Google Pays More, And Less, To Partners

Members of Google’s AdSense content network, as well as certain other third-parties that drive revenue through Google’s ads, got more money in Q1 2008.

Forget about comScore’s scary click reports, Google obliterated estimates by industry analysts with its financials for the first quarter.

Inside the cheery summary Google released after market close, they break down where the money comes from and goes from a high-level view. Ubiquitous text ads found in and outside their partners who display AdSense units brought in a third of Google’s Q1 2008 revenue.

The pie, it seems, is getting bigger when it comes to sharing revenue with those partners. The dollars shared rose to $1.49 billion in the quarter, compared to $1.44 billion in Q4 2007.

However, the percentage changed ever so slightly. Google’s payout in Q4 2007 represented 30 percent of ad revenues. In Q1 2008, that dropped to 29 percent. Out of the extra $280 million Google took in, they handed out about $50 million of that to partner sites.

It looks to us that the continued quality focus Google engaged in last year to cull less relevant advertising had the effect they predicted: increased revenue as people clicked on more valuable and relevant ads being presented to them. So much for the collapse of Google.

There are 8 Comments. Add Yours.

Meredith
April 21, 2008 at 11:51 am

The drop in Adsense revenue is painful for small publishers who work hard to deliver fresh, high quality, original content. There is no question that payments are down, even for those of us who have increased traffic and CTRs. Google refer to us as "partners" but given the lack of transparency, negotiation and equitable, predictable division of spoils, we are really more like lowly piece-work employees. I love Adsense and am grateful to Google for the opportunity to build my own business – but more and more I feel like just a sharecropper. The April Adsense nose dive does not seem a coincidence to me. March saw improvements – now it is a new quarter and content publishers are getting shorted.
shy guy
April 21, 2008 at 7:53 am

It shows that adsense is not relevant for money making sites…

Find another alternatives way..
Guest
April 20, 2008 at 5:21 pm

Submitted by guest (WPN reader) on Fri, 04/18/2008 – 1:31pm.

Nonsens
Best web hosting company
April 20, 2008 at 5:15 pm

It would seem the easiest place to target for a new upstart advertising company would be the partner network. Heck, we can put whatever we want on our own pages. Why in the world doesn’t someone get hold of this profitable income stream? Surely there is someone that would gladly make 100 million a year in exchange for letting their partners make the same?

This is just nuts.
Guest
April 20, 2008 at 11:34 am

The big issue I see is there’s no transparency at how much they make off their partners. Google can turn up/down there percentage at will just to meet revenue needs. They beat analysts estimates and may have just turned down the payout the make this number happen.

We run a high trafficked site and I’ve seen our traffic and ad view go up but the Ecpm go down 15% over the last quarter.
riker1981
April 20, 2008 at 11:21 am

More Clicks, less payout. How’z that more payout? Goodle AdNOsense
guest
April 18, 2008 at 1:31 pm

Watch out Google Investors!

Quality ads, are you kidding?

It seems that Google has climbed in bed with Scientology.
First with their AdSense promoting Scientology advertisements all over the web, which has angered many people all over the Internet, and secondly it seems that their You Tube system is very vulnerable and mismanaged. People are able to flag videos that have not violated the Terms of Service agreement and accounts are suspended without prior scrutiny or notification to the account holder. The most recent demonstration of this is now making its way around the Internet. The accounts of two very prominent critics of Scientology were closed due to this glitch in their system. This has angered many Free Speech advocates across the globe. There are far more people opposed to this type of censorship than there are Scientology members.

Although as of this Friday 4/18/08 Google is enjoying a much needed glimmer of hope on the market, I predict the backlash to Google’s shortsightedness and inadequacies could be devastating to their stocks on the volatile market.
Johnny B. Good
April 17, 2008 at 9:05 pm

Yes, although they are paying out more to partners, partners are getting less.

What I mean is that we are creating more ad space with new sites, more acquired domains for domain parking, etc…. but Google is paying out "less per property" space – since there is a flood of new space.

The quality of the traffic from much of this new space is a mix of both crappy and great, delivered from both sites and domains. But there is no doubt that Google is taking more even more percentage-wise from everyone even though they are paying out more.

On the domain forums and site forums everyone has been screaming about lower payouts. I myself am making EXACTLY what I was at this time last year after delivering much, much more traffic through strategic domain purchases.

This is helping fuel a big percentage of the bottom line and these great numbers Google is reporting.