Believe m, I have done my homework. Smart pricing is what Google does to reduce the cost per click to advertisers. This could be by getting the best bid price, or by reducing the amount of a click based on the type of site the click came from. See: https://adwords.google.com/select/news/sa_mar04.html If Google is taking a bigger cut from the publisher, it is not smart pricing. "Smart Pricing" is a term Google introduced, so they get to define it. If you want to describe something else, please use a different term.
Yes believe everything the feathered monkeys with miner helmets who are smoking pall-malls in the middle of the night tell you.
It's not about believing them or not. I'm just trying to clear up what seems like a terminology problem. You are calling a cut in revenue share "smart pricing". I am saying that it should not be called smart pricing. I'm not disputing that there are drops in revenue that cannot be explained. Just don't blame them all on smart pricing. Again, smart pricing is a discount that advertisers get from Google, which also directly affects the amount you get paid by Google. A cut in revenue share is not smart pricing, its simply Google taking more money. Calling everything that affects your revenue negatively smart pricing just confuses things.
Agreed. Terminology is confusing things. Cap (and me too) is so skeptical of SP that he (and I) discount the claim so much that we call the whole thing SP and assume it's all about G taking a bigger share. You are assuming that at some level G is discounting the price to advertisers. And you feel all else should be called by a different term than SP. So we're all in agreement but can't communicate.
Thanks, I think that explains it perfectly. I've had this problem before when talking about SP, but never realized that we had a terminology problem, so it has been frustrating.
The main problem I have with the whole SP debate is that as soon as someone sees less revenue from their sites, it's immediately caused by smart pricing. It doesn't matter the site is a crappy site with almost no return visitors or people promoting the site by word of mouth, and the site has dropped in the SE rankings... or whatever the reason might be. Smart Pricing is not all that evil that it is made out to be, and it certainly is not the only cause or the logical reason for a drop in revenue.
um..NO! steady traffic, even increased traffic! we're complaining about INCREASED traffic but less revenue and a much lower eCPM
If you read my post carefully you would see that I used a drop in traffic as a example of a possible cause. There are loads of causes for a drop in revenue: advertisers bidding less, time of month, time of day, time of year, advertiser using conventional (print advertising etc.) So to try to blame SP for it is a bit pre-mature.
Nice try but advertisers can't bid under a penny a click! LOL! It IS smart pricing, at least on my end.
I didn't say that it isn't caused by smart pricing. At least not in some situations. The point I was trying to make is that Webmaster find it way too easy to blame Google and smart pricing, when there are loads of other possible reasons for their loss in revenue.
Personally I noticed it 10 months ago, but wasn't 100% sure of the cause so I didn't say a word about it. I watched other people and waited. Finally enough information and data came to light and I started sharing the information and my opinion a little bit. While I understand the point you're trying to make, I personally feel there is way too much data out there at this point to attribute it to whiny webmasters.
Well what's the problem if people are complaining of a lower eCPM not revenue? What could cause lower eCPM? Untargeted ads, smarting pricing, etc. And guess what company have control over those? Google!
Where do you get you data about adwords prices and adsense income? This indicated that price per click in contextual ad networks dropped by 6% over the last year: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003672
I get it from my own tests and speaking to some other advertisers. There were a few articles that were out there that were interesting as well. Robert Cringely did a couple stories about it. Some people questioned the data in his articles but I do suggest tracking it down nyway. It gets you thinking.
Ive just read though this whole thead and its pretty interesting. I had a big drop in revenue, but it could have been for a lot of different reasons. All I can say is its made me dissappointed in the company whos motto is "dont be evil" Then again, never underestimate these dam internet corporations. I mean, if you just look at party poker, quite often I see people with full houses beaten by a straight flush. Or straight flushes beaten by royal flushes. And how often is that supposed to happen in real life? I wouldnt be surprised if google had hidden algorithms too...
I have been hit by smart pricing also (or so it seems). Fortunately, I have a good reputation in my industry, and there are people who are willing to purchase ad space directly. It has reached the point where it it more profitable to sell ads than use Google Adsense. I was actually considering doing this anyway, but the smart pricing has increased the proiority. I did a survey of some of the folks in my industry to see if they want to advertise and the results have been far better than expected. If you have a site that is seeing a decline in advertising, I would strongly recommend you do a survey to see if people would buy advertising space. You might be pleasantly surprised that you can actually make more money than through adsense. I was!
I think it has always been more profitable to sell ads directly than through a middleman like AdSense. AdSense is good because you it requires almost zero effort. Finding advertisers on your own is much more effort but it usually pays off. I've always had a mix of direct advertising and AdSense on my sites.