Is Adsense Scamming Me?

[Inviz1]

Here is a screenshot from Adsense on one of my Gaming blogs that I own.

Traffic breakdown 80% USA, 15% other Tier 1 countries (UK, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Aus) and 5% others.
I am getting 5 cents per click. Is this normal?
I just set up the site a few months ago and have hired a few writers to pump content out. But, this is honestly disheartening.
Can someone tell me what's wrong?

 

[Fresh Ideas Marketing]

I think keyword selection , you should work on it. CPC is too low.

 

[LordCameltoe]

I had a similar experience with my gaming sites. Rates were especially low for android users (which is mostly what you get from Facebook visitors). I figure that demographic just isn't worth much to advertisers.

Also, you have to let Google algorithm do its magic to find you higher paying advertisers or find a partner that can get you into the Google Ad Exchange program where you could possible see a slight boost in earnings.

Another option is to try to sell your ad spots directly to advertisers. Some brands will pay much more than adsense to have 100% of your spots.

 

[bartosimpsonio]

What period is this, one month?

 

[greger]

so low, i'm in gaming niche too and have 0.15$ on average

 

[dragonstar]

Adsense isn't scamming you. What happens is that they pay you per click based upon which niche they feel you're targeting. For instance, if you were making articles about car insurance, you'd have a much higher earnings ratio per click.
This is a similar scenario that takes place with Youtubers. Different Ads running in before/after videos cost more per CPM (to the advertiser) depending on which niche is being targeted. And you (the publisher) get paid more
or less depending on those internal factors.

Btw, where did find writers for your website?

 

[Inviz1]

What period is this, one month?

4 months.

Adsense isn't scamming you. What happens is that they pay you per click based upon which niche they feel you're targeting. For instance, if you were making articles about car insurance, you'd have a much higher earnings ratio per click.
This is a similar scenario that takes place with Youtubers. Different Ads running in before/after videos cost more per CPM (to the advertiser) depending on which niche is being targeted. And you (the publisher) get paid more
or less depending on those internal factors.

Btw, where did find writers for your website?

Still, 5 cents per click for Tier 1 countries is a bit low dontchya think?
Local writers.

I had a similar experience with my gaming sites. Rates were especially low for android users (which is mostly what you get from Facebook visitors). I figure that demographic just isn't worth much to advertisers.

Also, you have to let Google algorithm do its magic to find you higher paying advertisers or find a partner that can get you into the Google Ad Exchange program where you could possible see a slight boost in earnings.

Another option is to try to sell your ad spots directly to advertisers. Some brands will pay much more than adsense to have 100% of your spots.

90% of my traffic is from desktop as it's a PC game and we post mostly guides for the game.

Also, I'd like to add that 95% of the traffic is organic since the site ranks for many high traffic keywords for the game.

I think keyword selection , you should work on it. CPC is too low.

The main keyword which my site has in the title has a CPC of $1.19. The site also ranks #1 for that keyword and a bunch of long tail keywords. So, I'm not sure what's wrong.

 

[bartosimpsonio]

4 months.


Still, 5 cents per click for Tier 1 countries is a bit low dontchya think?
Local writers.



90% of my traffic is from desktop as it's a PC game and we post mostly guides for the game.

Also, I'd like to add that 95% of the traffic is organic since the site ranks for many high traffic keywords for the game.



The main keyword which my site has in the title has a CPC of $1.19. The site also ranks #1 for that keyword and a bunch of long tail keywords. So, I'm not sure what's wrong.

4 months is not enough time to develop a good Adsense reputation. They'll likely begin delivering more valuable ads later on as you build reputation, especially after you get paid a couple times and your clicks are all verified ok.

 

[KOSSA]

I have seen that cpc goes up after the website gets trusted. For the first few months, the cpc remains low.
I have seen this among many websites. though I am not in same niche; my adsense website are more about trending topic of the day and not niche based.
I also rely only on organic traffic as it ranks for topic in trend always
I have seen CPC going up 3-5 times after 4-6 months of time.

 

[MaximuSR]

Earnings increasing over time is not true. I own a gaming portal that monthly gets around 3-4x the amount on your picture and my average CPC is 0.07. What I can tell you is that CPC does change depending on the time of the year. Expect a slight increase over the next few months and the best (almost 50% improvement) 2 months before Christmas then a huge drop again after Christmas.

What I can suggest you is, disable auto ads in case you are using it and instead place your banners on more attractive positions on your page manually since your CTR is low.

 

[KOSSA]

Earnings increasing over time is not true. I own a gaming portal that monthly gets around 3-4x the amount on your picture and my average CPC is 0.07. What I can tell you is that CPC does change depending on the time of the year. Expect a slight increase over the next few months and the best (almost 50% improvement) 2 months before Christmas then a huge drop again after Christmas.

What I can suggest you is, disable auto ads in case you are using it and instead place your banners on more attractive positions on your page manually since your CTR is low.

On the contrary, I have found so in news based website. My websites are on daily trending topic and I have seen cpc going up after few months

 

[Inviz1]

4 months is not enough time to develop a good Adsense reputation. They'll likely begin delivering more valuable ads later on as you build reputation, especially after you get paid a couple times and your clicks are all verified ok.

If you mean account reputation, then my Adsense is 8 years old and have already cashed out many times. But, that was mainly for Youtube content. Adsense for blogs seems like a not worth endeavour so far. I've actually reached out to another blog in my niche which is 2 years old and his stats looked very similar. As a matter of fact he had 4 cents CPC while keyword everywhere shows $1.19. His site ranks third on the keyword and we exchange spots for other long tail keywords.

 

[bartosimpsonio]

If you mean account reputation, then my Adsense is 8 years old and have already cashed out many times. But, that was mainly for Youtube content. Adsense for blogs seems like a not worth endeavour so far. I've actually reached out to another blog in my niche which is 2 years old and his stats looked very similar. As a matter of fact he had 4 cents CPC while keyword everywhere shows $1.19. His site ranks third on the keyword and we exchange spots for other long tail keywords.

This would be a major scandal if confirmed. Yes your account is already verified, ignore my earlier comment. Sometimes this happens in brand new accounts until they develop trust.

Only other thing I would think of is smart pricing... For some reason. One of your stats caught my attention: 60% visible. Should be higher.

Visit your site on a brand new clean browser, better yet if on someone else's home or work PC and try to see why 40% of the ads aren't visible. You're getting smart priced for some reason. Other than that I have no idea.

 

[polarwiseman]

3-15 cpc is quite normal for gaming sites. Been in the flash game industry for over a decade, rates are at an all time low.

 

[Deleted member 813988]

Tier 1 traffic does not guarantee high CPC so is keywords on the site.
The rate per click depends on many factors not just geo, but traffic previous browsing history, interests and so on.
Account age and traffic count play a big role as well, authority sites get higher paying ads, therefore you can get more expensive clicks

 

[Inviz1]

This would be a major scandal if confirmed. Yes your account is already verified, ignore my earlier comment. Sometimes this happens in brand new accounts until they develop trust.

Only other thing I would think of is smart pricing... For some reason. One of your stats caught my attention: 60% visible. Should be higher.

Visit your site on a brand new clean browser, better yet if on someone else's home or work PC and try to see why 40% of the ads aren't visible. You're getting smart priced for some reason. Other than that I have no idea.

I can only assume from my case that verification is different for Youtube ads delivery and site banner? Or maybe it's dependent on the property which needs to establish trust? I did some further digging on my Google search console and top 10 keywords, the average CPC is around 65 cents. Also, about the % visible, I think mine is on the higher side? I've seen many Adsense reports where that metric is in the 40-50% range. One of my ads is in the footer so I'm guessing it's not viewed much.

 

[SamLewis]

What are your traffic sources? How much from search how much from social?

 

[bartosimpsonio]

I can only assume from my case that verification is different for Youtube ads delivery and site banner? Or maybe it's dependent on the property which needs to establish trust? I did some further digging on my Google search console and top 10 keywords, the average CPC is around 65 cents. Also, about the % visible, I think mine is on the higher side? I've seen many Adsense reports where that metric is in the 40-50% range. One of my ads is in the footer so I'm guessing it's not viewed much.

Remove the footer ads to improve your % viewed. Ads are like social media posts....low engagement ads lower the overall engagement and lower your quality score with it.