High RPM -> Redesign -> RPM drop -> Back to old design -> Still Low RPM

Hi, guys!

I have a problem.

I have viral-type site and I'm monetizing it with AdSense. I was doing ok with RPM about (transfered from my currency to USD) $4 to $5.

Then I decided I need to redesign my site, mainly get rid of the sidebar (previously there were no ads in my sidebar), so the focus will be more on the content, and other few things. That time one post went viral, bringing about 50k traffic in first day. My RPM dropped to half, but I was thinking it's maybe because the post has no good ads in it, that people are not interested in it or something. After a few days when people started to read other posts, my RPM was still in $2 range...

Of course my first thought was: "Okay, it has to be the new design. I don't understand it, because it looks better and load faster, but whatever, people are crazy." And I change my design to approximately how it looked before.

And RPM? Didn't change! CPC is average as it was, but CTR is still no close to where it was before my first redesign!

So I have to ask:

1.) What could be the problem here?
2.) Did Google decide to give me worse ads (as it's entertainment site) so that's why CTR is that low?

Other thoughts were:
- People are used to these ads. However, only 25% of last 30 days is recurring traffic.
- Ads doesn't look good on mobile (about 30% of my traffic). However, one of the three ads I have doesn't look good on mobile. Others are fine.

So any suggestions?

Thanks for help, guys!

I don't know if I can, but I will definitely bump this topic, cause this problem is really pain in the ass. :-/

Anyone with (even stupid) idea? I just don't know what could be wrong.

I try to avoid redesign on all of my sites, maybe I change it in 1-2 years, but when I change it I think about what I learned from the past year and try to buy or make a good converting theme/template.

If I where you I would sit back for a few days, let the design do it's job - if I may say so - and try to make your website mobile friendly, maybe build a mobile version of your website or if you're using WordPress try "WP Touch" - it's a plugin for mobile devices.

Always make sure your design is responsive and flat (current design trend).

30% of mobile traffic can bring in decent money if the design is right.

Yeah, I think the redesign was the breaking point, but how is it that after changing back it's still that bad?

My theme is responsive, only one ad (728x90) is cutted in half on mobile (it should be ok on tablets).
Website is only made of 2 colors, which are pretty contrasting so the ads nicely popup from it.

>> Did Google decide to give me worse ads

Google doesn't serve worse ads. Their whole business is centered around serving the best possible ads. That's how they make money.

The ads they do serve are based on matching the advertisers' topic to the publishers' topic. The first there's not much you can do about it. The vast majority of advertisers don't know how to really take advantage and do many things wrong. At least as an account manager, it keeps me in business. As a publisher however, you have to live with the available ad inventory.

The second part is your pages' topics. You can do something about that. My guess is you changed title, description and keyword tags. Having done so, Google determined a different topic to your pages and hence served different ads. The system is far from perfect having seen it from an advertiser's point of view. But humans are much better and they saw less relevant ads to your page's topic, hence lesser click rate.

That is the most likely scenario. My guess is, even switching back, you left the newer tags.

But remember too that the system is in constant flux. Advertisers come and go, they make all sort of changes from ad changes to bids. This will affect you as a publisher: CTR, CPC (which you should worry about). It simply may be something that would have happened anyway which just happened to coincide with your change.