Link units and page views

Does a link ad count towards page views?

[mertero]

I'm using link units quite successfully, it seems to perform very well for me.

I have a short question though - if I have a page with no ads except a link unit - will it count as a page view every time someone visits this page? I thought it should be like that, but from my metrics (I do have lot's of pages like this) it seems that this is not the case...

Just wondering!

R.

[keyplyr]

IMO all Google reports are vague or even incorrect. What does Google really count as a page load? What User Agents are counted and which ones are ignored? How long does the visitor's focus need to be on the ad before it is counted?

My server usually says humans loaded 3x to 5x more pages as Google's Adsense report. I stopped using Google Analytics because IMO they are even worse and rarely said the same thing as the Adsense report (plus it slowed page loads.)

[mertero]

Thanks Keyplyr... it is frustrating indeed. On one end I just saw "the hell with it, I just look at the revenue and that's all that matters", but on the other hand I have this drive to "understand" those obscure stats and report :-)

[keyplyr]

Well there are many members here who understand each metric more than I. I've just become cynical.

[Peter_S]

My understanding is that Link Units are NOT counted in Adsense's page views. This would be why the "active view viewable" for Link Units are always of 0%

[LuckyD]

@keyplyr, what tools did you replace GA with? Where do you get your reports and traffic insights? Genuinely curious

[mertero]

Thank you Peter, that's what I see too... I think that answers my question indeed!

[Peter_S]

Thank you Peter,

You are welcome.

[keyplyr]

@keyplyr, what tools did you replace GA with? Where do you get your reports and traffic insights? Genuinely curious

I've always used raw logs (20+ years) and only used GA for a few months when I first started getting serious with publishing Adssnse.

The raw logs, depending how the server is config'd to generate these reports, give you all the activity. I run the log through a customized version of Analog and use a few grepping techniques, some run as batch.