Something unusual happening today

suddenly getting great CTR on multiple ad groups

[grigoroo]

Normally this early in the day I have an overall CTR of about .5% on my various campaigns. Today it's running to 2.0%. It appears to be happening to all my ad groups even though some that normally don't get clicks are still not getting them.

I haven't been on AdWords for long, but I've seen more uneven volume in impressions than in clicks. My clicks follow a pretty predictable pattern - high early in the week and weak on the weekends. My average position is actually up a bit today. CTR has actually been declining some, so today's jump is a total mystery.

Am I alone in this pattern? Is this click fraud?

[grigoroo]

Looking a little closer at my own data, I have a suspicion. Google is actually underreporting impressions. My impressions are significantly lower for this time of day. I've suspected for some time that Google doesn't gather impressions and clicks from the same source, and that impressions come along on a less consistent basis. I actually found one keyword of mine that today has reported one click, yet has no, none, zero impressions. How's that for CTR?

[elsewhen]

grigoroo... i think i am experiencing an impressions lag as well... it appears that there is a lag on impressions on the adsense side of the equation as well:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[zeus661]

I see the same thing here also

[grigoroo]

Google called me(!) regarding this (I'd sent them an email) and explained to me that clicks are posted about once an hour and that impressions get posted about every 3-4 hours. Nice guy, but he didn't suggest or even acknowledge that impressions could be even farther behind than that. He recommended that statistics only be considered reasonably accurate the day after, as in 'yesterday'. I'm still running well behind normal on impressions for today, and probably near normal on clicks.

[zeus661]

My impressions seem to be catching up. My CTR is coming down to normal.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

My impressions seem to be catching up. My CTR is coming down to normal.

Cool.

Yes, I'm seeing some signs of longer than usual server delays, but can assure you that everything will catch up.

AWA

[richardmasoner]

Am I alone in this pattern?

I average 1.8% CTR. The holiday weekend was absolutely dead, but this week I've been running 3%. CPM is also much higher than normal.

RFM

[patient2all]

That's a shame it's just a lag -- I was just getting done patting myself on the back ;)

patient2all

[mike_ppc]

Ok, it's not very related, but it's close.

Have you had data for "yesterday" (closed day) for a KW something like 2 clicks - 1 impression, or 3 clicks - 2 impressions?

Although it's a clear "fraud" and we shouldn't be billed for all clicks, G. seems to consider this "normal".