There's tech, and then there is experience. This is the latter:
The internet is connected to the real world, else the internet would not exist. The real world, however, has a number of recent chaos events (tariffs, wars, migration, culture change, geo-ecological, and oh so much more) that have had a significant effect on buyer interest or buyer ability. Search interests can change significantly as the world rotates (night, day, night, day, time zone, country(s) etc) so tracking during CHAOS impacting "the ordinary" g algorithm, which has NEVER been certain IN THE FIRST PLACE is Uncertainty which causes more uncertainty and chaos.
Having experienced a few decades of such chaotic times while doing business on the net the best that can be suggested, besides doing all the right things to cross t's and dot i's, is to do nothing dumb chasing strange ups and downs. Take a deep breath, lean back, and give it a little time.
I know I may sound like I’m trying to uncover the secret of the universe,
One thing is TRUE: Things ALWAYS Change---sometimes good, sometimes bad---and that's merely a by-product of the passage of time!
One other thought to consider:
g's recent adventures with various COURTS and RULINGS in recent months---
Each new downturn for g in the courts SEEMS to result in downturns for publishers AND (to a lesser extent) advertisers. Could it be that g is proactively making CHANGES behind the scenes to MITIGATE any adversarial court rulings/discovery? Just something to think about.
The Black Box remains as opaque as ever.
