Genuine CTR of over %100

will this get me in trouble?

[suzyvirtual]

I have one very specific consumer goods niche site that gets consistent CTR of over %100 on adsense. This has to be click-back-click-back behavior. Some days my CTR is over %300. I have read so many posts lately about people being uber-paranoid about getting kicked out of adsense with little to no warning. These clicks are genuine, but should I be worried about this?

[wonderboy]

How do you know it is genuine?
There is no such thing as a legitimate 300% CTR. (Unless you are getting 1 visitor per day, or something stupid like that).
W.

[level80]

Technically there is - very curious visitors who click on multiple ads on the same page - with three ad blocks and up to 5 ads each there's a theoretical maximum of 1500% CTR.

[Palehorse]

How can you get "over" 100%? Doesn't 100% mean that every visitor clicked an ad? I guess if every visitor clicked 2 ads that would be 200% I suppose...

Sounds REAL FISHY to me...

[nsqlg]

I'm fight hard for each .1% of CTR and your consumer get more than 100%? something is wrong, and G will kickout ASAP.

[mack]

how much true content do you have on your pages?

Mack.

[suzyvirtual]

as i said, it is a page about a very specific and somewhat hard to find info on, cosumer good. I don't get a "load" of traffic on this term, but about 20 impressions a day and almost always an over %100 CTR. I have been running adsense on the page for about 6 weeks now, so it's pretty consistent.
True that I am not positive the clicks are genuine, but it really is a very tiny and high-demand niche and it "seems" like they are genuine. I do not see numbers like this on any of the many other sites/pages that i use adsense on.

[hdpt00]

If you are getting greater than 50% every single day with unique visotors > 50 I would personally switch to the 1 ad per unit small square. If CTR remains that high, you better start praying to google.

[suzyvirtual]

Mack,
I don't have a tremendous amout of content on my page because there isn't a lot of info on this particular product. But, I do have real content, as well as links to other content/sources, so its not just adsense on the page. I have a 5 ad tower on the right hand side of the page as well.

[Zygoot]

It's very very high but I don't think that it's impossible..

If you are sure they are genuine then I wouldn't worry too much about it. But if you want some more certainty then you could contact Google about this. They will probably appreciate your anxiety regarding this issue.

[level80]

It could be a stats reporting delay. Are you using channels to track this page?

[suzyvirtual]

level,
yes i am using a channel to track this page. my overall CTR is not like this, just my CTR in this particular page. It isn't a reporting delay though, it has been consistently like this since i implemented adwords about 6 weeks ago.

[Macro]

Over 100% is not possible surely? If a visitor clicks an ad he gets taken out of your site. If he goes back that counts as two impressions. If he clicks an ad again that still makes only 100% - 2 impressions, 2 ads. The calculation is valid irrespective of how many times he clicks ads on your page. In fact, if you have three ad units it's 3 impressions each time someone views the page and 2 clicks per 6 ad units is way below 100%.

The only exception I can see is rightclicking and opening in a new window. If most people who come to that page right click it does strike me as odd as it isn't typical visitor behaviour (especially if, on average, each visitor right clicks on more than three ads on the page). Just because you haven't clicked on the ads yourself - or encouraged anyone else to click - does not necessarily mean they are genuine clicks. It could be someone fraudulent activity or a Google stats lag (columns updating at vastly different speeds).

[suzyvirtual]

the CTR of over %300 was only on a couple days. my overall CTR for the last six weeks is about %120.
Are you sure that if someone clicks and then hits back within a couple seconds that a new impression would be counted? It seems like it might have a period of time before a view from the same ip etc. is counted as an impression. Just wondering if you know for sure...

[Macro]

>>Are you sure that if someone clicks and then hits back within a couple seconds
I'm as sure as I reasonably can be.

[dazz]

I nearly always open links within a new window and im sure alot here do too.

If they open 2-3 of your ads with new windows thats where your probably getting your +100% from.

[kempozone]

The only way that ctr outpace impression, like macro stated, is that the visitor must have right clicked on multiple ads to display the page separately. I believe these kinds of click behaviour are from visitors knowledgable about adsense ads and do not want to be redirected to another page.

Dpending on how much money was generated as a result of these clicks, a span of six weeks with ctr over 120% seems a little suspicious and may trigger some red flags.

I'm pretty sure that each time the page is displayed, whether it is refreshed or with the back button, it counts as an impression.

kz

[Zygoot]

I'm not 100% sure of this:

But when you click on the ad and then hit Previous in your browser it doesn't counts in as an extra impression.
The browser received the page from its cache and not from the internet, so it doesn't generate a new impression.

[jouwpagina]

Technically there is - very curious visitors who click on multiple ads on the same page - with three ad blocks and up to 5 ads each there's a theoretical maximum of 1500% CTR.

I think that's false.

1 ad unit = 1 view. So the highest CTR = 500%.

Or am I wrong?

[itisgene]

Well, a few month ago I removed the Google Adsense Search from all my sites due to low EPC.

A few days ago, I clicked the search stats tab and found that I had forgotten to remove the code from one of the pages. It was generating about 1 - 2 impressions a day with 2-3 clicks. The total earnings are negligible but the CTR is over 100% for the search. (I may want to rethink about Adsense Search...)

So, yes, it is possible to have over 100% CTR with very few impressions and very targeted contents and very good Adsense placement.

If it is a very small part of your overall adsense campaigns, then you should be fine. There should be no problem unless any fraudulent clicks are involved.

[suzyvirtual]

I am not making alot of money from this site, I know we are not supposed to talk about specifics, so I'll say its like cup of coffee money per day, and not starbucks coffee either :), and it is just a small percentage of my overall adsense pie.
So, I'm thinking that it isn't anything to be too worried about, but I think I will shoot G an email anyway just to premept any problems, and maybe they can clarify what exactly counts as an impression...

[whoisgregg]

Tabbed browser users (like me) will often click 2 or more links to start opening in a background tab then switch to the tabs after they are done loading. (I've done G searches where I open in tabs about 4 advertisers and about 8 of the organic results.) An analysis of my browsing behavior in these instances would reliably show that when I click, I have a CTR of well over 500%.

<added>
Even knowing the clicks are legit, I would still send an email to Google. Better to pre-empt any problems. :)
</added>

[ChrisKud5]

CLicking on an Ad and using the back button does not reload the page for everyone, it sure doesnt for me on my browser. One impression with more than one click equals the number of clicks times 100 with a percent sign on it. 1 click, 100%, 2 Clicks, 200%.

I have seen over 100% before, never had an issue, that was a year ago it happened on one day when i put adsense on it that night and i guess some folks got curious and clicked back click back a couple of times.

Sure over 100% can happen, going back in a browser does not reload the page, im sure you can change your settings for that to occur though.

Remember those days of DIAL UP when it was worthwhile for pages to be cached so we did not have to wait 10 minutes if we clicked "back"?!

[MikeNoLastName]

Also make sure you're not violating the TOS by rigging ads to open in a new window. This could easily cause a >100% CTR since the original window/screen is never closed/left.

Anyone know if this behavior also could be caused by those browsing "accelerator" programs (are they still being used?) which automatically go out and start caching the next pages they THINK you're going to want to see while you read the first page in order to speed up surfing? If so it could be one individual with this type software who decided to make your page his browser home page.