Just How Much Do You Trust Google/Adsense Stats? Read on...

[OptiRex]

Today, Thursday, I noticed a substantial discrepancy within my Adsense reported figures/earnings.

I have reported those and received the "canned" response. Adsensers I am telling you NOW to check your earnings!

Those who know me understand I have 100+ sites and I have found one site in particular since 12th September has been reporting a 20+% difference between the domain earnings and the Channel earnings.

I have spent all day analysing the stats and this SPECIFIC site's stats has had the same and constant discrepancy every day since 12th September...!!!

Hopefully for everyone else it is solely me...however I doubt that!

[Jenstar]

Are you using URL channels or custom channels?

[IncrediBILL]

I'm not sure what's going on as my AdSense went to hell about 4 few days ago yet my web stats claim everything is status quo. AdSense is recording a lot less impressions, money, ad nausea and I have an independent banner tracker that disagrees with the impressions and confirms my web stats.

I'm annoyed to the point I'm about to toss it off the site and welcome YPN with open arms but I'll wait for a few more days/weeks/months for support to respond.

[OptiRex]

Originally Posted by Jenstar

Are you using URL channels or custom channels?

Both, it is their reported figure differences I am seeing and I have been checking some more.

Until 12th September I thought all my stats were reasonably ok with the usual few cents difference between the custom v channel however it is now getting more disconcerting.

Taking a sample period from 1st August til 20th October there is a reported difference of 11,207 v 10,341 clicks for this site alone showing USD192.63 discrepancy.

Now this is concerning me since I have now checked stats for some of my other better performing sites and, for example, for the same period one site is reporting 7,662 clicks v 7,607 and a USD7.40 difference.

This is something we've all gotten used to.

The Adsense team canned response really annoys me however it is the overall picture which should be worrying everyone.

Am I the ONLY person this has happened to or has someone at Adsense found themself a nice way of creaming earnings from publishers sites?

I sincerely hope not since if they have then consider just how much effort Google has to do to check so many accounts for filching.

[Jenstar]

So you are showing more clicks in your URL channel than in your custom channel? Or vice versa? Or are you comparing AdSense channel data to tracker data?

[OptiRex]

Hi Jenstar

You're never going to believe this!

I've been pulling my hair out trying to work out what was going on and I've found the answer! Relax everyone...Google's not filching from me.

Fortunately we date stamp files when they were last updated and it coincided with 11/12th September.

The person who updated the files included the ad_channel_code for this site onto a couple of small satellite sites. Once their clicks and earnings had been added to this site's stats...bingo...they balanced...phew...now can I get back to doing real work?

That person is definitely buying me beer tonight:-)

Sorry about that folks!

[Jenstar]

Thanks for following up, had a few people buzz me on this already this morning

[leadegroot]

It would be nice, for those of us running adsense across multiple domains, if there was an option for 'display by domain'.
What I mean, in case it isn't clear, is a display of URL channels, but rather than defining them myself that there should be a report which automatically groups by the domain name.
I know this is the main report I update frequently, to get an overview, but I have had to create it manually, and every now and then I have an extraneous click - I have to assume that I have put adsense on a domain I have forgotten about (or I have a really stupid scraper?)
Having Google supply this is a report option would be just beautiful, and would defuse the sort of situation described above

[gehrlekrona]

I'd just be happy to see if there is anybody out there (except Google!) that can explain the huge difference between these 2 reports.
You would think that a click is a click but I guess not I have asked Google several times about it but usually just get the canned answers so anybody??

[leadegroot]

I'm having weird things happen with my data just the last few days, but generally it all adds up and is fine.
(This morning I have a minor channel with 3 clicks and $0.00 payment. Thats really weird, but the day isn't closed yet. The figures should rationalise early tomorrow, if not before)

[gehrlekrona]

yeah, I mught be just dum but the numbers and calculations between channels and aggregate and stuff just doesn't make sense to me. I am 110% sure that they are not trying to scr*w us so it is probably just me
The whole thing with channels makes me confused If you have more than one web site, like I do, then the only way i have come up with is to create different channels to be able to track your web sites. Right?

[leadegroot]

Remember that there are 2 types of channels - URL channels and custom channels.
Definitely create an URl channel for each domain
You might want to create URL channels for subsections where you need to track them.
This allows you to get a high level of each domain.
Occasionally the sum of these will be less than the aggregate data, because someone may have viewed your site from eg the Google cache.
Then you add on custom channels where you want to track particular things, like success of various ad variations.
You mustnt confuse what should be totalled (in your head, or spreadsheet) in the report with what should be looked at independantly.

HIH!