Three weeks on and this 'trend' continues just as dramatically. During the 2nd week of this month I noticed that my ads hadn't been showing at times. Reason: daily budget reached. This really surprised me, as in the entire 18 months of using adwords, I've never had to even think about increasing daily budget.
To accomodate this 'surge', I increase daily budget by 50%.
A few days later and the same again: daily budget reached. So, in the space of just 7-10 days I've had to double my daily budget! The total spend this month will be double that of any previous month.
Comparing totals for Feb to-date over the whole of Jan shows that:
Tot clicks are now 0.58% higher in the 2 1/2 weeks of Feb than the whole of Jan.
Tot Search/Content impressions: 58% higher
Tot Content clicks: 98.63% higher!
Search conv's: 0.4% higher
Content conv's: 22% higher
Search cost/conv: 1.75% cheaper
Content cost/conv: 18.17% cheaper.
This side of the year the Content network really is outstripping the Search network in all areas (has gone mad!). So much so that if I could, I'd be very tempted to switch off G and concentrate on Content alone.
Anyone seeing anything similar? Any ideas why the dramatic rise in volumes from Content?
Syzygy
Tot Search & Content impressions: 58% higher
Tot Content clicks: 98.63% higher!
Content convertions: 22% higher
Content cost/convertion: 18.17% cheaper.
Nearly 100% more clicks from Content, with a 22% increase in Conversions relative to last month's figures; I'm happy, although I need to look at the disparity between the increase in clicks and increase in convertions. For some reason the last two and a half weeks has seen several hundred thousand more Content impressions than at any time previous - these are big numbers for me.
My curiosity is piqued as to why this is happening - and so dramatically, too. I want to understand it...
Syzygy
My curiosity is piqued as to why this is happening - and so dramatically, too. I want to understand it...
Not sure about the dramatic nature of what you're seeing, and only have a short time to post - but here are two things I can say with confidence about the content network:
* The network is growing by the minute - so more chances to show on targeted pages.
* Targeting is being sharpened every day, and will continue to improve over time - so more chances to have your ads show in the places that'll net you customers.
Just my $0.02, of course, and I do know that not all on this forum will agree. ;)
AWA
My curiosity is piqued as to why this is happening - and so dramatically, too. I want to understand it...
And now I understand...
What caused the incredible surge in impressions and clicks since the start of the year, and that saw me having to double the daily budget during the last couple of weeks, is... India.
Looking through new sign-ups via our site it became apparent that we were being innundated by those from India. On Friday, to see if this was the case, I took India out of the global list so ads wouldn't be shown there. (Even though we've had no problems with traffic from India pre-2005.)
Guess what? Traffic - impressions and clicks - has now returned to it's late-2004 levels. Give it a day or two and hopefully I'll reduce the daily budget back to it's more affordable level.
That one country can cause such a startling effect on campaigns; to cause impressions to double in just a few short weeks; to require me to increase by 50% and then double my daily budget in a fortnight - when I've not even had to think about doing such a thing in the 18 months I've been using adwords - is quite astounding!
<cynical>The sudden, phenomenal rise of interest from India in all things engineering-related is even more amazing!</cynical>
Syzygy
Content Impressions have now dropped by 69%.
Content Clicks have now dropped by 66.7%.
Content Conversions have dropped by just 16.4%.
Meanwhile, Search Conversions are up by 26.1%.
The combined Search/Content Conversion % is basically the same as the week prior, and the also the week previous to that...
Does that say anything to you? All I can see are lots of figures swimming around my head..:-)
Syzygy
I dont think its Fraud ,maybe an important indian engineering website got into AS or it gained ranks in the SERPS or gained some media exposure etc etc
FYI ,for some of my campaigns ,content clicks always outnumber search!
I dont think its Fraud, maybe an important indian engineering website got into AS or it gained ranks in the SERPS or gained some media exposure etc etcFYI ,for some of my campaigns ,content clicks always outnumber search!
Could be, gopi, could be. I too doubt that it's fraud; it's just incredibly anomalous based on 18 months worth of stats.
I did see that we were showing on a particular jobs site in India and this was bringing in a good number of clicks. However, the attention we've had of recent appears excessive - one country effectively producing the same amount of clicks as the rest of the world. The figures steadily increasing to this peak since the start of the year, seemingly from nowhere.
All clicks and conversions are welcome, but, there seems to have been a major imbalance in the geographical distribution of these recently. Anyone becoming aware of this would obviously question why. Now that India is out of the geographical equation, data is, as I mentioned previously, returning to the same comfortable plateau I worked to get it to during the course of last year. Until our adwords budget increases, the plateau is where I want it to stay.
If G has brought on new partners - whether Search or Content - that may impact upon the amount of money I spend through adwords, and likewise may impact upon the success of our sites, it would be useful to know. It would make me feel more comfortable and less like I'm in the dark.
I have suggested in the past, that for some of us, access to geographical data within the campaign stats/reports would be very, very useful indeed.
And another thing; where is that Adwords newsletter? :-)
Syzygy
