Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/05/25/google_adsense_revenue_cuts_revealed/

Google in shock reveal of AdSense revenue shares

68% cut never changed

By Cade Metz

Posted in On-Prem, 25th May 2010 00:10 GMT

Google has revealed exactly how much revenue it shares with third-party websites who run text advertisements brokered through its AdSense service.

With a Monday blog post, the company said that under its AdSense for content program — which serves those familiar "Ads by Google" onto webpages — sites receive a 68 per cent cut of revenues. But under its AdSense for search program — where sites offer a customized Google search box — the cut is 51 per cent.

These are the standard shares, but large publishers can negotiate their own contracts with the company.

Until now, Google has remained completely mum on AdSense revenue shares, and this led many to question whether the cuts were shrinking from year to year. But with today's blog post, Google says that the cut has been the same for AdSense for content since it launched in 2003 and that the cut for AdSense for search changed only once, in 2005.

"We hope this additional transparency helps you gain more insight into your business partnership with Google. We believe our revenue share is very competitive, and the vast number of advertisers who compete to appear on AdSense sites helps to ensure that you’re earning the most from every ad impression," the post reads.

The company did say, however, that it could not guarantee that these revenue shares will not change in the future.

Google also offers AdSense programs for mobiles, games, and news feeds, but it did not provide the revenue cuts for these services. "We aren’t disclosing the revenue shares for these products at this time because they’re quickly evolving, and we're still learning about the costs associated with supporting them. Revenue shares for these products can vary from product to product since our costs in building and maintaining these products can vary significantly."

Soon, Google will beginning displaying AdSense for content and AdSense for search revenue cuts on its AdSense websites. ®