It's not the money though - this obscure keyword is on the minimum CPC anyways. But if it happens here, it can happen on every other higher priced keyword too. And if the number of impressions is high enough one would probably not even notice...
I've had that happen many, many, many of times...Only thing I can think of is an adwords employee checking your ad and of course billing you for it. But it would be nice to hear why this happens...
See [webmasterworld.com...] and [webmasterworld.com...]
During the course of a day, you'll often see the account with a lot more impressions than total in individual AdGroups.
Yesterday, it seemed the stats were way behind. I had an account that Google reported 2 clicks by 6pm, yet had 8 conversions from Google in my tracking system.
See if the stats for yesterday look correct today.
I've had that happen many, many, many of times...Only thing I can think of is an adwords employee checking your ad and of course billing you for it. But it would be nice to hear why this happens...
I think that eWhisper has covered the 'why', but I just wanted to post with some information that may not be well known:
Yes, it is certainly true that all ads are reviewed by an actual human being, and that that person will click on your ad and go to your site during the review process.
Please note, though, that all impressions and clicks originating from Google are filtered - meaning that you'll never be charged for them. Nor will the impression(s) be counted.
I hope that'll set a mind or two at ease. ;)
AWA
Google updates the account page first (where all campaigns are listed), the campaign page 2nd (where all the AdGroups are shown), and lastly the AdGroup page
ewhisper, I think we realize that disparity between updates and that what is on the summary pages is rarely in agreement with the detail pages during the same day.
What pmkpmk is talking about are the two respective columns on the AdGroup page for clicks/impressions. Certainly those are maintained in sync, otherwise they'd be of no use at all.
I too see the 200% CTR phenomenon almost daily since I have a lot of AdGroups. Keep in mind that this only stands out when there is say 2 clicks and 1 impression. I wonder how much more often this happens when the "extra" click is lost among a much larger figure of both clicks and impressions where it would not be noticed.
If for instance, you had 100 impressions and 50 clicks and one or more of those clicks were a victim of the "2 for 1" scenario, you'd never be aware of it.
I think there is more to this issue than the explanations given so far and is something that the Google engineering people should look at. I recall an earlier thread where this admittedly impossible phenomenon was attributed to clicks that happen right on the cusp of the day change. I've seen it happen at all times of the day however.
AWA?
patient2all
And if the number of impressions is high enough one would probably not even notice...
Sorry, pmkpmk, I didn't realize you had pointed that out already!
patient2all
What pmkpmk is talking about are the two respective columns on the AdGroup page for clicks/impressions. Certainly those are maintained in sync, otherwise they'd be of no use at all.
AWA?
Here are a few more details, pmkpmk and patient2all, which I hope will answer your questions:
* Firstly, stats are not precisely in sync: clicks are updated more frequently than impressions (roughly one hour, vs. several hours, respectively) - so, it's not unusual that the number of clicks displayed can exceed the number of impressions until your reports are completely updated. This typically happens by the end of the day.
* Because browsers cache the search results and ads on the search results page, Google only registers one ad impression per search. However, your reports will show multiple clicks if a user clicks on your ad more than once in a cached browser session.
* It's certainly possible that a user would legitimately click on your ad more than once - if they're comparison shopping or returning to your site for more information, for example.
AWA
However, your reports will show multiple clicks if a user clicks on your ad more than once in a cached browser session.
That somehow conflicts with my perception of your fraud-detection (and hopefully fraud-prevention) techniques. I mean, if you can't even detect (and sicount) multiple clicks during the same session, how could you detect some serious fraudulent clicking? When I do a search, you set 4 cookies in my browser. Am I naive or could you not simply discount multiple clicks from the same IP and with the same cookies set onto the same ad in an interval of - say - 15 minutes?
However, your reports will show multiple clicks if a user clicks on your ad more than once in a cached browser session.
AWA,
And under that very typical scenario, how many clicks are charged?
patient2all
