CPM gone drastically down - any idea why?

I was earning quite a healthy amount per day from my educational blog since I set it up in August...but since mid November I've seen my CPM go crashing down. Now I'm earning a third of what I used to earn earlier on a per day basis...I also noticed that many of the high paying ads have gone (which I was able to recognize with the overture tool). Any idea why this happened?

 

Those high paying advertisers may have moved to 'search-only' advertisements: blocking their ads from showing on publisher sites.

Then again: in the educational field it may be a seasonal thing. Schools and universities advertise most around the time when future students are still making the choice where to go. That should start again in spring, I'd think.

 

Thanks! Maybe you're right. Hopefully, I'l get those ads back soon...

 

same here cpm has gone down badly today

 

mmmm. I wouldny mind if it went down just for a day...but mine is down since 2 months!

 

If you keep track of the clicks on the actual ads using a third-party tracker you can see which advertisers drop out over time. It could mean that either a) they disabled showing their ads on the content network or b) they reduced their bids because the clicks weren't converting (to sales or leads).

I've got 3 words of advice. 1) Diversify 2) Diversify 3) Diversify

 

I have been intouch with Google regarding this issue and always they are being very vague, just saying about 'Smart Pricing', which was rolled out in 2005 but obviously keeps getting updated, in early November there were logging on and site down issues, which usually means there are changes being made and hey presto they were.

There are new Adsense rules on the site and as user of Adwords, they have introduced a weekly budget where it will advertise your products x number of times a week and they will ensure your budget is spent, which is slightly different to the old way.

_____________________________________________
This is the response I got from Google Adsense....

I understand that you wish to receive specific information regarding your
clicks. However, due to the proprietary nature of our algorithm, we cannot
disclose any details about how our monitoring technology works.

A further thing to consider is, we have just introduced Smart Pricing,
this is an enhancement to advertiser pricing and to our targeting system.
This will affect publishers in different ways and at different times.
While your earnings per click may decrease, your clickthrough rate may
also increase due to the increased relevancy of the ads on your pages. In
addition, although you are currently seeing reduced revenue, these changes
are intended to increase the long-term revenue potential of the AdSense
programme by driving increased advertiser participation in the Google
content network.

Your AdSense reports will give you a good idea of the effect of these
changes over time.

Finally please also be aware that, we constantly analyse the data in our
network against several factors. If our data shows that a click likely
will not lead to a conversion for the advertiser (for example online
sales, registering, a phone call, signup for a newsletter etc.), we'll
reduce the price the advertiser pays for this click. This automatic system
is constantly changing and is also impacted by the ad auction.

Our system takes into consideration factors such as what keywords and
concepts triggered the ads, and also which ads that are shown. For
example, a click on an ad for digital cameras on a page about
photographies can be worth less than if the same ad show on a page where
digital cameras are compared. Please note that the system is dynamic and
can change with time. The goal of the system is to offer even more
relevant ads with a better customer experience.

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I hope this helps as my revenue has been cut by 90%, which when it is your only income isn't good! But on the Adwords side it was getting ridiculous the amount I was having to spend on Adwords for a click and it needed to be brought under control, or else advertisers would have pulled away from content ads totally. I don't you use content ads whatsoever as their conversion is tiny compared to that generated from the search engine.

I better roll out all of those affiliate programs that I have signed up to!

Paul