Google AdSense announced it’s moving from its paying-per-click (PPC) model to paying per impression. Pay-per-impression is an online marketing advertising model that determines payment based on the number of times an Ad is displayed. Publishers get paid for each instance an advertisement appears on the publisher’s website.
Google says it changing how AdSense pays publishers to keep up with other advertising technologies. “Today, website owners use a combination of direct sales, ad networks and sell-side platforms to sell their ad space,” states Google. Other Ad technologies and most large publisher sites prefer to price their ad space by impression. This is a more standard practice. Google is just catching up.
It goes on to state that it doesn’t expect website owners to notice any significant changes in their revenues. This conclusion was arrived at after running tests.
Update to AdSense Revenue Share Structure
The company is also updating its ad revenue share structure. Traditionally, those who have opted to monetize content receive 68% of revenue from Ads displayed on their content. Google has developed a new two-way payment structure. For Google Ads displayed on AdSense, publishers will continue to keep about 68% of the revenue.
The other scenario is for ads displayed on AdSense by third-party advertising platforms. In this case, publishers will be paid 80% of the revenue that remains after the third-party platform takes its share of the revenue generated. Revenue collected by third-party platforms has some obscurity. This is because Google says it cannot ascertain how much the platforms charge advertisers. Notably, Google has said that own its part, it will not change how advertisers are charged.
Concerns About Excessive Ads
The switch to Pay-per-impression has raised concerns. Mainly, people are concerned that advertisers will aggressively try and boost impressions. Therefore, content sites may be inundated with excessive Ads. Google was quick to dispel these fears by noting the change “will not influence the type or quantity of ads publishers can display on their websites.”
The tech giant has reminded publishers that they have to adhere to its Better Ads Standards. These standards and AdSense policies do not allow practices like pop-ups or interruptive ads that take up the majority of the screen.
Early in the year, Google had its Helpful Content Update (HCU). That update focussed on making content and websites friendly for human beings first. For example, Google is prioritising user experience (UX) on websites and might punish those that have super aggressive and disruptive ads. So, increasing the number of Ads to boost impressions will probably not help matters for publishers.
