Is there any reliable way to know how old the data in any one of these reports might be? Do they vary in age from each other by a predictable amount (i.e., Summary is 3 hours old, Campaign is 5 hours old, Ad Group is 7 hours old - or, put another way, Campaign Summary data is usually 4 hours fresher than Ad Group data).
The reason I ask is that I just added a new keyword that might have less direct relevance, believing that people looking for "doohickeys" would probably like my "widget", too. Let's say that prior to adding the new keyword my CTR was running 3.5% and impressions were running 500 per day.
Four hours after adding the new keyword, the Ad Group data shows 550 impressions and CTR of 3.3%; Campaign Level shows 700 impressions at CTR of 3.5%; and Campaign Summary shows 1400 impressions at CTR of 1.9%. Oh, and when I pull a report on the campaign I get an entirely different set of numbers. And the new keyword doesn't show up on any of them.
I suspect that the new keyword is adding impressions and lowering my CTR significantly but I don't know whether to delete it before it trashes my CTR or wait until the AdGroup/Keyword numbers catch up and show the extent of the devastation.
And if the keyword is dropping my overall CTR on the campaign, does that matter? Or is placement just determined by each keyword, so if one keyword has a billion impressions and no clicks, then that keyword gets slowed/stopped while the rest of the keywords in the campaign continue to run as if nothing happened, without having a negative effect on the campaign as a whole? So, 1)is there any way to know the age of the data, and 2)does it matter anyway?
Regards to server delay - I see delays sometimes from 30 minutes to 8+ hours or so especially on new campaigns. It would seem that campaigns that have been running a while seem to be more evenly updated but that is my hunch.
If you submit a bunch of words that are "sensitive" their getting served and reported also seem to be delayed further.
M
Four hours after adding the new keyword, the Ad Group data shows 550 impressions and CTR of 3.3%; Campaign Level shows 700 impressions at CTR of 3.5%; and Campaign Summary shows 1400 impressions at CTR of 1.9%.
As far as I'm aware the freshest data is at the 'all campaigns' start screen, the next freshest is at the campaign level and then the adgroup data is updated. The lag can be anything from 1/2 hour to 24 hours...
And if the keyword is dropping my overall CTR on the campaign, does that matter? Or is placement just determined by each keyword
The CTR is worked on a keyword by keyword basis.
