Are Google slowly killing Adsense?

I, Brian · June 13, 2012, 12:13:58 AM

I don't know about anyone else here, but my Adsense is now about 25% of what it was about 2 years ago.

I look at my Adsense stats, and then look at updates like the Panda variations, not least the algorithmic ranking hit planned delivered to sites who carry "ads above the fold" - and then note that the major media publishers have their Adsense in some of the weirdest "below the fold" places.

And I'm left wondering - is Google in the long-term planning to go the way of Omniture with Adsense - ie, big corporate accounts only worth considering?

A few years ago, my having my Adsense account cancelled might have actually hurt Google. Now I can see Google can easily get rid of people like me without batting an eyelid, so long as newspapers effectively give away their content for pennies now using Adsense.

Isn't it the case that Google, overall, are seriously looking to kill their original webmasters who built up Adsense into what it is now? After all, surely holding those corporate contracts is all that matters? And, newspapers, not knowing their own value, see online revenue as just a bonus income?

Am I simply becoming jaded by thinking that Adsense could switch to corporate accounts only tomorrow, and Google wouldn't bat an eyelid?

DrCool · June 13, 2012, 05:14:44 PM

My adsense account got shut down last month. Was owed about $4000 or so when the closed it down. Admittedly I was pushing the boundaries of what qualifies as quality traffic and a quality site but I am guessing there are hundreds or even thousands of "small" accounts like that they shut down every day and don't think twice about it.

littleman · June 13, 2012, 09:15:33 PM

Sorry Doc, that's rough.

Rooftop · June 14, 2012, 11:20:26 AM

Quote from: drcool on June 13, 2012, 05:14:44 PM
My adsense account got shut down last month. Was owed about $4000 or so when the closed it down. Admittedly I was pushing the boundaries of what qualifies as quality traffic and a quality site but I am guessing there are hundreds or even thousands of "small" accounts like that they shut down every day and don't think twice about it.

were you given much explanation?

Rupert · June 14, 2012, 12:31:14 PM

Ouch that is rough... I take it they honour the money they owe you?

DrCool · June 15, 2012, 11:10:14 PM

Quote from: Rooftop on June 14, 2012, 11:20:26 AM
were you given much explanation?

Just this:

After reviewing our records, we've determined that your AdSense account
poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a
responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due
to invalid activity, we've found it necessary to disable your AdSense
account. Your outstanding balance and Google's share of the revenue will
both be fully refunded back to the affected advertisers.

Please understand that we need to take such steps to maintain the
effectiveness of Google's advertising system, particularly the
advertiser-publisher relationship. We understand the inconvenience that
this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and
cooperation.

If you have any questions or concerns about the actions we've taken, how
you can appeal this decision, or invalid activity in general, you can find
more information by visiting
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

So no real explanation. It is pretty much the boilerplate letter they send out to everyone when they shut down an account.

Quote from: Rupert on June 14, 2012, 12:31:14 PM
Ouch that is rough... I take it they honour the money they owe you?

Nope. Got nothing.

I knew I was taking a risk with what I was doing. It wasn't fake clicks or anything like that but the traffic was a bit questionable. I knew there was a good chance the account would get shut down but the potential reward was worth the risk for me.

BTW, if you know of any good adsense alternatives I am all ears.

littleman · June 16, 2012, 12:42:33 AM

Could you tell us a bit more about what you were doing? Maybe in the IC?

hungrygoose · June 18, 2012, 06:32:50 PM

http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/email-from-google-adsense-account/

Interesting email that guy received from G. Basically he followed their optimisation tips which are now against their guidelines.

DrCool · June 20, 2012, 05:36:28 PM

Quote from: littleman on June 16, 2012, 12:42:33 AM
Could you tell us a bit more about what you were doing? Maybe in the IC?

It really isn't anything revolutionary or ingenious. But I can see how it pushed the boundaries of what Google considers acceptable.

Basically I built some sites for some very general topics that would appeal to a lot of people but also had high priced ads. The two I had the most success with were weight loss and auto insurance.

I was buying traffic from Adf.ly for about $4 per 1000 visitors and I was getting some very good CTRs and was making anywhere from 4-10X my ad spend.

I really wasn't expecting that traffic to be profitable but it was so I ramped it up and for a few days it was making $1000-2000 a day. I started doing some more research and saw that there have been quite a few people who got their adsense accounts banned for this so I shut it down.

I switched the adsense ads out for affiliate ads and the CTR was about the same but there were 0 conversions on a few thousand clicks. As I saw that I realized that if the traffic isn't converting on the affiliate offers it wouldn't be converting for the Adsense ads and at that point I figured my account would get shut down.

Nothing too amazing there. Just some bad sites getting cheap traffic. And in all honesty my account probably deserved to be shut down. A warning or a couple checks would have been nice though.

nffc · June 20, 2012, 07:51:06 PM

>And in all honesty my account probably deserved to be shut down.

Yes it did.

>A warning

You get a warning before you even sign up.

>or a couple checks would have been nice though.

This is where I think they fall down.
They approved the site, they should pay you what is owed and the advertisers should still get a refund. Google needs to pay for their own mistakes just the same as me and you have to.

I think what that would lead to is a much smaller pool of sites that would "qualify" for adsense.

Be careful what you wish for.

agerhart · June 20, 2012, 08:29:52 PM

yea its shit traffic...arbitrage traffic. They will shut that down real quick

If you mixed it with better quality traffic you might be able to get away with it

jimbanks · June 20, 2012, 10:21:17 PM

Arbitrage live by the sword, die by the sword.

Adf.ly has been singled out for leading to a lot of shut down accounts. Google just don't like them.

Some arbitrage will be OK, but any bought traffic will look un-natural and is bound to trigger a response.

Not sure on alternatives, there are always Chitika, Kontera, Infolinks. Payouts will be more than zero, the arbitrage model might be just as questionable there, they just might not be so smart to find it.

agerhart · June 20, 2012, 10:24:04 PM

I have a bit of experience here...Kontera and Chitika will sniff it out and shut it down quickly. Infolinks not as fast.

You probably flew too high. 2K a day might be too high with straight arb traffic. Better to keep it lower, or spread it out.

Or throw the traffic to other arb players...people that can monetize it.