Major Causes Of Low CPC and Solutions – Google AdSense

This article explained all the variables responsible for low CPC, the reasons for low CPC, and the best solutions to increase low CPC.

If you are an AdSense user then you must have noticed the fluctuations in cost-per-click (CPC) on the front page of the Google AdSense dashboard.

As we all know the multiplication of the CPC by the Clicks will calculate our earnings. Based on this, everyone wants their CPC to be on the high side.

If you are like me, who is always monitoring AdSense; you may feel like it is the end of the world whenever your CPC drops so much. I have seen CPC drop to as low as $0.02, which is a huge drop in my case.

Now the big questions are;

• Why is the CPC dropping?
• Is there any way to stop it from dropping?
• How can it be increased?

I shall start from the causes of low CPC or fall in CPC, breaking it down to simple understanding.

Causes Of Low AdSense CPC

1. Keywords

Keywords are one of the major factors that have a massive effect on the rate of CPC. Some keywords attract a good sum of money, while others may offer almost nothing.

Keywords are what determine the ads that will appear on each of your web pages. When advertisers that are advertising on keywords related to your niche reduce their investment – the CPC will drop.

For instance, in a webpage or blog post that has insurance-related keywords – there is a very high tendency for insurance-related ads are what will appear on the page. The reason is that the advertisers of insurance services will be targeting related articles.

Although there is an exemption, it is not all the time that the ads displayed will be related to the keyword, it all depends on what the advertiser is targeting.

It is even possible that there is no advertiser in your keyword in the location of your site visitor. In this case, Google may decide to show those ads that are not targeting any specific keywords.

They may also choose to show advertisements at random or even decide not to display any ads at that point.

2. Bidding Rate

The bid rate or bid amount is also another factor that determines the AdSense CPC.

Bid rate means the amount each advertiser is paying for a particular keyword or a niche.

The law of demand prevailed here. When the bid is high, the CPC increases, and when the bid is very low, the CPC crashes.

The primary thing that affects the rise and fall of CPC here is the competition among advertisers on specific keywords.

3. Ads Placement

The placement of ads is also a very important variable that can influence the rate of CPC. Each ad has a different CPC depending on its position on a webpage.

All things being equal, the ads that display on the top of a webpage page always attract higher CPC. The CPC reduces clicks on the lower part of the page.

For instance, if an ad is shown on the top of a webpage, and the same ads are displayed on the bottom of the page.

The one on top will have a higher CPC, and the CPC reduces as the page is being scrolled. Lots of people who understand this try to put ads on every page before the content.

4. Ads Type

It is no longer news that ad type has a big effect on CPC. Some of them perform very well, while others may not.

On the AdSense dashboard, there are different types of ads to choose from. You can even customize the AdSense ads to any form of your choice that is possible.

If you have a low CPC, then you may try to change your ads type to see if the cost-per-click will increase. But if your CPC was high and later dropped – the ad type may not be the cause.

That the CPC of a particular type is high for Mr. A, does not guarantee that the same will apply to Mr. B.

Choosing ads type is something you have to take your time to inspect – in other to pick the one that will generate the best revenue.

In my research, I believe the best ad type that has the highest CPC is the “Text and Image Rectangular Ad Unit“.

You may also have a low CPC on only text-based ads units. The reason is that most advertisers don’t bid on text ads. Even though text ads may get more clicks – most of the clicks don’t convert to the favour of the advertisers – they are mainly accidental clicks.

5. Geographical Targeting

To advertise products or services, most time, advertisers target countries or geographical regions. There will be competition in those areas where advertisers target more, and the cost-per-click in those areas is always very high.

If you are experiencing low CPC, a major reason may be the location where most of your visitors are visiting your site.

For instance, in the United States – the insurance niche is known to have one of the highest CPCs. The reason for this is due to the rate of insurance competition in the US.

The same niche may have a very low CPC in Nigeria – because insurance advertisers are not investing much in Nigeria.

The only way out of this is to try and get more traffic from countries with high CPC in your niche.

How To Increase Low AdSense CPC & RPM

CPC means Cost Per Click, while RPM means Revenue Per Impression (calculated based on every 1000 page views). You will find these variables on the front page of your AdSense Dashboard.

Every AdSense user wants their CPC to be very high. When the CPC is high, it simply means more revenue or earnings. To calculate your earnings, you can simply multiply the CPC by the total Clicks.

Most times the increase in CPC leads to an increase in RPM. The RPM can be multiplied by page views to calculate the earnings. It means that the CPC or RPM will lead to a rise in revenues – all things being equal.

Now, there are things you can do to increase the chances of having a higher CPC without going against the AdSense policy.

1. Write more high CPC keyword contents

Some keywords attract high CPC, especially those that have to do with Insurance, Loans, Mortgage, Electricity, and Health. You can read our post on high CPC keywords here.

The main reason why some keywords attract higher CPC than others is that the advertisers bid more on such keywords.

2. Target top CPC countries

The country where most of your visitors are clicking from also determines the CPC. For instance, a valid click for the United States can earn you up to $1 while that of Nigeria, which is in Africa may pay you $0.05.

The reason for this is the bidding rate of advertisers targeting United.

Among the top five countries with the highest CPC are; the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and Germany. Learn more about the top 80 countries and their CPC range here.

3. Block low CPC ads

On your AdSense dashboard, Google made a provision for users to allow and block certain ads.

To do this simply click on “Allow & Block ads” on your AdSense dashboard navigation. There you will find categories of ads and how much each is paying you. You can block those categories that are paying less.

Please note that blocking too many ads can impact negatively your CPC and earnings in general.

4. Write high-quality organic contents

Content is said to be the kind of the web. By just writing high-quality organic articles, you will be attracting higher CPC. The higher the words in your organic content, the better.

I don’t mean just having one or two pieces of high-quality content. Make sure your high-quality article is more than the crappy content of your blog or website.

5. Use Text and Image ads format

Although only text ads attract a more Click Through Rate (CTR). It means there is a higher tendency of site visitors to click on text ads than image ads.

Just note that most of those clicks will be a mistake click that will not convert, the visitors may think the text ads are part of the content.

But to attract a higher CPC – Text and Image ads format is what you should go for. To increase your CTR for the Text and Image ads, you may have to customize the text on it to make it look more attractive. For instance, you can change the text color to red.

6. Reduce ads on each page

Most people think the more ads you have per page, the more chances to have more clicks. As this may be correct, bear in mind that too many ads make the webpage unpleasant to the reader.

Although too many ads will increase your ads impression, it will reduce your CPC. The number of ads you should add to content should depend on the length.

For instance, you may choose to add an ad after every ten paragraphs you give to content. By so doing, there will be good spacing between ads.

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