The question is that where is the money. Google reported that their ad revenue increased by 10% as compared to the same period last year:
https://www.reuters.com/technology/...quarterly-revenue-above-estimates-2023-10-24/
Meanwhile, RPM dropped to half.
So how it is possible that more revenue to Google, much less revenue to us?
Some possibilities:
1, Google keep the money
Google keep the money for legal battles, maybe increased taxes and fines, also increased prices of being default/built-in on different devices
2, Effect of arbitrage
This year G arbitrage became widespread and now they allow Tiktok, Taboola etc traffic to be redirected to parking pages. Even I have seen YouTube ads to "click on Tiktok ads and earn money". These are ads on Tiktok which are redirected to high CPC parking pages, like dental implants. Crazy that it is supported by these two parties. Thus, parking pages have much more traffic with these low quality sources -> more traffic, same money to share -> less revenue for "organic parking"
3, Parking companies keep more
Most probably, since they get less money and they have the costs, they have to increase the part they keep, so parkers get less from the less
My feeling is that the arbitrage is the main driving force of the huge drop and it should be stopped. It is against quality, ethic, none of advertisers and publishers benefit from these. It is only good for a few, selected parties playing in this field.