Google doesn’t disclose the percentage of advertising revenue that it shares with AdSense publishers but you can pick some clues from their quarterly earnings data.
There are three sections in the quarterly reports that are interesting from the perspective of AdSense publishers like you and me.
1. Google Network Revenues – This is total advertising revenue generated through AdSense program on sites that aren’t owned by Google (like blogs, NYT, etc.).
2. Traffic Acquisition Costs – This is primarily the amount that Google distributes among AdSense publishers.
3. Paid Clicks – While Google will not share the exact percentage of ad clicks on their network, this column will help you figure out if the number of clicks per impression are increasing or heading south. More clicks mean more revenue both for publishers and Google.
Now let’s compare this earnings data for Q1 2008, Q2 2008 and Q3 2008:
| Q1 2008 | Q2 2008 | Q3 2008 | |
| 1. Total Revenue earned by Google from AdSense | $ 1.69 billion | $ 1.66 billion | $ 1.68 billion |
| 2. AdSense Revenue that Google shared with publishers | $ 1.49 billion | $ 1.47 billion | $ 1.50 billion |
| 3. Percentage of revenue share | 88.16 % | 88.55% | 89.29% |
| 4. Paid Clicks | n*1.04% | n*1.03% | n*1.07% |
So what does this mean for AdSense publishers. While I am no expert, these numbers clearly say:
1. More people are clicking on Google Ads as is evident from the growth in %age of ad clicks (see #4).
2. The amount of advertising revenue generated from AdSense publisher sites has more or less stayed the same throughout the year (see #1) but Google is distributing a slightly larger share of the pie among AdSense publishers (see #3).
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/google-earnings-report-for-adsense-publishers/4991/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Great observation Amit
Written by Technotip.org on 10.17.08
Really a smart analysis Amit. I was surprised to find out that Google is sharing nearly 90% of its Adsense revenue with the Publishers.
Written by Saumendra Swain on 10.17.08
“The majority of TAC expense is related to amounts ultimately paid to our AdSense partners, which totaled $1.33 billion in the third quarter of 2008. TAC is also related to amounts ultimately paid to certain distribution partners and others who direct traffic to our website, which totaled $167 million in the third quarter of 2008.”
Written by Manish on 10.17.08
Q3 2008 = $1.33B/$1.68B = 79.1% of revenue is given to Adsense publishers.
Q2 2008 = 79.5%
It is about 80% and google’s share is roughly the same quarter to quarter.
Obviously, not all Adsense publishers are equal. Some of the big ones, like the ones who do not have to say “Ads by Google” can negotiate better revenue sharing. And for them, the percentage is different.
For typical bloggers, it is hard to say that the publisher gets 80% and Google gets 20%. And “average” is in general not a very good measure anyway. It is very much affected by extremes. The smaller publishers could be getting different share of revenue than large publishers.
Written by Manish on 10.17.08
Well Analysed…but i saw an interview on CNBC where they said that people are actually getting used to the adds by google in google adsense so the clicks have started to decrease & now people click less as they know that these are adds not real content in the site…
Written by Gurneet Singh on 10.18.08
Slightly confused for a moment, until I realized that “Total Revenue earned by Google from AdSense” actually refers to revenue Google generated from Adsense ads on NON-GOOGLE sites (which represents about 30% of total Google adsense revenues).
Written by michael lockyear on 10.18.08
The numbers are suprising to me. I was guessing the shared revenus for “Paid Per Clicks” is closer to 60-70%. Column #3 indicates something closer to the range of 89%. If this is true, yes it’s a good news for smaller publisher.
Written by Dave on 10.19.08