My Google AdSense earnings dropped 80% overnight. Why?
I've been running AdSense on my blog for about 8 months and was making around $15-20 a day consistently. Suddenly in the last 3 days it dropped to $3-4 per day. My traffic is still the same, around 5,000 visitors daily. I didn't get any policy violations. What could cause this?
1 Answer(s)
Don't panic yet. A sudden earnings drop without a traffic drop usually points to a few specific causes. First, check your AdSense dashboard for any policy violations or limited ads warnings. Sometimes Google restricts certain ad formats without a full violation.
The most common reason is seasonal CPM changes. If your traffic is US-based, ad rates fluctuate massively by month. Check your RPM in the reports to see if it's the traffic value that dropped, not your actual clicks.
Another possibility is ad blocker usage increased. If a browser update or news story about ads went viral, more users might be blocking ads. Check your actual click-through rate (CTR). If CTR dropped, that's a strong signal.
Also, make sure you didn't accidentally change your ad placement. Sometimes moving an ad unit even slightly can kill performance. Try A/B testing different placements.
Finally, check if Google changed the ad types being served. Sometimes they switch from high-paying display ads to lower-paying text ads, which tanks earnings even with the same traffic. Give it another week to see if it stabilizes.