CTR, eCPM went through the roof this morning

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CTR, eCPM went through the roof this morning

Tuesday April 1, 2008

littlegiant

12:18 pm on Apr 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

My CTR and eCPM went through the roof this morning. In some cases -without going into actual numbers- I'm actually registering more clicks than page impressions. I've used the URL channels in my Google reports to zero in on the high CTR/CPM pages and now I'm trying to co-relate this information with my access logs to see if all the high CTR pages are being hit by the same IP but it's a very laborious process.

I'm somewhat concerned that someone's attempting to sabotage my Google account (although I can't think of anybody who would want to do this or any reason why). I also see that some clicks are being discounted, i.e., 3 clicks = $0.00, which in this situation, I'm actually happy to see because this means that some kind of Google filter is in effect (I'm presuming).

What should I do? Should I contact Google? What do I tell them? I'm making too much money? (*chuckle*)... No but seriously, I'm really paranoid right now.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

HuskyPup

2:29 pm on Apr 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

I had this recently, just drop them an e-mail advising your concern. This will also demonstrate you're up-to-speed with what's happening.

You'll get a nice thank you, we're aware response:-)

vero

2:48 pm on Apr 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

You can send an email to adsense-support @ google.com

Or there is a form mentioned at
[webmasterworld.com...] (see the last post by Adsense Advisor)

littlegiant

2:57 pm on Apr 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

Thanks for the reply, HuskyPup. Actually things have calmed down now. I've also managed to zero in on the IP that all the excessive clicks were coming from and it appears from the way they progressed through my site that this is a 'normal' user who just happened to be extremely click-happy. So I'm much less concerned about sabotage. I'm not really making a killing with Adsense although I do manage to eke out a meagre living. However if I lost my account, it would be a big blow to me. When that happened to you, do you remember what option you selected on the 'Contact Us' page?

"Invalid Clicks or Unusual Account Activity"?

littlegiant

3:07 pm on Apr 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

Actually what I'm really wondering now is should I officially define this as 'invalid clicks' or what? There was no spike in traffic to this site. Just a spike in CTR from one click happy user (however I'm just guesstimating this from studying the access logs).

HuskyPup

11:20 pm on Apr 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

do you remember what option you selected on the 'Contact Us' page?

Sorry, I don't remember however they were quick to respond & I was into the low thousands of invalid clicks over a 3-4 day period.

Someone was going through several of my sites and was very trigger happy!

greatstart

11:47 pm on Apr 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

CTR, eCPM went through the roof this morning

You must have a tin roof as my CTR & eCPM has dropped way down today.

I did have a few days last month where I saw astronomical numbers for what I normally would expect, but that's all part of the ARC (AdSense Roller Coaster) effect.

littlegiant

10:39 am on Apr 2, 2008 (gmt 0)

Wow HP, I didn't see numbers anywhere near that! Although I did make half my normal day's earnings in the space of about 20 minutes. And then seeing that first thing in the morning had the effect of making my CTR, CPM look astronomical. Though compared to yours and Sonjay's experience in the other thread, I think I might have overreacted a little bit. I think I'm just going to chalk it up to an extremely good day.

Greatstart, my situation yesterday was definitely an anomaly. Everything is back to 'normal' now.

Hobbs

11:07 am on Apr 2, 2008 (gmt 0)

April first looks like the start of a new SmartPricing cycle to me with eCPM and EPC plummeting, April 2nd so far is no better too.