Google AdSense EPC decline starting this month?

[trader]

I have been a Google Adsense publisher since last August and always been extremely happy with them until NOW. My earnings per click has stayed about the same (with a slight downward drift, which is considered normal) since I joined but my income has been rising steadily most months as I add more and more sites and pages and also improve pages and make the ad placements more noticable and better overall.

Several days ago I noticed a big drop in my EPC (earnings per click) soon after I got email announcing changes which might benefit some and be negative to others. It sounded like more will benefit overall. Not so with me from what it appears thus far. Why does that always happen to me anyway? Murphys Law perhaps?

My EPC has dropped significantly since getting that April Fools email from Google. It's a bit too early to say for sure but preliminary results indicate an approx' 50% decline in income per click. In fact, yesterday was an all time record high water mark day for me based on both impressions and clicks but my income was well below my average per day over the past few mos., as I estimated, about 50% very roughly. I will know for sure after a few more days of stats.

Has anyone else noticed this? Since I have been with AdSense almost from the beginning of the program and my foray into PPC I really know of no other PPC programs for webpages. I would appreciate member recommendations for other ppc programs so I may look into leaving Google and going elsewhere. After spending lots of time & effort over 9-mos getting AdSense working very well on a lot of sites I do not at all appreciate what appears to be a major income reduction.

[options]

The very same here. Down more than 50%!
And I don't think it will improve as their concept of "quality clicks" is strange at least.
Do they put a cookie when someone clicks from my site? Maybe, but it doesn't count towards my PPC improvement even if the same user proves to be valuable.

As Google says: ( https://adwords.google.com/select/news/sa_mar04.html )
"We take into account many factors such as what keywords or concepts triggered the ad, as well as the type of site on which the ad was served. For example, a click on an ad for digital cameras on a web page about photography tips may be worth less than a click on the same ad appearing next to a review of digital cameras.

Google saves you time and hassle by estimating the value of clicks and adjusting prices on an ongoing basis. With improved smart pricing, you should automatically get greater value for clicks from ad impressions across our network, all with no change in how you bid."

I sincerely doubt in this logic as an user seeing/clicking the ad which says: "Buy From Us", knows exactly where is he heading, regardless of where is he coming from.

IMO, Google simply improves its PPC competitiveness at the cost of affiliates.