Same Traffic - Impressions Drop by Half

[ember]

I have a site that is getting the same amount of traffic it always gets. Each page has two ads on it, and impressions are consistent month after month. Starting April 1, 2009 (how ironic), the impressions half dropped by half. CTR increased a bit but not enough to offset the drop in page views (it would have had to have doubled). I thought maybe it had to do with the interest-based ads (if no ads were available, then no ads showed?) so I turned that off but the problem remains. Am I being penalized somehow?

[Lame_Wolf]

Think of yourself lucky. Mine are 75% down.

[ember]

I sympathize, Lame Wolf. I just don't understand how impressions drop when the traffic is the same, page views are the same and the number of ads is the same. I can understand why CTR might drop or epc might drop. Impressions should stay the same.

[HuskyPup]

Have a look around the forum since many are reporting similar issues since April 1st:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[ember]

Thanks. I don't feel so alone now. Poorer, just not alone.

[drall]

New budgets came live for the new quarter 4/1. Fill rates may be suffering as a result of slashed ad spend budgets.

[m0thman]

Think it's time to batten down the hatches, tighten the belt and get ready for a rough year.

[Lame_Wolf]

I am serously thinking about pulling adsense off the site if it pays so poorly.
I'd rather have a clean looking site and earn naff all, than one with adverts that now pay pennies.

[HuhuFruFru]

I'm also thinking of removing AdSense and trying alternatives!

It is getting worse with every day! I'm now standing on 35.90 USD, usually at this time it is above 70 USD. Impressions -50%!

[maximillianos]

Have you ruled out any kind of technical issue? Losing 50% of your pageviews with your traffic unchanged is kind of odd... If it were me, I would be wondering what I broke? ;-)

As for Adsense, they themselves are not the ones cutting down on the payouts, it is the advertisers. That is what happens during economic downturns like this. We just need to get creative.

I've been focusing on increasing pageviews per visitor to help make up for the loss in per-click dollars. So far seems to be working as I'm staying afloat.

I'm also pitting advertisers against each other. Looking at replacing one with a competitor, seeing if I can get a better rate that way, etc. You'd be amazed what you can get if you just ask. Particularly when you are providing a new advertiser a door to steal a publisher away from one of their competitors...

[ember]

I've removed and re-installed AdSense to see if that helps, because I agree, losing 50% of impressions literally overnight even though traffic is identical is strange (and maddening). If it doesn't work, it may be time to go after direct advertisers like in the old days.

[sunhapol]

It seems my stats is going down everyday ... I'll check again my stats later ... right now it is 50% down.

[Scurramunga]

I have seen these spats too, especially in recent times. When I check the url visitor stats they are always high.

Another anomaly which I have reported here has been the sudden decreases in ctr

[adamxcl]

A relief to see I'm not the only one. I thought it was some non-related changes I made. But no, I'm in the same boat. Traffic the same or higher but impressions, ecpm, ctr are all down over the last week or so.

[gouri]

I was hoping someone could please tell me, when you say traffic do you mean the page requests in your traffic log?

And the impressions from Adsense are not adding up to the page requests in the traffic log?

[ember]

Google, at least in our case, counts each ad on a page separately so if our logs say we have 1000 pageviews for one page, and we have 2 ads on that page, Google says we have 2000 impressions.

Our log pageviews are the same as always. It's Google's impressions that have dropped by 50% and nearly 65% in a couple of cases. Our epc and ctr remain the same. Our ecpm has actually increased; we're just not getting enough impressions for it to equal what we were earning. I just can't figure out why the impressions have plummeted, and to be honest, I am tired of trying to figure it out.

[gouri]

I am just seeing if I understand this. So, it seems that there is something up with adsense page impressions with pages that have more than one ad on it?

In the above example, if the log says a page had 1,000 pageviews in a day, in adsense it should say 3,000 page impressions but for some reason it is giving a number around 1,500 page impressions (if we use the 50% drop as the example)?

[ember]

Yes. Removing and reinstalling the code has not helped, either.

If Google had an 800# help line like most major U.S. companies, that would be nice.

[Lame_Wolf]

Today, (9th) is even worse than yesterday :(
Stats totally screwed.

[maximillianos]

When G lists your total page impressions, it does not combine ad units. For instance if you have two ad units on a page, and that page gets viewed 1000 times, Google is not going to list you had 2000 page impressions as the TOTAL.

You will see them listed out separately in your channel data, which can add up to 2000, but your TOTAL page impressions will combine ads from the same page into one impression for stats.

[rocker]

If you copied the same code on the same page twice it will show 2 impressions for each page view. You need seperate channel names to show seperate impressions.

Ember, often AdSense only shows one ad, even though you have the code on there twice. The best thing to do is use different channels for each code.

Also, what option are you using for if no ads are available, PSA, alternate URL or fill space. You may want to use alternate URL and see if the alternate url is executed.

[gouri]

If I have url channels and have two ads on a page, if someone visits the page, would that show as one page impression or two?

That would be the same code twice on the same page I believe for url channels.

[rocker]

If I have url channels and have two ads on a page, if someone visits the page, would that show as one page impression or two?

1 page impression.

[google.com...]

edit/added/

We'll only report one page impression no matter how many Google ads are displayed on a page. For example, if a page with one half banner and one vertical banner is viewed once, we'll display one page impression.

[gouri]

Thank you.

This is great information. Also, thank you for including the link.

[alephh]

I truly feel sorry for Google.

They pay hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to people to write answers to these basic questions on the adsense help. All the basic Adsense stuff is there: clearly, authoratively, free of charge, 24 hours a day...

And, of course, sadly, madly, stupidly, incomprehensibly, it's totally uselessly spent money as 99% of people don't even read the help files but fill all the forums on internet asking the very same questions.

For heaven's sake, if you get money(!) from some company, wouldn't it be kind of obvious thing to read their help files beforehand - or at least when you have trouble? With some very basic basic basic basic thing like how impressions are counted?

[ember]

Our channel data has always shown more impressions than the aggregate data (nearly double), and the ctr for the channels is always lower than the ctr for the aggregate data, which makes sense. Now, though, the number of impressions reported in channel data is the same as the number reported in the aggregate data. No difference. That would be okay if the corresponding ctr were the higher one that is usually associated with the aggregate data. Instead, it is the lower one usually associated with the channel data. So essentially aggregate data but with the channel ctr is being reported.

So, as of April 1, our ctr overnight dropped by 50%. Ads are the same. Traffic is the same. Just a 50% drop for no reason.

[ember]

I read their help page info, alephh. It didn't explain why they stopped reporting channel impression data.

[edited by: ember at 3:18 pm (utc) on April 9, 2009]

[netmeg]

My CTR is dropped way way down, but my impressions are up, if anything. More traffic. Gonna move stuff around.

[zorogat]

//So, as of April 1, our ctr overnight dropped by 50%. Ads are the same. Traffic is the same. Just a 50% drop for no reason.

you're not alone.
the same exact thing happened here, after a crazy month of march where google managed to remove my main pages from the serp for a period of 12 days....
what next?
locusts?