Adwords Confusion - Where are these clicks coming from?
-
Ok, I posted two images showing that my Google Adwords search settings are to receive clicks only from google's search engine, as we are doing testing on keyword behavior with a few specific keywords.
The second image will show that we have somehow 7 total search clicks, but not for any of our specific keywords.
I'm confused. . . and hungry. . . I'm 'confungry'. jk any thoughts are welcomed.
-
Thanks for all the help everyone! It appears that those supposed 'phantom clicks' are a result of our product listings being added to the campaigns, and those don't get tracked as individual keyword clicks. Here is the exact response I got back from Google for future reference:
"Having reviewed your account, we can see that you have successfully setup
product listing ads for your campaigns. So, the missing clicks are from
the product listing ads. Please note that the keywords do not record any
clicks for product listing ads.Instead, to view the statistics of the product listing ads, please select
desired campaign and click on 'Auto Targets' tab found beside Ad
Extensions in the central menu bar. This will give you performance
statistics for your product ads." -
Just another thought, have you tried seeing what your search term report tells you in Adwords as this might show you search terms that have clicks against them that are not showing on the main overiew panel.
Go to the Dimensions tab and change the view to Search Terms and drag that out to Excel.
The other possiblity is that Google has just gone crazy....... had to happen some time
-
We get that sometimes also -it shows up as "other keywords" i just go into analytics and find them that way.
-
Yeah, it could be. Thanks for the response. We are now up to 32 phantom clicks for a total cost of $26
-
This test campaign is for all states outside of the one we reside in, so we have not attached this specific campaign to our places account.
-
Also another possibility is that they have been free clicks. I think I have seen this mentioned somewhere in adwords reports, I think it has something to do with when linking your google places account with your campaign - have you done this?
-
I find that sometimes there can be a lag in how things are reported in Adwords. So, perhaps by tomorrow you will see the data as to where those clicks came from?
-
Thanks Mark, good thoughts. However, I haven't made any changes to the keywords, match types or the ads of this campaign. I did edit the campaign settings late last night, which if tracked by East coast time, it may have been search results from Google's search network maybe, but I still think the keywords would have been identified regarding which ones brought in the clicks.
The clicks are now up to 9 clicks, but still no credited clicks to the keyword phrases. However, I don't know how new this is, but I just noticed that the clicks are now 'accredited by the Media Rating Council', which could mean clicks are coming through, they are just not being considered legitimate and 'chargeable', so maybe that's why they are not being shown or deducted from ad spend. Article is here: https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=tltp&answer=153707
-
A couple of thoughts. 1) these are unlikely to have come from the display network as they would not show Under the search total, so safe to say your campaign settings are fine. 2) have you deleted any keywords or edited the keywords in any way (even the match type)? If so adwords won't show the clicks against the original keyword, it will clear the stats for the updated keyword and just keep them in the total at the bottom. E.g you had 2 clicks on "blue widget" and you edited the keyword to [blue widget], adwords will clear the 2 clicks alongside the keyword but keep them in the total below. Mark
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Adwords :what do you think about creating 2 different ad groups for each match type of the same kws into the same campagn?
one modified broad and one exact. ADGR1:
Paid Search Marketing | | pupazzoinfame
+red +cat +buy
+red +cat
+red +cat for +sale ADGR2:
[red cat]
[buy red cat]
[red cat for sale] Am i bidding agains myself without negative kws?2 -
Adding AdWords Remarketing Pixel to "Partner" Domains?
I have read through the AdWords advertising policies, but there isn't an extremely clear answer to my question: does it break AdWords policy to include a remarketing pixel on a partner website? Example - I own and run 123boats.com, my acquaintance who owns abchotels.com has agreed to put my remarketing pixel on his website, and I plan to show remarketing ads to his website visitors advertising my services at 123boats.com. Is anyone aware of any documentation that explicitly allows or disallows this type of "partner" remarketing tracking?
Paid Search Marketing | | marymerritt0 -
Disparities between AdWords clicks and Analytics sessions
Hi all, Have an Analytics account connected to my AdWords account which is showing HUGE gulfs in clicks and sessions for a CPM campaign. 500 clicks = 0 sessions. Does anyone have any idea why this could be the case? Auto-tagging is on and everything looks to be in place. The website itself is on a 303 so I was wondering could that be impacting things? The CPC is also just 1p so that's got me very suspicious. Thanks in advance.
Paid Search Marketing | | Whittie0 -
Adwords coupons
I have a bunch of $300 free adwords spend coupons (must spend $100 & only new accounts) . If any body wants to become more of a t-marketer and play with ppc , Just comment in the post. I would also love to hear how people are using t-marketing to enhance seo.
Paid Search Marketing | | DavidKonigsberg0 -
Anyone Think AdWords Campaigns Hurt Organic CTRs, Decreasing Organic Rankings?
Hi All, It seems like just about everyone agrees that AdWords campaigns and SEO campaigns bring additional value when used in conjunction (increasing Impressions, Clicks, Conversions, etc.), but has anyone considered AdWords performance harming organic rankings by decreasing engagement metrics? I've been searching for studies, blog posts, investigations, etc. this morning and haven't been able to find anyone discussing this specific idea. Personally, I think decreased engagement for organic results would be relatively evenly distributed among those results, making engagement drops relative and thus nullifying their impact on rankings. Any other ideas out there? Thanks!
Paid Search Marketing | | mac22330 -
Adword competition between exact match and related broad match
If I have two company A and B. Company A: bid on key word exact [Nike and Jordan] Company B: bid on broad match Jordan shoesks Considering that broad match use related words I noted that google display both ads if I search Nike and Jordam (shoes is related with Nike). My question is: bid of B is competing with bid of A? therefore CPC of A increase because of B? Tks
Paid Search Marketing | | fabrico230 -
Does anyone else get a crazy amount of misdials to your AdWords call extension?
Not sure how many people here also do PPC, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. Since we added a call extension to one of our AdWords campaigns a few months ago, we have gotten a crazy amount of misdials/wrong numbers. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. Here's what happens: We choose one of the numbers we own, say 888-123-4567, and set it up so it displays ADWORDS on the phone's screen when it rings. This way, our customer service and sales reps will know when they are taking an AdWords call. We type that number into the call extension settings. AdWords then assigns a different number to us, which will appear on our ads and forward to our number. Say it's 888-234-5678. Then for months, every "ADWORDS" call we get is someone trying to reach a different company at 888-234-5679 or 888-235-5678. In other words, the number they're trying to dial is one digit off from the number AdWords assigned to us. When we first reported this to AdWords before Christmas, they simply assigned us a new number. It did not help. Now we just get misdials for different companies. So are we alone in this wrong-number phenomenon?
Paid Search Marketing | | CMC-SD0 -
Keyword domains for AdWords - duplicate content an issue
Hi guys, A client of mine has bought a raft of keyword domains for use in an AdWords campaign. This isn't my area of expertise, hence the question. They have a hosting account which can host an unlimited number of domains. Can they set up the domains with the same content on each site and then use AdWords to drive traffic to the sites? I've suggested they can use rel="canonical" to specify that the preferred site is the main site of the company which should bypass the duplicate content issue. Is this the best way to host the sites or is there a better alternative? Thanks in advance, Brendan.
Paid Search Marketing | | brendanbelladesign0