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So what's with Adsense CTR fluctuations?!

by markowe
7 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have only recently ramped up my Adsense earnings (hadn't bothered before, thinking it wasn't worth it - oh how wrong I was ) so have only just started seeing some numbers that I can actually use for tweaking, testing etc.

And I see for a given site that CTR really does fluctuate wildly day-to-day, without ANY changes to the layout etc. on my part. One day it will be, let's say, over 10%, and then two days later it will be down to low single figures.

So, those with more Adsense experience than me, what are the factors that you know of that influence Adsense CTR? Remember I am NOT talking about changing layout etc., I am talking about CTR variations with all other things being equal, my ranking staying the same, traffic etc.

I thought - days of the week, but I can't find any correlation there.

I also thought maybe there are just not many advertisers and so maybe relevant ads are not always showing - not much I can do about that. Any other factors? Like, ones I COULD influence?
#adsense #ctr #fluctuations
  • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
    If your traffic is reasonable that 4 or 5 clicks won't make much difference then it is possibly a variation in the advertisers on your site. There might be a dud that is appearing every so often that your traffic doesn't respond to. Just keep an eye out for unappealing ads and try filtering them out.
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    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by Fraggler View Post

      If your traffic is reasonable that 4 or 5 clicks won't make much difference then it is possibly a variation in the advertisers on your site. There might be a dud that is appearing every so often that your traffic doesn't respond to. Just keep an eye out for unappealing ads and try filtering them out.
      Hey, thanks, yes, I never really looked into that - unfortunately I find it difficult to see which ads are showing as most of the traffic is mostly UK and I am not located there. But good point, maybe every few days something irrelevant is getting thrown up and pushing down my CTR, must investigate - I bet it's ipod cases or something
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  • Profile picture of the author Ernie Lo
    The thing with adsense stats they are not real time. What tends to happen is the views you get are updated daily but the clicks may not register until the next day or so.

    This explains your varying CTR.

    So to get your real CTR figure find out your average CTR for the entire month and that is your real CTR on a daily basis.
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    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo View Post

      The thing with adsense stats they are not real time. What tends to happen is the views you get are updated daily but the clicks may not register until the next day or so.

      This explains your varying CTR.

      So to get your real CTR figure find out your average CTR for the entire month and that is your real CTR on a daily basis.
      Oh, really? I mean, I know they are by no means real-time but I didn't realise they were delayed by more than a day, I just figured they were finalised once the day's results are. I thought they were delayed by more like a few hours. That would explain a lot though, as I have TRIED to connect CTR with certain activity on a site, like traffic spikes, but not seen a real connection. I certainly see that impressions can get posted way sooner than clicks, but I didn't think they might even get rolled over to the next day.
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  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    Just as an update, circumstances conspired such that I was definitely able to observe this effect of clicks being reported several days late: I had a couple of unusually low CTR days for a site, and then the third day I had a massive increase in clicks, in fact, the number of clicks at that moment exceeded the number of visits I had had that day! So that kind of proves it really..!
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      The clicks and money are seen right away. What lags are the total
      impressions.

      Unless you have a great niche, which gets tons of targeted ads in
      the same genre, and a never ending supply, like insurance, your
      site may be ripe for a plethora of general interest ads, or global
      advertisers. Some lower QS adwords users have to target second
      level sites and just grasp at straws for any type of exposure.
      (They don't realize that's just not a good way to do things.)
      I've never seen google do much to police the ads on your site
      that are just not appropriate. So it's up to you.

      That's why it is imperative to use the competitive ad filter on
      a daily basis. You have to keep weeding out the duds.

      If not, what normally happens is those slowly go away on their own,
      but your CTR may suffer as it happens. Then another batch of duds
      shows up.

      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author Ernie Lo
        Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

        The clicks and money are seen right away. What lags are the totalimpressions.
        Paul...I'm VERY sure that's incorrect. From my constant monitoring of my stats, I strongly believe clicks can show up late in the stats....even days later.
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