AdSense Per Click Payout Based On Natural Rankings

[digitalpoint]

I'm just going to throw this one out there for people to tear apart...

I've noticed something interesting with pretty much every site I run AdSense on. The better it ranks for it's main keywords (which is what AdSense would be based on) in a natural search in Google, the higher the AdWords cost (and AdSense per click payout).

One site ranked around #25 in the SERPs for it's keywords. AdSense paid roughly $0.10 per click. As it slowly moved up in natural rankings, so did the AdSense per click payout, until now it's top 5 and it gets $1.50 per click on average (nothing else has changed).

Conversely, I have a site that did rank top 5 for something, and it was getting about $1.20 for AdSense. The rankings have dropped, and the AdSense per click payout mirrored that drop (now it's averages $0.02 per click).

It would make sense if that was at least part of their "smart pricing" algorithm, since a site that ranks high naturally is going to have more value to the AdSense avertiser generally.

Just curious if anyone else has seen anything like this, or am I just crazy?

[a389951l]

I had a similar thought last month. As my site went up for several keywords, my per click was rising very nicely.

But this month, I ranked the same or a little better but my CPC has dropped overall. Hmm. The only difference is that I added fastclick to a small portion to my site along with adsense. This makes me wonder if this is the root cause. I have taken it off to see what happens.

[rustybrick]

I would like to hear from others on this. Not that I don't trust you but it might be one of those crazy coincidences.

[digitalpoint]

Well there could be other factors of course... Especially since AdWords is a bid based system. But I've seen it enough times where the per click payout trend exactly mirrors the site's rankings that I'm starting to think it's not coincidental, and at least part of the smart pricing system.

The combination of AdSense Charts and the Keyword Tracker makes it easy to visualize.

[rustybrick]

Originally Posted by digitalpoint

Well there could be other factors of course... Especially since AdWords is a bid based system. But I've seen it enough times where the per click payout trend exactly mirrors the site's rankings that I'm starting to think it's not coincidental, and at least part of the smart pricing system.

The combination of [url=http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-charts/]AdSense Charts and the Keyword Tracker makes it easy to visualize.

But what logic would you use to relate rankings of a keyword phrase and smart pricing system?

[digitalpoint]

Simply that if an AdWords advertiser bids high for a keyword (and that's what his ad is being displayed via AdSense based on), you could argue that since Google's natural rankings are based on relevancy, the fact that the page ranks high for that keyword makes the users on that site more valuable to the AdWords advertiser.

[rustybrick]

I see, very interesting theory...

[digitalpoint]

I'm not saying it's right... just wanted to open it up for discussion. It just appears that way for my sites for whatever reason.

[exam]

Shawn, I like the theory And it explains why I get so many $0.03 clicks.

[dejaone]

that could be part of the smart pricing. I get most of traffic from combinations of keywords, not main keywords, but the EPC is very good. Well If I can rank the main keywords higher, i can get even better EPC.

[Such Great Heights]

I'd have to agree that this is an intersting theory and seems to me that it would make sense from Google's point of view as well.

But it seems like a lot fo work to match up a site's keywords with it's SERP ranking.

Well I guess if the AdWords advertisers are paying for keyword "widget" and only want to show their ad for pages that relate to "widget" Google's AdSense can do a quick check to see if the page it is displaying AdSense on comes up in the top 10 for the Google search of "widget."

Then from there Google can decide if it wants to show the AdWords advertisers who are bidding the highest on the keyword "faces" or to show the lowest bidders.

What this makes me ask is what about if you show up high in the SERPs for a keyphrase that is "close" to your main keyword (ie. part of the keyphrase the AdWords advertisers are paying for) just not on the main keyphrase.

Say your page shows up as #1 in the SERPs for "powered blue widgets" and the AdWords advertisers are bidding on "widgets."
I'm guessing you'd get a better payout than not ranking at all for that keyphrase.
So then would you get more payout per click if you were #1 in the SERPs for "blue widgets"?
Then that would mean even more if your page was #1 for just the keyword "widgets" right?

But is Google going to search for where your site ranks for all various keyphrases? Or does Google check their list of most searched phrases that have the keyword "widgets" in it and start at the top and works it's way down the popular search list until it finds your page?

Hmmm...
I guess I could ask questions all day huh?
Anyone doing a test?

[GuyFromChicago]

I guess I never really made the connection, but now that I look at it I see similar results with a page I run Adsense on. When the page was new and not placing well in the serps my per click payouts were low, under $0.10 each. As the page has made progress in the serps, the per click payout have also increased substantially.

I guess I always attributed the increased payouts to a competitive market - the advertisers were paying more so of course my $ per click would increase. Your theory is interesting though, and makes me wonder if the increase in payout could be attributed to both, better placement in the serps combined with advertisers continually upping their bid amount to achieve higher placement in the paid listings.

[debunked]

I lowered our bids on adwords and I noticed we were in the second spot of a search today on the google listings (the sponsored section of course) I figured if I lowered as much as I did it wouldn't show up that high??? It is fine with me.

[Jackobo007]

I get too many $0.02 clicks lately something definitely has changed

[Such Great Heights]

Yes this might be the change that made so many see their payouts go down.
Of course it shouldn't have effected anyone with top ranking in the SERPs, unless it was a boost in payout.

[chachi]

Shawn, have you checked the bids over the same time period? It would be interesting to see the three pieces of data over time and how they do or do not correlate.

[Such Great Heights]

yes can you track this with the keyword tracker so we can have a pretty graph of watching a certain keyword go up in rankings to #1 and see it correlate with the payouts of AdSense going up in price.

[digitalpoint]

I haven't checked the AdWords bids, but they are generally the same advertisers that are shown on the ads.

[johncr]

Originally Posted by Jackobo007

I get too many $0.02 clicks lately something definitely has changed

I have never seen less than $0.03 clicks. That's something to think bout. several months go I asked Google about a minimum when I got 0.06 clicks for the first time and they replied that I should not expect to see 04's very often and never less than $0.04 clicks. Actually I got lots of 04's six months later and some $0.03 every now and then.

What kind of site do you run?

[Infiniterb]

I wouldn't agree. I rank 9th for my keywords, and my EPC is fairly low.