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Huge Drop in CTR - All Desktop Text Ads Being Shaved

ToonMan

1:34 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Starting on Sunday our CTR dropped by over 75% and having looked into it in detail it seems the drop is because near enough all text ad clicks delivered from desktops are being shaved.

Clicks appear for few minutes then disappear along with the related revenue.

Text ads for mobile and tablets do not seem to have this problem. Neither do image ads on desktop, tablet or mobile.

We still have nessie buttons.

Don't really understand why this is happening or why it only seems to be text ads on desktops (rather than all ads, or on all platforms) if we are being penalised for something.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? What did you do to resolve it? Or did it resolve itself after a while?

illusionist

2:17 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Same thing here! And today's stats look horrendous.

Kimkia

2:37 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Mmmm, think this is happening me too.

ToonMan

2:44 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

@illusionist @kimkia
Are you both seeing the ctr drop and shaved clicks just on desktop text ads?

avalon37

2:45 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Seeing a significant drop in CTR here on high volume site.

snickles121

3:26 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Bad ctr here today too. Are stats stuck?

Fern

4:32 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Same here, CTR drop is ONLY with desktop platform - text ads.

ToonMan

5:44 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Does anyone understand why it should be just text ads on desktop that are affected?

Is this temporary and will sort itself out? Or we need to do something? or permanent?

Fern

5:59 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

I talked with an adsense rep a few days ago. Their algorithm is running tests to see what the sweet spot is. He said there is nothing publishers can do but wait. Honestly, their algorithm is crap, and my earnings are now 20% of what they use to be.

ToonMan

6:43 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Their algorithm is running tests to see what the sweet spot is

Did the adsense rep say what they are trying to achieve? Or what it is about a website/adsense account that might mark it out for this treatment?

Or even perhaps how long the 'testing' will go on for?

I'm still mystified by why 'desktop text ads' should be targetted!

Fern

6:52 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

They're trying to achieve best earnings across the board, not just one account/website.

He didn't give me any indication or hint how long this process lasts for. Its rather depressing with the lack of information I was given.

webcentric

6:53 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Their algorithm is running tests to see what the sweet spot is.

Doesn't sound like this relates to "click shaving." I would also like to hear from Fern on what the question to Adsense was that generated this comment because the answer sounds more likely related to text-ad optimization that anything to do with click shaving but I could be wrong. Inquiring minds would like to know.

Can't tell for sure what's up but I've seen periods of low click counts interspersed with periods of substantially higher click counts recently. It almost feels like semi-regular click dumps are coming through after periods of latency.

ADDED: I'll also say that I'm seeing a great deal of latency in both Adsense and Analytics systems today which could be caused by the normal end-of-the-month earnings finalization process or by some major changes being pushed through those systems or both. There's a big lag between Analytics reporting and Adsense reporting on this end.

snickles121

8:05 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

CTR and EPC is horrible today (Both cut in half). Yesterday was great. Very frustrating because Tuesday is usually one of my best days.

Fern

8:25 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Has anyone had a huge increase in earnings being shaved from Invalid Traffic?

Normally every month, I get paid 99.99% of Estimated Earnings. This month on the other hand, payable earnings is 89% of Estimated earnings.

greatstart

9:27 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

They only took a nickel (5 cents) off of my September earnings. I guess I'm not going to complain about that.

Too early to tell, but today Oct. 1st is starting off very poorly. Hope it's just temporary.

Fern

9:36 pm on Oct 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

I think people should also check Unmatched Ad Requests. Starting Sept 28th, Unmatched Ad Requests JUMPED from almost zero to 10% of total ad requests.