Adlogger vs. Google stats discrepancies

Google stats report only 50% of clicks

[arikgub]

I have seen some minor discrepancies between adlogger and Google stats before, but in the last 2 days something strange is going on. Google reports only 50% of the clicks recorded by the adlogger script (and I'm not talking about adlinks!). Given my CTR history, the adlogger CTR seems more reasonable to me, Google stats show a drop in CTR over the last 2 days.

Anybody experienced something similar? What might be the problem?

[jomaxx]

What's the approximate number of clicks a day you're talking about? If it's not large then a drop in CTR is probably not significant.

Anything noticeable about the clicks recorded by the logger script, e.g. many of them coming from the same IP block?

[Hubbard]

I too noticed in the last 2-3 days that clicks recorded by Adlogger are not appearing in my Adsense account. I lodged a complaint to the developers and asked Google to keep an eye.

Adlogger is young software with many things needed to be fixed. It will record a click if the cursor is hovering over an ad at the same time a visitor goes to another site. It will also record right click and scroll wheel clicks as normal clicks. There are quite a few bugs to iron out. Wait for the software to mature before deciding.

[edited by: Hubbard at 3:58 pm (utc) on July 14, 2006]

[arikgub]

jomaxx,

What's the approximate number of clicks a day you're talking about? If it's not large then a drop in CTR is probably not significant.

You are right, I get few dozens of clicks a day and it is probably not enough to build reliable statistics.

Anything noticeable about the clicks recorded by the logger script, e.g. many of them coming from the same IP block?

Nope, everything is normal.

Hubbard,

It will record a click if the cursor is hovering over an ad at the same time a visitor goes to another site. It will also record right click and scroll wheel clicks as normal clicks.

But at least for some of the "lost" clicks adlogger records the destination URL, and it is correct, I know exactly the advertizers on my site... May be the adlogger bugs are part of the problem, as I have said I always had minor discrepancies, but in the past 2 days it has exacerbated. It might be a coincidence + adlogger bugs in the end, but what I've seen so far is unusual enough to raise a red flag.

[Hubbard]

I say remove the adlogger code for a few days and see what happens. Then you can isolate the problem to see if it is Google or Adlogger's fault.

[jomaxx]

Anyway your default position should be that Google is correct unless you can prove otherwise. Take it from someone who has had thousands of clicks every day for years -- Google is correct.

[Hubbard]

jomaxx, what would you recomment for protecting against click fraud and providing extra stats?