minimal I decided to remove the Adsense from the site all together and just leave it on the one site that seemed to do OK.

I didn’t give it much thought at the time but my advertising revenue actually increased - I put this down to me adding additional pages etc to the site with the Adsense still remaining.

Now bearing in mind I now have only Adsense on one site  with visitors only reaching around 30 a day -

Now I have another two sites that have around 600 visitors each per day. I’m thinking well why not stick some Adsense onto these - could generate some revenue.

I added some additional ad units to the other sites and optimised them as I saw fit.

2 days later my ad revenue has dropped by 50%  - yes I am still getting clicks from the newly added Adsense units but the CTR is much much lower. I am still getting the same number of clicks from the original site but they all now seem to be worth 10%  the value they used to be worth.

Could this be smart pricing? The general theory of smart pricing is that if you have two identical adverts on two different sites one with high CTR and one with a very low CTR - the lower CTR could be payed less as it is considered lesser performing. Is this being applied to my whole account due to low CTR on the high traffic sites?

When learning about optimising Google Adsense,  most say to use the full quantity of adverts allowed - this is 3 x content units and a link unit. but having these units will lower your overall CTR as each visitor will only have the potential of clicking one advert.

Google makes out on it’s blog that click through ratio (CTR) does not cause an effect to advertisers - does this mean publishers as well? but if so, how can this be the case.

Something very fishy is going on here and I feel it must be smart pricing.

So I am now considering removing all adverts from non performing site - Mainly the high traffic ones. Sites such as this very blog will naturally have low CTR as people are not looking to buy items they are looking for information - if my theory here is correct by having a site capable of decent CTR and putting Adsense on a site that has very low CTR I am making a substantial loss.

What do you think?

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82 Responses to “Adsense, CTR & Smartpricing”

  1. Adsense, CTR & Smartpricing Says:

    [...] Go to the author’s original blog: Adsense, CTR & Smartpricing [...]

  2. Adsense, CTR & Smartpricing Says:

    [...] Lukasz7669 wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt[#2: Edit Options>MightyAdsense>Adsense Code]. Just keeping on the theme of adsense I have noticed something quite interesting recently with my adsense revenue. Perhaps someone can shed some light on what is going on. … [...]

  3. PR from Social bookmarks Says:

    Well, I’m not an expert but the best adsense guru I know is Griz. He makes mad money on Blogger blogs. Here’s his take on smart pricing

    Now, since you’re not on Blogger, why don’t you use WP plugins to avoid smart pricing from social traffic and only reveal to search engine traffic?

    I recommend either Who Sees Ads or a modified version of Shylock Adsense.

    PRs last blog post..Card Magic Tricks

  4. admin Says:

    It’s interesting as I wasn’t aware you may get smart priced from social media traffic - I do not partake in social media sites apart from digging the occasional post so I guess it doesn’t apply to me.

    I don’t get how the social media sites really work if I am honest.

    Thanks

  5. john from Adsense Channels Says:

    I recently took Adsense off a poorly converting website and also implemented Griz’s suggestion on another site to only show adds to search users. It does seem to have helped.

  6. Nick from Best Insurance Quotes Says:

    Griz seem to be very popular. I’ve heard of smart pricing but have no idea exactly what it means and what it does. I guess I will find out one day.

  7. Olivier from mindfulness exercises Says:

    The problem is that in order to test the hypothesis, one needs a lot of clicks.
    But I guess that when the CTR is low on blog, one should take the ads off anyway, or am I wrong?

  8. Kevin from Great Wall of China Facts Says:

    I find that ad clicks on adsense are all over the place. I have gotten .01-1 in value and its so random. It gets annoying when you get the low ones.

  9. Archie Pennies from Some Extra Pennies Says:

    I know how you feel, clicks in a niche site I am am working hard on dropped to a few pennies, sadly there are almost no affiliate offers to cover that specific niche other than amazon, maybe I will substitute with Adbrite to see what happens. Great post by the way, great points discussed.

    Archie Penniess last blog post..Are You Promoting Your Blog on Spicy Page?

  10. Phillip from Make Money With Adsense Says:

    It’s long been believed that low clickthrough rates lead to lower adsense revenue. Would be great if you could post a followup sometime.

  11. Mira from laser hair removal new york Says:

    Personally I feel that adsense is not performing to its potential in a lot of sites.

    Miras last blog post..Finasteride for Male Pattern Baldness

  12. Search Engine Optimization Says:

    Due to recent recession problem around the world created this problem with Google Ads as well. I am also getting less income through clicks.

  13. Kevin from Capitalone online banking. Says:

    Great point about social sites. Since most social bookmark sites deliver poor quality traffic it seems correct that click thru rates would be low. I have seen many people say ctr is one of the main reasons you get smart priced so to correct the problem would make more money.

    I actualy removed adsense from some sites they paid so little and took sales away from products on that site.

    Kevins last blog post..Hsbc online banking.

  14. john from Custom Printed Business Cards Says:

    I think Search Engine Optimization has it right - because of the global recession we are being paid less per click. I have been noticing that recently.

  15. ardi Says:

    please help me…
    am have’be approved with adsense..
    but first time i fill the form…..
    am not check any content….
    just search engine…
    and now i don’t know how to put other conten adsense to my blog…

    that’s just search engine..
    somebody please help me….
    this my blog url : allblog123.blogspot.com
    thanks”… for alll…….

    ardis last blog post..google adsense review

  16. James from Voucher Codes Says:

    I’d say it is smart pricing kicking in - as an advertiser would you really want to pay full price for ads that aren’t converting?

  17. ken from Best cheap web hosting Says:

    Alot of people tell you it is easy to make money with adsense. Most people never make enough to get paid every month. Your better off with a product of your own or affiliate of some site.

  18. amy from Mold removal Says:

    I would be happy if i made 40 to $50 a day but if it went down to $5 like you said that would hurt. Good post some nice info. I see alot of people finding out about smart pricing and how it effects adsense earnings.

    amys last blog post..Mold removal.

  19. Chris from Dsl service Says:

    I think the less ads the more you make per click. Not sure but sounds like you seen same thing happen. I also seen some sites only show ads to search traffic. This also happens with social sites they do not get clicks so prices and earnings go down.

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  20. Mick from Best etf funds list Says:

    If you have a site that has alot of traffic and low click thru make sure to take ads of that site so other sites earn more. This could also be a certain page so you might want to run ads on each page and be able to take them off any page that does not do well.

  21. Jerry from Broadband Says:

    I guess that will not be an excuse for dropping your online spend.Due to recent recession problem around the world created this problem with Google Ads as well. I am also getting less income through clicks.

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  23. mark from phone service Says:

    I have seen people use code to only show adsense on certain traffic. they do not show it from image search or bookmakr or social sites traffic. This way most is all search engine traffic and they get better click thru.

    marks last blog post..Broadband phone voip service.

  24. cathy from Key west travel Says:

    I tried taking most of the ads off a site that paid very little per click. Once i just set it up with search and my other sites earned more so i agree with you take ads off do not use alot and if site has lousy ctr just put search box on that site.

    cathys last blog post..Hotels in key west.

  25. David from Outsourcing Sales Says:

    I have not had great success with ad sense myself. It does not seem worth the time and money in my opinion.

  26. kath from Photography sites Says:

    I also heard that image search lowers amount your paid. It seem the ctr drops and so does payments.

  27. John White from Camping Tents Says:

    Hello guyz,
    It is a very informative post and very well said. I am new to this and it has made me understand even more.
    Good luck for next

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    Oh mine, it’s totally unbelievable! Thanks for sharing.

  29. Matt SEO - Webshoptimizer Says:

    Anyone tried google’s AdPlanner yet?

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  30. mack klein Says:

    Would appreciate some explanation on how page impressions, ctr (Click through rate) & smartpricing are related. I think I understand impressions and ctr but I don’t see how smartpricing is related. Heres my understanding… 640-460 exam

  31. Rob from Rakeback Poker Says:

    Interesting that your revenue fluctuated so greatly. Sounds like you’re definitely onto something with the smart pricing. I can’t hink of any other explanation. Sounds like it would be worth further investigation and experimentation. I would be very interested to hear more.

  32. Kris from morgage refinance calculator Says:

    I’ve never experienced ’smart pricing’ and I have a wide variety of sites that pay between $0.30 and $3.00. I always wonder if this is urban myth or truth.

  33. Noah from Internet Marketing Blog Says:

    Ya know, this kinda makes sense. I have a few sites I put adsense on a few months back, and since it seems as though the main site I had it on’s cpc has tanked. I’ll have to try removing the bad performers and see what happens.

  34. Dave Richards from Anorexia Tips Says:

    One way of avoiding smart-pricing is to make use of adsense section targeting codes which will display only laser-targeted ads and in-trun cause a better CTR and also avoid smart-pricing because the user will be more interested to click on relevant ads than the untargeted ads!
    Thanks

  35. amit from Miami website design Says:

    This is a really great post, Adsense is one of the best publisher which helps webmasters to earn some additional bucks.

  36. saurabh from Medical practice software Says:

    because of recent recession problem around the world created this problem with Google Ads as well. I am also earning less money through clicks.

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    My ctr is only 1%…

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    yes i think adsense can be the great way to generate revenue and increase income as well in this tough economy.

  41. saurabh from silhouettes coupon code Says:

    yes its pretty interesting that your revenue fluctuated so greatly. Sounds like you’re definitely onto something with the smart pricing.

  42. mona from uk seo expert Says:

    i have not earned so much from adsense well i think it takes time and i will definitely get some money from it .

  43. sam from Practice management software Says:

    Due to recent recession problem around the world created this problem with Google Ads as well. I am also getting less income through clicks.

  44. sam from website design manchester Says:

    I think due to recent recession problem around the world created this problem with Google Ads as well. I am also getting less income through clicks.

  45. Alquma Says:

    Remove ad blocks with ctr of 3% or less and wait 2 weeks.

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    I think due to recent recession problem around the world created this problem with Google Ads as well. I am also getting less income through clicks.

  47. seo uk Says:

    People are now really into making money online. They are now using this as an additional income generating source. And that is why I do agree with your post

  48. mona from Video conferencing solutions Says:

    Well i think adsense generally takes time to make money and you can not make so much money by adsense.

  49. jim from Complementary health Says:

    Because of recent recession problem i think people are going to make money online and trying to get an extra income.thanks!

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    Well I have not had great success with ad sense myself. It does not seem worth the time and money in my opinion.

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    Because of recent recession problem i think people are going to make money online and trying to get an extra income.thanks!

  52. saurabh from mot test Says:

    this is wonderful to read and i am going to make an adsense account ,and i will get some money from it for sure.thanks!

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    adsense is a wonderful program from Google and due to recent recession problem ,its a beneficial way to increase income.thanks

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  78. shailendra from canon inkjet cartridges Says:

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