Adsense channelsstats don't add up

[nickreynolds]

I have several websites and I look regularly at my stats on adsense channels. Something strange is happening. With one of my sites I have one channel eg widget.org.uk and then all the pages like this -widget.org.uk/pages.htm. So my thinking is that all the separate pages should add up to the total of the domain. Well it does - for impressions, but not for clicks! For the last 3 days (and actually for much longer now I look back) the number of impressions adds up but the total of the individual pages' clicks comes to less than the clicks for the whole domain.

So to use fictitious figures it looks like

domain impressions 477
all the pages impressions 477

domain clicks 76
all the pages clicks 57

I don't have anything strange or unusual or underhand on my site that could cause this. All straightforward html.

I'm obviously not losing out on this, possibly profitting wrongly! So 1. I'm just curious and 2. worried if Google picks up this inconsistancy and penalizes me.

Any views on this?

[Tearabite]

my URL channels NEVER add up.. you have to use the 'real' channels for reliable stats.

[nickreynolds]

Nothing to worry about then? :)

[dramstore]

I was just having the same conversation with someone the other day.

We concluded that the extra clicks might be either adlinks (I don't think they are attributed to the page they originate from) and also people comming in to your site through http://example.com wheras the channel is set to www.example.com

Thats the best we could think of.

[edited by: engine at 7:42 pm (utc) on June 6, 2006]
[edit reason] examplified and de-linked [/edit]

[nickreynolds]

I could see the adlinks idea might be it.

[wifox]

I don't have adlinks, but my total doesn't add up either. Anyone else?

[wifox]

url channels are ok. custom channels aren't not being included in the total.

[21_blue]

all the separate pages should add up to the total of the domain

I don't think the discrepancy will be due to adlinks, because I believe they do get logged against the page they were referred from. However, there may be other sources of the difference, such as:

• timing (different servers reporting on different report pages and/or channels, and updating at different times)
  
• 404s: if you have ads on a 404 page, they will probably appear in the domain but not any page channel (though, ads on 404 pages are against the TOS).
  
• cacheing: if you have URL channels, I don't think it will record impressions/clicks from pages in google's cache (custom channels will). I'm not sure what happens with the surfer's own computer cache and page refreshes, but these might also muck up URL channels
  
• incorrect tracking of your home page - your home page might be invoked by typing or linking to the URL, say, "www.mysite.com" or "www.mysite.com/index.html" or "/home.html", but all stats for the home page, however called, will only appear in the Adsense URL channel named "www.mysite.com/index.html"
  

I'm sure there are more possible causes of discrepancy that I just can't think of at the moment. I'm surprised that impressions are the same, though. Did it just happen for one day? If so, that is just a coincidence.

[nickreynolds]

Some good answers here. But I'm not sure they answer the fact that IMPRESSIONS do add up to the domain totals but CLICKS do not.

[21_blue]

Nick, you haven't answered the question as to whether the impressions were the same just this time - ie: it could have just have been a coincidence. Do the impressions stay the same whichever dates you look at?

[rbacal]

I have something a bit different. Let's say overall for a site adsense reports I have a CPM of $10.(fictitious number).

I have four channels on that site, and I believe that's it. NONE of the 4 channels has a CPM, of let's say, greater than $4.00.

So, obviously something is out of whack. I can't have an overall cpm of ten when the channels that make up that total all have much lower CPM's.

Weird.

[nickreynolds]

"Nick, you haven't answered the question as to whether the impressions were the same just this time - ie: it could have just have been a coincidence. Do the impressions stay the same whichever dates you look at? "

Yes whatever date

[21_blue]

In that case, I suggest contacting Adsense support and asking them about the discrepancy. It does seem odd that impressions should always tally but clicks not.