Adsense: Is Google worried?

[SearchBliss]

I just received this email from Google Adsense. It seems that they are worried about losing publishers, so they are sending these "everything will be better" emails. Did you get yours?

Dear Publisher,

We understand that the recent economic turmoil has created a lot of uncertainty in the lives of AdSense publishers. During these difficult times, we're continuing to invest in innovations that improve publisher monetization and advertiser value in the content network.

We're focusing on further developing our product offerings and boosting ad performance for publishers. We recently announced advancements in AdSense for search and experiments to make ads more effective. We're bringing DoubleClick technologies to AdSense publishers, and we'll continue to launch new products and features. We're also continuing to improve our offerings for AdWords advertisers, making it easier for them to target the Google content network. Features for advertisers, such as the new display ad builder, are designed to improve ad performance on AdSense publisher sites.

We'll keep driving technological progress, but our best asset will always be our publisher partners. The strength of AdSense lies in the value of the content you bring to users and the quality of the sites you bring to advertisers. Our success is tied to yours. We look forward to partnering with you for the long term, and remain dedicated to helping you succeed.

Sincerely,

Kim Scott
Director AdSense Online Sales & Operations

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

This email is regarding the AdSense account associated with ca-pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

[TopNotchServices]

nope. Must not be making much money for them....

[falsealarm]

No, Google is not worried. You are. That is why they sent that e-mail out to their publishers. They want to minimize any migration away from AdSense to any other company. They know that some people will make rash decisions to sign up with other companies given how the revenue for most people fell within the last two months.
One needs to understand that moving away from AdSense would further lower your earnings unless you find another company which is a better fit for your niche. If AdSense is not generating enough revenue for you as the top company in this industry, others will not do better either.

[christian231]

^^ That's exactly true. The fact of the matter is that if economic times are tight, advertisers aren't going to spend as much money, so what they are paying for PPC will be less, and in turn you will make less as publisher. It's just a trickle down effect that you can't change. Only the economy turning around will increase earnings...that

and my EBOOK on How To Make Zillions With Adsense! Just kidding.

[SearchBliss]

Originally Posted by falsealarm

...They know that some people will make rash decisions to sign up with other companies given how the revenue for most people fell within the last two months...

Isn't this a worry?

[shortanswer]

I think big G is starting to realize the importance of working with the publishers for the common good. It used to be almost impossible to contact adsense before. But I got a quick human response to an Adsense query related to invalid clicks. I think now they have a real support team for Adsense.

[SearchBliss]

Originally Posted by shortanswer

I think big G is starting to realize the importance of working with the publishers for the common good. It used to be almost impossible to contact adsense before. But I got a quick human response to an Adsense query related to invalid clicks. I think now they have a real support team for Adsense.

But why now??? If our earnings are down, so are theirs. I believe they are trying to keep publishers and advertisers on board for the long haul. I believe they hey are concerned at the moment...and should be, just like everyone else.

[Adpubster]

Originally Posted by shortanswer

I think big G is starting to realize the importance of working with the publishers for the common good. It used to be almost impossible to contact adsense before. But I got a quick human response to an Adsense query related to invalid clicks. I think now they have a real support team for Adsense.

For YEARS I've always gotten the type of "quick human response" that you mention above.

[danimal]

Originally Posted by SearchBliss

But why now??? If our earnings are down, so are theirs.

you can't say that, because google doesn't tell anybody what percentage they take.

as for the human response, it's gone to hell in the last couple of years... don't look for it to improve, because better support would cost google more money.

[aflac68]

i got this email aswell

[SearchBliss]

Originally Posted by danimal

you can't say that, because google doesn't tell anybody what percentage they take.

Good point, however, if G doesn't lower their percentage in any way, and all the hits are taken by the publishers...the number of publishers will continue to drop.

[ShaneC]

Originally Posted by danimal

you can't say that, because google doesn't tell anybody what percentage they take.

Actually there are different methods to figure out what percentage the average publisher gets by using the balance sheets Google puts out every quarter. Generally the estimates I've seen put the number between 75% and 79%. They are not going to change the earnings paid out to each publisher, it's just more people are paying less to advertise. The reason they sent out the email is to keep publisher confidence up. In the short term we will continue to see problems, but it will improve.

[danimal]

Originally Posted by ShaneC

Actually there are different methods to figure out what percentage the average publisher gets by using the balance sheets Google puts out every quarter.

that claim has been argued from day one, and it's not true, because a major part of the income that you think is going to small fry publishers actually comes from agreements like the toolbar deals that google has with dell and others.

in addition, big publishers have signed agreements where they sometimes get to keep 100% of the click revenue, while google gets the traffic in return.

google has never released any kind of public earnings statement that sorts those details out, so there is no possible way of knowing what percentage publishers get.

when the going gets rough for google, like it has been this year, all they have to do is cut the percentage that they give to us... and that's assuming that they always give us full credit for all the clicks we generate.

[snowbird]

If Adsense wanted to have a better relationship with their Publishers, then they would have a support system that actually did something more then send out canned responses. Adsense could also create some tools so Publishers could better protect their accounts from click fraud, etc.

I got the E-mail as well. At least Google is making an effort. But the reality is the economy is tanking and their Advertisers are lowering budgets or outright stopping campaigns. Everyone is tightening their belt and preparing for the economic Katrina that's about to make landfall...

[ShaneC]

Originally Posted by danimal

that claim has been argued from day one, and it's not true, because a major part of the income that you think is going to small fry publishers actually comes from agreements like the toolbar deals that google has with dell and others.

in addition, big publishers have signed agreements where they sometimes get to keep 100% of the click revenue, while google gets the traffic in return.

google has never released any kind of public earnings statement that sorts those details out, so there is no possible way of knowing what percentage publishers get.

when the going gets rough for google, like it has been this year, all they have to do is cut the percentage that they give to us... and that's assuming that they always give us full credit for all the clicks we generate.

I'm talking about the "average" publisher. The numbers were calculated by the NY Times, and they used Google's own public financial reports to make the calculations. Google outlined the amount generated by Adsense, and amount given to Adsense publishers in their own report, so yes it is possible to calculate the average payout per publisher.

Things are far from getting "rough" for Google. What they HAVE done is cut back on their crazy spending on extreme futuristic projects. I'm certain they will not, and have not cut the percentage given to the average publisher. Any drop in earnings is directly related to the lack of advertisers.

[kewlchat]

i got it too, alot of people are getting warning letters too for their accounts.

[Slincon]

Originally Posted by falsealarm

No, Google is not worried. You are. That is why they sent that e-mail out to their publishers. They want to minimize any migration away from AdSense to any other company. They know that some people will make rash decisions to sign up with other companies given how the revenue for most people fell within the last two months.
One needs to understand that moving away from AdSense would further lower your earnings unless you find another company which is a better fit for your niche. If AdSense is not generating enough revenue for you as the top company in this industry, others will not do better either.

Are you invested in Google lol? j/k Actually I disagree - this is the time that people should be experimenting, the loss in earnings is an indication that Google is squeezing publishers from their true earnings, and is taking a greater cut in the profits so that they can subsidize the losses in other departments. It's no secret that Google's 3rd Quarter earnings are below expectations, they've taken a serious hit and the top brass at Google don't want to take a pay hike plus Google doesn't want to come off bad by laying off employees so they're take a greater share from adsense earnings.

By all means stay with adsense, but start experimenting and funnelling them off as you find services that convert better. I disagree that Adsense is the top of the industry - they're certainly a heavyweight - but by no means are they the best - their is no ultimate best solution, you have to experiment and some will convert better then others. The hardest part is finding ones that will convert and ones that are legitimate but trust me experimenting actually pays off, those that just stick with adsense purely because they have the most # of advertisers will see their earnings continously decrease as Google gets more desperate. The ones to take the biggest hits are the ones at the bottom, the ones who aren't earning hundreds of thousands, because those are the publishers Google looks out for.

[danimal]

Originally Posted by ShaneC

I'm talking about the "average" publisher. The numbers were calculated by the NY Times, and they used Google's own public financial reports to make the calculations. Google outlined the amount generated by Adsense, and amount given to Adsense publishers in their own report, so yes it is possible to calculate the average payout per publisher.

there is no such thing as an "average" publisher.

and no, the numbers in that article were based on idle speculation, they were proven to be wrong, google NEVER gave any specifics about what percentages it paid to publishers... jensense quoted that bogus article, it became popular, and a bunch of knuckleheads fell for the wrong information.

the closest google has ever come to telling what it pays publishers was an unofficial remark by a google v.p., who was quoted in a folio magazine interview years ago, saying that publishers got about 50%.

[danimal]

"The majority of TAC is related to payments to our AdSense partners. Toolbar distribution deals are typically accounted for as TAC if they are revenue-sharing in nature." -George Reyes, SVP CFO, Google Inc. Q2 2006 Earnings Conference Call Transcript (GOOG)

wrt the latest toolbar deal with dell: "Financial details were not disclosed, but Schmidt said the companies will share revenue from search-advertising fees."

wrt the latest toolbar deal with adobe: "The first product to be bundled with Google Toolbar will be Adobe's digital media player, Macromedia Shockwave Player. It will be offered as part of the Shockwave installation process for Internet Explorer on Windows... Under the terms of the agreement, the Google Toolbar will also be offered as part of other Adobe product installations in the future."

google toolbar deals go back to at least 2004, when realnetworks offered it with the realplayer 10 download... you can get it with firefox, and last year it was offered with the java runtime download from sun.

so contrary to what was written in that horrible nytimes article, and what's been posted out here in the past, TAC IS NOT PUBLISHER PAYOUT.

[im_savage_rawr]

just found it, it was in my spam folder lol