I don't understand why I have to pay a certain amount for my keywords.....let's just say $1.00 a click, but when related sites advertise on my site with the same keywords, I get $0.03 a click? I don't use adsense anymore because of that....just wondering how they are paying crap per click, when the minimum is 30x that?
Google pays out approximately 78% of what they charge per click. This comes directly from financials. What many people don't understand is the difference between the search network and content network. The high bids are for ads that will run when you go directly to google and search. The ads can also run on select partners like AOL. Adsense publishers will never have those high bids ads run on their site. The content network is what runs on adsense sites. Many advertisers avoid the content network because of click fraud and low conversions. The ones who do advertise can bid a much lower amount. You can have the same ad - on google search a click might run $2.00 and on the content network, 20 cents. The content network is also subject to smart pricing - so if your site isn't converting for the advertiser as well as other sites, then google charges the advertiser less - which means the publisher will get less. If you are only getting .03 per click, then the advertiser is only paying google 4 cents per click. Google takes a penny and gives you the rest.
It is from the actual Google accounts that detail what the total publisher payments were... and it works out at around 78% of the advertising revenue. It doesn't mean every publisher gets 78% as there are premium publishers who may be getting 85% or 90% and the average publisher could be getting closer to 50% or 60%. There are many more normal publishers than premium publishers and the aggregate data doesn't provide enough information for individual publishers to be able to figure out their actual % share.
It's true that financials don't break out exact percentage, only that all regular publishers get the same percentage, and when payouts are combined, they payout 78%. From testing I did about a year ago, 75% is very close to what regular publishers get. You can get the exact percentage by combining adwords cost for a particular click and what the publisher was paid. You'll need a friend to target a page on your site, have them click their own ad (this is not click fraud because they are clicking and paying for their ad). They will know what they are charged, you'll know by setting up channels what you are paid.