Clicks to arrivals

25% dropoff

[wrightee]

I've noticed an increase in the number of clicks being reported on my adwords account compared to the number of arrivals on my site recently. I'd expect some difference of course - but the two don't match up by about 25%. Anyone else seen similar?

[specter]

Clicks are not updated in real time.

[mike_ppc]

What Specter sait is true, but I suppose you count for an entire day (at least).
Also, it depends how you track your visitors. If a visitor clicks on your ad twice in 1 minute, you might count him only once (per session), but in Google you pay two clicks.

I have a hunch. Have you created your campaigns recently or made changes in most of your ads recently (approx a week ago)?

[wrightee]

Oddly.. no, no changes, although some to the site. I've been running ppc for ages as my primary traffic source so I'm used to the differences, but the 25% difference is a bit steep... G just refer me to the page on their FAQ of course, but I can't help wonder.

I've checked the data over comparable timezones (GMT-8), waited for a day, double checked, same gig.

I'll keep diggin', see what I can discover...

[mike_ppc]

Those changes to the site envolved changing URLs in the ads?

Also, do you have the same traffic as 1 month ago?

[wrightee]

Nope; URLs the same, they all point to the homepage only. The traffic is much higher than a month ago as I've increased the budget a few notches.

I'm still recording low arrivals to clicks, though the gap has narrowed slightly now to more like 27-20%.

I'm trying to reconcile the two logs (server & tracking) to see what the diff is there, maybe that'll throw some light.

Thanks for the pointers so far anyway!

[mike_ppc]

Two ideas:
1. Maybe you don't count correctly clicks from Google Search & Content Network.
2. Your site could be sometimes down or very slow so the visit is not registered in the log.
On Saturdays (when I suppose the traffic is lower) you see the same gap as on Mondays (or a top-traffic day)?

I'm very curious what you will find. Please keep me posted.