It's been about four months since the Hubpages Ad program was launched. HP had been planning this for a long time, and their launch co-incided with the Panda 1 algo update, but they went ahead anyway.
So how has the ad program faired? Well to start with, I was impressed. But over time I have been less so.
Here's how the CPM (cost per thousand impressions)worked out for my hubs:
Mar 2011 CPM $7.10
Apr 2011 CPM $6.47
May 2011 CPM $5.52
Jun 2011 CPM $5.31
As you can see it has dropped by about 25% since launch. Add in the various Panda updates which have reduced traffic, and you are faced with a program that delivers falling CPM and falling traffic. Not good.
My feeling is that at launch they had signed up a lot of good quality advertisers who were attracted by the traffic Hubpages was getting. But after Panda, with traffic dwindling, the advertisers were not getting their expected return and the price they were willing to pay dropped.
At the end of this month I shall be switching off the Hubpages program and restoring Adsense for the next four months to find out if Adsense can deliver a better return.
