Why does Adwords traffic come in 'waves'?

[tomld2]

I usually receive about 10,000 adwords clicks per day and it comes in waves. Meaning for a few hours the traffic is rushing in and other hours its VERY slow. It's not constant, as it happens at different times each day. But it does usually occur once per day.

Why is this? Is there any way to get a 24/7 traffic rush, with no slow periods? I don't think its my daily balance because it only uses about 10% of what I set. I heard somewhere that after a certain number of impressions, they review the ads. Could this be why there is a periodic down time. Are there any other reasons why my ads sometimes dont show 100%?

Thanks
Tom

[realgames]

I usually receive about 10,000 adwords clicks per day and it comes in waves. Meaning for a few hours the traffic is rushing in and other hours its VERY slow. It's not constant, as it happens at different times each day. But it does usually occur once per day.

It might be something to do with the reporting delay of clicks as well as the pattern of usage. I find very few clicks are reported in the morning with masses in the afternoon and I assume this is somewhat down to the dlay in reporting. If (for example) the reporting lag is 4 hours then very few will be reported in the morning as this represents clicks from a time (2am-6am) when most of the country is asleep (I only sell in the UK). One strage pattern I get which I cannot explain is that my average reported CPC (for the day) is very high in the morning and falls to about 50% of the morning level by the evening.

[edit_g]

I watched this for a good while and now I won't trust what AdWords tells me until a full 24 hours have passed (costs, clicks, anything).

[Shak]

tom

I see your point, that if your getting 10,000 clicks a day, then the 100,000 impression barrier must be getting reached pretty quickly.

tell me, are you noticing the waves in Adwords reporting or ACTUAL traffic hitting your site.

Shak

[tomld2]

I am not referring to to Adwords reporting, but rather the actual traffic that is hitting my site. I advertise worldwide, yet it comes in waves. I am assuming for some reason my ads are not displaying 100% 24/7.

[Shak]

aha

max daily campaign maybe is NOT set high enough.

are you running different campaigns for different parts/countries?

Shak

[AdWordsAdvisor]

max daily campaign maybe is NOT set high enough

There is a really excellent chance that Shak is right on target.

I advertise worldwide, yet it comes in waves. I am assuming for some reason my ads are not displaying 100% 24/7.

When ever I hear that ads are not showing 24/7, the first thing that comes to mind is Daily Budget. I'd say daily budget is behind 95 percent of all cases in which ads are not appearing all the time - even in those cases in which daily budget is not being met.

Be sure to check your 'recommended budget' on the Edit Campaign Summary page, as a starter.

AWA

[tomld2]

AWA, like I said I only use about 10% of my daily budget. How much do I have to over set my budget? If I set it about $10,000 a day and use $1,000 shouldnt that be more than enough to have them run 100% of the time?