Jan 16 2006
Google Reveals Adsense Payout Percentage
In a recent New York Times Article Google states they pay out approximately 78.5% of advertiser revenue to their Adsense publishers. This is much higher than I had assumed they paid out and a fair amount in my opinion.
Reading online from user experience it seems that Yahoo Publisher Network pays higher than Adsense in many cases. I for one have experienced higher payouts on certain terms and categories with YPN than I have with Adsense, however it could be due to higher advertiser bids on YPN than Adsense. Either way, 78.5% is a huge payout for simply placing ads on your website.
I question the validity of that number, but it may be true. Personally, I’ve had really REALLY bad luck with YPN. It’s not as flexible, isn’t near as relevant to content as AdSense, and records less actual clicks than Adsense. As soon as I hit my $100 payout I’m quitting YPN.
That is definitely a high share, but Adsense arbitrage is making life difficult for publishers having low traffic.