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60% drop in Adsense CTR over two days

by cabezon
11 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I had a 60% drop in Adsense CTR in a two day period in mid July. I've been blocking non-targeted ads since then, tweaking the ad layout, etc since then, but it has yet to recover. I didn't touch the site or any Adsense settings prior to the drop.

This 60% is based on the average over the last five years or so. It seems strange that it would drop like that suddenly as a result of advertisers pulling out, especially since this is a very summer/seasonal niche.

I get about 1000 uniques/day and 2000 page views, lots of long tail traffic and it's a very specific niche with good content.

Any ideas what else I might try to track this down? It just seems very odd to be that this would happen suddenly for no apparent reason. As far as I can tell, the ads showing are the same ones, but I have to admit I didn't really keep track.

I should also mention that I've been working on ranking and bringing traffic to this site, and my traffic is about double that of last summer. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but it certainly makes it extra discouraging.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
#60% #adsense #ctr #days #drop
  • Profile picture of the author JamesGw
    I'd give it some more time. 2 days, even with 1000 uniques/day doesn't create a very large sample size. Make sure your code is good and your traffic is coming from the same keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author steve m
    My CTR has dropped dramatically over the past few days. I notice that when I go to one of my sites the ads have no real relevance to the site, as before the ads were very relevant and my CTR was good also my ECPM has dropped also.

    Hopefully it comes back if not I'll change it to an affiliate offer if I can find one as these ads that are showing are rubbish

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author cabezon
    Thanks for the feedback, everybody. I'll keep working on it. I guess the discouraging thing was that it dropped so quickly, and has since been hanging out at the lower level for the last two weeks.

    The CTR has always fluctuated. The drop actually came after a spike up that was about 70% higher than the average. That was followed by the two day drop in mid-July, and CTR is since stuck down there at that level.

    That's what made me fear I was hammered by some algorithm change that has since discounted clicks for some reason. But, perhaps I'm just being paranoid.
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  • Profile picture of the author SpiderHunter
    "The CTR has always fluctuated. The drop actually came after a spike up that was about 70% higher than the average. That was followed by the two day drop in mid-July, and CTR is since stuck down there at that level."

    There is your answer. Try focusing to find out what caused the spike and repeat that to keep the CTR high.
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  • Profile picture of the author BarryWheeler
    How are your traffic numbers across this period? Are you seeing spike in traffic as well?
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  • Profile picture of the author jacked
    Give it a few days.
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  • Profile picture of the author CeeCee123
    1000 unique a day? That's what's up right there... Good 4 you.. Make sure to check your Gmail account to see if you have any notices from Google.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Banks
      Whenever this happens to me I just figure there was a really good ad running when the CTR was high so lots of people clicked it, then the very good relevant ad campaign was over and CTR must have dropped.

      Worry more about driving more traffic and building more sites, if you always sweat the small stuff it will hold you back! but not a bad idea to look into it quickly
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  • Profile picture of the author cabezon
    @SpiderHunter - That's the weird thing, because I didn't do anything during that time. I was working on other sites and didn't touch this site or the Adsense account at all. (Nice profile pic by the way. Yoinks.)

    @BarryWheeler - didn't see a spike in traffic at the same time as the spike in CTR, but the traffic went up about 20% during the two days that the CTR went down 60%.

    @CeeCee123 - Are you saying the increase in traffic I've had recently might have something to do with it? I haven't gotten any notices from Google. As far as I know there's no way to contact them about issues like this, right? Only policy or payment problems.

    Anyway, I guess I can wait and see what happens and keep working. It's mostly the two day dramatic drop, followed by being stuck at this low level since then that is annoying and discouraging since it's never happened like that before and there seems to be no reason for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author cabezon
    Thanks Jeremy. I guess I should accept that's probably the case, especially since there's not much else I can do, as far as I can see.

    Thanks for everybody who weighed in.
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