Google Shines Light into Adsense Publisher Count and Commissions
Every company has its pot of gold, that one product that absolutely decimates the competition and brings in most of its profit. For Google, that one product is Adsense, a contextual advertising product that allows businesses to advertise both on Google’s search results and millions of different websites around the world.
The Numbers Behind Google Adsense
Google through its Google Adsense program has long kept the percentage of advertising revenue it shares with its publishers a closely guarded secret. That goes against traditional wisdom in online advertising where the relationship between publishers and the advertising firm is usually more intimate than just sign up and see.
What Publishers Get
Online publishers, or those in the outlying content portion of the program, have long fought to understand how they are paid. Many other popular firms not only publish their percentage paid to affiliates, they go out of their way to advertise it. Google, on the hand, isn’t too interested in that idea. The firm has long kept it quiet, choosing not to even list it directly in its annual reports (it was previously said to be listed under “customer acquisition” and “traffic acquisition” costs.
Online publishers, all 1.5 million people, get as much as 68% of the cut on normal Adsense advertising. However, publishers using the search toolbar get as little as 51% and Google failed to issue it was paying through its mobile network.
Still Not Buying It
For a long time it seemed that Google kept the cut its publishers received secret as a means to manipulate it through the quarter. Obviously that 68% is an average, some publishers receive more, some receive less, some are “smart priced” and some aren’t. Google, by hiding the amount it paid publishers, can change the percentage to meet earnings, and judging by the number of times in a row that Google beat earnings, no matter how terrible the economy was, I still stand by that.
