CTR goes through the roof

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CTR goes through the roof

I should be happy, but I'm worried

WebWalla

7:22 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

On Friday I changed to the new leaderboard format. I expected an increase in CTR and indeed it almost doubled. Today, however, my CTR has multiplied by 5! I should be happy, right? But now I'm expecting the dreaded you clicked on your own ads email from Google. What's happening?

Clark

7:27 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

Did you change anything? Did one of your pages on a particular topic get lots of hits all of a sudden? Do you have a huge amount of traffic (therefore immune to one person skewing results)? Because if you get 100 or 1000 ads in one day, and you get one person visiting your site who is interested in your topic and he starts clicking on advertisers to check out who's advertising in your market, you can easily get that kind of one day skew. The higher your traffic the less this will fluctuate.

WebWalla

7:31 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

The only thing I've changed is from the normal banner format to leaderboard format, so from 2 to 4 ads. I don't have much traffic, an average of 2000 impressions per day.

Clark

7:34 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

Yeah 2000 impressions can fluctuate a lot.

When I switched to leaderboard I doubled to tripled traffic as well.

But what do you know I just checked my stats and yesterday's stats showed a huge bump from when I last checked it after 3am. It broke to a record CTR, and todays is double that!

But the amount of ads shown is very low so I think their stats are screwed up today. I think the clickthroughs are showing correctly but their impressions count is very low..

Blue_Fin

7:35 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebWalla, take a look at your Impressions. They are way off due to a reporting issue. That's why your CTR appears to be very high. Just wait until your Impressions are properly reported and you'll see the CTR go down.

Nikke

7:35 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

It just has to do with the stats being out of sync

[webmasterworld.com ]

My CTR is over double of what it "should be", but my view count is way out of sync.

Jolly_Roger

7:37 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebWalla, what you are seeing is probably a combination of your improved CTR (from switching to leaderboards) and google's slow updating of impressions today. My CTR is more than double normal, my clicks are about normal, and my impressions show less than half normal.

Check out this thread for more on this phenomenon:
[webmasterworld.com...]

gmoney

7:38 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

I am noticing similar things. My impressions are way down but my clicks are about normal (and maybe even a bit high). This has caused an excessively high click through rate (5 times higher than normal). I think it may be related to thread that Nikke linked to above.

WebWalla

7:42 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

OK, it may be due to a stats problem. But my earnings are also double what they should be for a normal Sunday. I'm happy about that of course, but I just wish that CTR figure would go down - I can't help worrying about it even though I'm squeaky clean in terms of not clicking my own ads.

Blue_Fin

7:43 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

Just thought I'd add that the CTR you are seeing now for Saturday, 8/30, is also inflated because Impressions are not accurately reported for that day either. The actual Impressions for 8/30 should be about 50% higher than what you are seeing now. When Google updates 8/30, your CTR will go down for that day too.

Blue_Fin

7:46 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebWalla, I can certainly appreciate your worry, but don't. My earnings more than doubled when I went from banners to leaderboards but they have come down this week.

My clicks and earnings last Sunday (the first Sunday with the Leaderboards) were way more than double what they were the previous Sunday with banners. Didn't hear a peep from Google. :)

Your users are seeing something new so they are clicking on it out of curiousty. Enjoy the higher earnings while they last, but I suspect they will come down over the next two weeks.

You have nothing to worry about though. Just calm down. :)

WebWalla

7:51 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

OK, I'll try to calm down and enjoy the earnings while they last. Thanks for letting me vent my worries :)

Clark

8:05 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

WW, you definitely don't need to worry. Everyone is having the same issue...enjoy the holiday! Have a beer :)

defanjos

8:43 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebWalla,

The same exact thing happened to me since I switchd from 2 ads to 4 ads. My CTR and revenue more than doubled. It has been at least 10 days, and it has remained solid.

BTW, the only change made was to switch to 4 ads.

BorisVM

9:17 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

I just switched today to the leaderboard format. I will let you know of the results soon.

Jon_King

9:28 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

My CTR is the same... Triple the daily average.

Yesterday's figures just updated 16 1/2 hours into today... something is awry.

Clark

9:37 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

DEFINITELY. Impressions down 90% but CTR up to almost 10%!

Blue_Fin

10:02 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

Yesterday's figures just updated 16 1/2 hours into today... something is awry.

I don't think Saturday, 8/30 is fully updated yet.

West of Willamette

10:09 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

My CTR is about 2 1/3 times my recent average and the amount of money earned is astronomical for the number of impressions that I am showing.

Must be the little green men all clicking on my ads:.)

Blue_Fin

11:03 pm on Aug 31, 2003 (gmt 0)

Saturday, 8/30 Impressions have just updated again and they appear to be complete when compared to my own stats.

WebWalla

6:50 am on Sep 1, 2003 (gmt 0)

CTR finally settled down to a much more respectable level - still almost double last week's figures but I think that was because of the change to the leaderboard format. And I'm very pleased about Sunday's earnings :)

peterdaly

12:13 pm on Sep 1, 2003 (gmt 0)

still almost double last week's figures but I think that was because of the change to the leaderboard format. And I'm very pleased about Sunday's earnings

WebWalla,
I am having exactly the same experience. I switched to LeaderBoard Friday afternoon. My Sunday stats are just what you have described.

-Pete

esllou

2:45 pm on Sep 1, 2003 (gmt 0)

i have tried to get the leaderboard ads to show using phpadsnew and keep getting a leaderboard-size white space with a 468 up in the top left hand corner of this space.

I went to adsense and got the leaderboard code and have added that to half of the zones in my phpadsnew set up, but it keeps calling the 468 and putting it into a leaderboard white space.

any ideas?

bragov

12:40 am on Sep 3, 2003 (gmt 0)

I second (third?) the "don't worry" message. Google knows if you're clicking on your own ads. Since I changed to leaderboards my CTR and earnings have been six times what they were before.

NeverHome

8:02 am on Sep 3, 2003 (gmt 0)

I had a big upward tick today, and I'm a bit concerned about it. In the past I had a guestbook, and a also a forum, but I dropped them both because of persistant idiot postings. I am wondering if today's results are indicative of an "improvement", or are just a reflection of the retarded mentality of some vistors that historicaly have taken great pleasure in terrorising my site. hmmmm. I guess the final opinion rests with google.