Because Google doesn't like you. Just kidding. Smartpricing is placed on an account if you are getting a lot of clicks but the clicks aren't converting for the advertiser. I.e. 100 people click on your ads, but no one buys anything from the advertiser means you have a low conversion rate, so your clicks are worth less in the eyes of Google and its advertisers, so you make less money per click.
Yet another reason why I've either completely scrapped or am currently phasing out Adsense from most of my sites. It's too unreliable, and anything could happen at any time.
How would the Google know whether clicks do convert or not? They can't know it any other way than seeing the advertisers are bidding less money for a click. But they don't have information about convertion ratio from different publishers since it is not them who sell the final product. PS. Who is that on your new Avatar (and who was on the previous )?
I have not known anyone who hasn't get into smart pricing after using adsense for sometimes. But what we can do to improve $$$ is to have more traffic and have more clicks to your ads. *remember not to click on your own ads.!
I'm not an Adwords user so I can't say for sure, but I've read their help centre, etc. and it seems that Google has very sophisticated tracking mechanisms to gauge the effectiveness of Adwords campaigns. Google Analytics also has very effective tools for gauging the effectiveness of *any* advertising campaign. I think in all likelihood Google gives Adwords clients some script to put on a particular page which lets Google know that a particular clicker completed a conversion. That's how they track things.
Probably the best indication is when your cpc (earnings per click) drops to signficantly lower than your average over a period of time. One or two dyas here and there does not mean you've been smartpriced, though.
Well, it is considered low but guess what? most of my sites get like 2 to 5 cents a click i.e. 0.05$ not even 0.1$.
I agree. I'm still a 3 mo Adsense newbie, but I really don't like what I see. A question on this topic...why is it that conversion is based on if someone buys something from a site after clicking? What about sites that don't offer anything for sale? My site is one of those - I'm on Adwords just to get more hits, for instance.
The only thing wrong with smartpricing is that it is account wide. I have adsense on one of my sites and thats it. All other sites don't show adsense. Even though the combined clicks of all my sites together would be more than double that, I'd be making less money if I put Adsense on those sites. Almost makes me wish I had two accounts, but they don't allow that. I keep testing some sites, but new sites can easily mess up my whole Adsense account. I think there is nothing wrong with Smartpricing. Its only fair if you try to see all sides. A lot of sites trick users into clicking or blend the ads so well that one isn't even aware that this is an ad (I am talking about average internet users). So they are not even interested in the product. Why then should the advertiser have to pay a lot for those random clicks. I think to avoid smartpricing you shouldn't blend your ads so that noone knows what they are.
I thinking tricking plays a big part in smartpricing. Its not surprising considering people don't even ralise to be an ad.. I think the recent move by google to reduce the "tricking" elemnt will be good for everyone.
Then presumably nothing bad will happen since there's nothing to convert, i.e. clicking on the ad itself is a conversion.
Smart Pricing is on a weekly rotation, so even 2-3 days of poor click values does not mean you have been smart priced. It happens to anybody.