Did someone unplug the main power supply cord over at the Google HQ’s? 
I joke, but I’ve read so many complaints about their various products in recent weeks and most of them involve reporting.
From quirks in the Google Webmaster Tools backlink reports to Analytics not reporting, you name it.
Last month I began receiving more “low-AdSense-earnings” Facebook messages and emails than I normally do.
I don’t obsessively check my earnings like I used to, so it had literally been a couple of weeks since I logged in. Now I was curious.
The Case of the Missing Impressions
At the end of January, I decided to check my account. I expected my earnings to be far above November and December for two reasons…
- My traffic had increased quite a bit since November and December (the norm around this time of year).
- After the Holidays are over, advertisers tend to spend more in this niche — which positively impacts my earnings.
After I logged in I was quite surprised to see that even though traffic was way up, my earnings were not. In fact, my January earnings were on pace to be less than December’s.
So I investigated a little more and noticed that impressions for one of my highest traffic units were not being recorded.
It started around January 18th and as of today, there are still sporadic issues.
What’s interesting is that on one day, one of my units won’t track properly and another is working fine. But on the next day, the unit that was tracking properly will stop tracking and the other one begins reporting properly again.
Then on January 20th, I noticed a large increase in my earnings for that day. My click-through-rate was normal, so it was as if they were playing catch-up with earnings that had not been reported previously.
And finally, on February 5th I logged in and saw this message…
It was nice to finally get some kind of acknowledgement that there are issues — even though it was pretty obvious something was not quite right.
Be Patient
If your earnings are low and your traffic, click-through rates and eRPM (revenue per page) are “normal” (obviously normal is relative), there could be issues with the reporting. However, Google assures that everything is still being recorded.
Meanwhile the Google forums are also on fire with complaints about low earnings in 2013. Some people are reporting “stuck” impression reports like me and others are noticing lower eRPM (revenue per page earnings), a decrease in click-through rates, etc.
More Delays
Then there’s Google Analytics…
Since last summer I’ve been experiencing intermittent issues with delayed reporting.
Apparently I’m not alone.
Some people claim that their accounts have stopped reporting data altogether. See the post below…
What about you? Have you noticed anything strange with any of your Google accounts recently?
Hi, my name is 
Just checkecd my Adsense stats.
CPC and RPM have been pretty constant in the last 3 month, also in January.
But I also saw messages a couple of weeks ago, that they have delay-issues with the reports.
But:
How do you manage not to check the stats for more than a month?
I have to check them (at least) once a day.
yes, several emails reg non performing ads or ads that can perform better. when i looked the numbers they did seem a bit off. i haven’t done this across all accounts yet, but data seems to be less kosher. i would not have noticed this as i am not regularly checking my stats.
Hi Lisa!
I cautiously backed away from heavy reliance on Google late last year. I have a wide variety of sources and backups for services I avail my blogs of.
I have also come to expect odd things to happen, both when dealing with online services (and of course) as well as with my own computer, which “acts up” from time to time.
Needless to say, the most secure way of ensuring a good flow of visitors and exchange of knowledge is to interact with other bloggers whenever possible, via services or forums or twitter or (best of all) by leaving comments!
Happy Valentine’s Day (a few days early!)
David, that’s a smart thing to do. I too have focused less on Google in recent years and it makes up a much lower percentage of my income because I’ve diversified with my own products, etc. Feels good and it’s also why I don’t check my stats as often. I hope everyone is doing the same (diversifying).
Yeah, diversification is definitely wise – I had no choice, Google wasn’t doing much in the beginning, but it grew to be a nice bonus. One that I’d like to keep coming – after all, the work we do as bloggers really does benefit Google in many ways.
Hi Lisa,
I’m still the new kid in town. However, I now understand why you always admonish your readers to not place all their eggs in one basket, whe it comes to generating income. Thank you.
I always thought that google webmaster can control all the 404 errors, but it doesn’t do that because its only report where 404 error occur in the website.
Yes, I’m glad you brought this up, Lisa.
I have been noticing a trend where the source for organic search engine traffic is showing as (not provided).
The problem is this is happening on the visits that stay the longest and click the most pages.
It’s like Google doesn’t want me to know what people are searching for that land on my site and actually stick around.
Very frustrating.
Last month I had 57 visitors who stayed 2.54 minutes on average but what did they search to find my site?
(not provided)
I guess I’ll never know.
CORRECTION
..the 57 visitors viewed 2.54 pages/visit and stayed on average 00:04:19
What makes it so bad is (not provided) is the #1 source of organic traffic to my site.
How messed up is that?
Thanks Google.
Hi Lisa,
How are ya?! I thought I was losing my mind – normally, I don’t worry about fluctuations, but in January, I noticed a tremendous change in Adsense earnings. I was getting ready to start digging deeper when I ran across this article. I don’t know if the issue I’m experiencing has the same cause, but it does help me feel better to know that I’m not alone. I really hope this issue gets fixed soon, I’ve also been having problems with Analytics. It kind of makes you wonder, is there some conspiracy going on… Google owns just about everything on the internet, shouldn’t they be able to get the details right on these things?
Hey Kiesha!
Yes and I also found a bit weird that there are no notices on their blog or anywhere. If the issue is indeed this widespread then why hasn’t someone made any official statements? Even though I got a notice, it went away and the problem still persists.
I have noticed that my traffic has been rising in recent weeks…but my Adsense CTR has dropped. The resulting income has been about the same as a result.
My earnings (all of $5.29) are on hold, but I know that’s because they don’t pay out until $100. My blog is new so .. I’m sure I’ll get there .. someday .. lol.
Monica.
I built myself up to $20 a month and now as of January I am down to $7 and only have $2.65 this month… Obviously I am still new this is really confusing me because I have doubled my page views and my CTR has gone down over 50% and my CPC has gone down by 75%. I thought this was due to the new year however I guess this is a wide spread problem that is effecting a lot I was thinking wrong. Hopefully this is an actual problem and not that people are clicking less ads. (I run a few different channels on Youtube and also my 1 website)
Thanks Lisa for sharing your insight. I periodically check my earnings. When Google launched Panda my traffic plummeted and so did my Adsense earnings. I lost 1/3 of my Adsense earnings for a year. I got discouraged, it was like the wind had been pulled right out of my sales. Then Penguin was released and traffic to my sitse increased. Needless to say, my earnings with Adsense have been like a wild ride on a roller coaster for the past two years. It’s funny how the one release caused things to go down and the other release caused traffic to increase. I look at my Analytics reports and just shake my head sometimes.
In any case, Google has so much control that things get out of control at the push of their buttons. The key is to not let them push my emotional buttons so much that I throw in the towel and quit. What goes up with Google will come down and vise versa.
Lisa,
What is strange to me is that my adsense earnings had dropped significantly about a year ago, but within the last 3 months my earnings have significantly risen above any previous month’s earning. The funniest thing is that I did nothing to manipulate the earnings and my traffic levels have remained constant. Stranger than strange things are happening, except here I am smiling all the way to the bank.
Yes, It’s not just me then Lisa. My traffic, if I am to believe the reports, is going through the roof (which I don’t believe) but the adsence is zero, which has never happened before. Something is up, I smell kippers.
Hi,
In the Webmasters tool under Queries, Search Queries, it is showing with 6 days old results. Is it the same case with any one of you?
Thanks,
Anant
Hi Lisa, You’re realy smart. I just praising you. 3 years I’ve following your blog until I get adsense account by learned on your blog. 2 years in adsense publisher, but I’ve never getting payment until now. hmmm…. maybe this is strange notice to me
I’m glad I’m not the only one experiencing strange results. I don’t run Adsense ads on my blog but I do on my YouTube videos. I appear to be experiencing similar results to everyone else but mine seem to start a month earlier.
Up until last December everything was fine and earnings were steady. Monthly totals from November to December, however showed a 33% increase in clicks but a 45% decrease in earnings, very strange. January and February have so far jumped back up a little but nowhere near where it was last fall.
It seems to be going in waves. My earnings were actually higher in December than November (which is rare… as December is usually slow) but then I started experiencing issues in Jan/Feb. People like you who had issues earlier seem to be recovering in Jan/Feb. Very odd indeed. The earnings are one thing because you can’t depend on those but what is more troubling is the impressions that aren’t being reported properly. This has been going on for far too long.
Hi Lisa, yep getting the same message in reports and my revenue is way down so far in Feb!
Lets hope they show us the money before months end !!
Although I don’t use adsense on our site but I have an issue with analytics. From early feb my website’s impressions have decreased drastically in analytics. I hope that Google will fix the issues soon!
I’m seeing inconsistent results with Analytics too.
well i was getting a feeling that something is wrong but wasn’t sure of it
Grrr Google adsense, google search, all of it drives e bonkers! Right when I think I have figured it out, it changes!
Ok so I just checked my Youtube accounts and according to this stats I should have $2.75 as of yesterday and many days are missing from those youtube stats. and my google adsense stats say I had $2.74 as of yesterday and that total is including my website where i have made $0.59 … something is not correct here especially how my page views are still gaining and my money (CPC and CTR) has dropped $14 by this time 2 and 3 months ago. I think there is a problem here… does anyone have googles contact info for me to ask them a few questions?
Hi, thanks for sharing, I’d had never get an approved google adsense account, can you help me with that if you have some advises, I would be very thankful.
Lisa, thanks for sharing your observations. The very reason why all of us should be looking for other ways to monetize our websites.
Yes Lisa, I certainly notice the drop is earnings and views tracked. While my page view are higher in Google Analytic, the ads views are much lower and so is the earnings for the last couple of weeks. I guess the issue that Google is having with its products and services is affecting Adsense as well. I hope they get things correct so that I can get back to making a regular income.
My earning dropped since november, from an average 35 euro per day now I earn around 13 euros per day. I had yesterday the lowest earning- 9.8 euro… I see I am not the only one with this issue, the traffic is constant. I noticed a lot of Adsense Adwords ads on my site, the niche is music production and I am sure that they don’t have anymore specific ads like they used to. The advertisers from this niche are now looking for another options like direct advertising and affiliate programs, that why us, publishers, we serve more irrelevant ads on our sites.
I think is time for all of us to see another ways of monetizing our content…
I myself, am experiencing a noticeable drop on my impressions, I used to receive an at least 9,000 pageview everyday of which 2,000 is a unique views, last January my pageviews reached its all time low of 800 pageviews per day, I sent them an e-mail and it took them 3 days to respond, and their reason was they were updating their database, I am definitely sure that this is not a sandbox issue since my blog is more than a year old, I am now talking with tribal fusion and other ad network just in case adsense ban my account. LOL
Hi Lisa
Thanks for sharing this useful information. You have a very interesting blog. I’m still learning about everything to do with Adsense! I’ve just subscribed to your blog and I look forward to learning from you in the future!
Thanks
Tim
To be honest, the low earning report freaks me out LOL. I hope it would be just a delayed report just as you said since Google has no reason to lower their stats
Today, i’ saw “we’re sorry, some data in this report is delayed, please try again later. There’s no impact to ad serving or payments.” again. This is the third time i’ve seen this message. And from yesterday my CPC is going down. I saw many 0,01 click on my report(The click is from various country, so i think it isn’t invalid/fraud click). Usually i got 0,1$ CPC, now it’s only 0,04$. How rude it is XD..
Lisa .. I saw this issue last month. and I got too much scared
I have noticed that my traffic has been rising in recent weeks…but my Adsense CTR has dropped. The resulting income has been about the same as a result.
Hi Lisa, thanks for raising this issue. I have a site on gold and silver coins (built using SBI) which is steadily getting more visitors. According to the SBI stats, the homepage had 718 page views in January. However, according to Adsense, there were only 15 ad requests/impressions for the whole of January!
I understand that traffic numbers and ad request numbers never match, but surely this is a huge discrepancy. Is there anyway I can check that my ad units are OK?
Same here, Nick. One of my units normally has impressions in the 6 figures for the month. This month it’s only 2 or 3 figures. Something is going on and it’s very annoying that Google won’t put out an official statement.
I didn’t notice because I got kicked out of the program recently for “posing a risk of generating invalid clicks in the future”, so when did Google start banning people simply because they have a feeling in their water that you MIGHT break the rules in the future?
What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
That sucks, Dean. Yeah they have gotten really strict. No one is safe.
I am working on google adsense for long days but I can not earn. I was upset. After reading your article I knew a lot more thinks. It helps me a lot.
Hey Lisa,
I think my CPC had gone down to about .05 – .03 !
I don’t know what happened and there were times which I got CPC about 1.5$
I’ve recently added Yahoo media.net ads. Is it because of that?
I have no comment, I can not reach the $ 100. thank you for this artcile lisa.
My cpc has been very low and I don’t know why.
Lisa, thanks for keeping us low earners abreast of what is going on with adsense. I have not noticed much difference. I am glad to know that they are keeping a good track of what is happening.
You are right it was good to get some type of acknowledgement of the problem. thanks again
Sometimes this happens as lots of sites are using Adsense account. But my site seems all right. They are showing update regularly. My earning also constant
great article and i am loving it… offcourse being patient is an important thing to achieve something
This happens, i believe all this is from google adsense themself. I think is time to always check mine.
Thanks for sharing
The problem with my site is that I am getting around 60-70 clicks daily and still I earn just about 0.5$ each day and sometimes not even that.
Earlier with that much amount of clicks I use to got around 7-9$ each day.
I am very annoyed with this now.
Do you mean that it is a problem with Adsense Report but they are still recording it.
Will i get all the money I deserved after the fix!
Thanks for the informative post.
Hello Lisa,
The same problems I had in the past with Google Analytics(in 2008-2009 I think) and I switch up to Statcounter. You need to give it a shot, it’s the same as analytics from google. Also, you just need to track the visitors, right? matter what he literally
do, not from who is this tracking tools.
Lisa,
I check my AdSense earnings multiple times throughout the day and for the past couple of months, my earnings will falsely spike to about 5-10x what they actually are. For example, if I’ve really earned 50 for the day, it will say that I’ve earned 250+ for at least 15-25 minutes. Then, all-of-a-sudden they will go back to normal. As you know (because you commented on my YouTube video), Google recently removed YouTube from being reported in AdSense (unless you use the workaround) but I am still seeing these false spikes in reporting. It seems that they’re having multiple issues with their analytics and reporting systems.
Hey Anson,
I wonder if this has anything to do with bots. Is your CTR very high too or is it just the earnings? Someone on my forum said they keep experiencing very high CTR and earnings and then Google will take it away at the end of the day.
My adsense account is showing problem in blogger blog!
Do you have any idea, why is it?
My Analytics visitor count seems way lower than the Adsense visitor count (I know they count page views in Adsense, but on some days for example I had 1 visitor reported in Analytics on one of my sites (usually much higher), and I had something like 50 page views in Adsense – that can’t be correct!), and my Adsense clicks have gone WAY up. I actually suspect that one of my sites is being “click-bombed”, so to speak. I have maybe 50 page views, and 27 clicks. It sounds a bit like what Anson Alexander and Lisa are talking about. I will keep an eye on this!
I’ve noticed that my YouTube earnings are no longer appearing in my Adsense overview, which is kind of inconvenient. I don’t understand why Google does not at least give us the option to see it there, as now I have to look at multiple places to see how much I’m actually earning from Google.
yeah me too! ‘this month so far’ it says I have £0.37 which isn’t right at all! so if your saying it isnt showing YouTube earnings then this is defiantly the reason.
I always think the google control all 404 errors.
I thought I was alone when it comes to low adsense earning for 2013 until i found this page and several others. What I want to ask is, is Google trying to make more profit and then pay less to website owners who host their ads?
I don’t think they are paying less, I just think advertisers are paying less so that means publishers don’t earn as much.
Hi Lisa,
2013 – Thousands of additional weekly hits yet 65% less google earnings. Major decrease on the payouts and pretty depressing to say the least. I guess that’s life in the big city when they’ve got you by the big ones.
I am getting much problems in clicks and conversions. Sometimes there is click on ad but no conversion.
My celebrity gallery blog got 1$ / RPM but now it got down to 0.66/RPM and I done nothing to the ad units, sizes, types.
I got 7000 impressions everyday it affects my earnings up to 3$/day. what’s the problem?
I’m a YouTube partner and my account has stopped reporting. Last updated on 5/5/13.
Not surprised. I’ve noticed a lot of reporting issues with Google.
That happened to me since may 1. Adsense just shows me “No data available.” My blogger account says, I have on average around 600 visitors per day, and I used to get revenue from that… However, come May 1, it’s all zero… T__T
Hello Lisa,
some really strange things happen with my Google Adsence clicks. It happens that click appears on Google Adsence report, it shows both clicks and earnings, but in 10 or 5 minutes it reduces both of them.
As I noticed it happens usualy with the clicks from front page… and the click rate for this page is really low
I checked all recommendations about putting ads on the page, everything seems according to the rules.
Do you have any ideas?
Greetings from Lithuania!
Hello Lisa,
Recently I also see some odd things happened in my Adsense account. After getting click I saw some money added in my account but after few min. it decreases. I think Adsense is now working lot on fraud clicks.
Lets hope for best
I think the problem is with everyone’s adsense account. I too had faced the same problem. But, mine seems to be fixed now. How about you guys? Is it still the same?
Lets face it, Adsense not pay good anymore… I was suffering from Google Panda, and now that Im finaly out of this madness, Google hit back with another madness, reports and low PPC, I dont know perhaps is time for me to think about the Media.net sulotion…
I mean, it doesn’t matter how more trafic I get, or how quality content your articles have. We anyway dont make money…
My Adsense is in good performance this month. Google Panda give me more visitor too. XD
One thing i have noticed is that sharing your website especially new post update across the social network like Facebook normally reduce adsense CTR and CPC. Why is still what i have not been able to figure out as i have noticed this countless number of time
I will agree with you jerry, was happen to me too, when a group add a feedback of my articles….
That makes sense, though. A lot of your followers on social media are probably already familiar with AdSense so they have “ad blindness” and are less likely to click the ads. So if your getting more traffic on the day you announce to social media and most of that traffic is from people who ignore ads then your CTR and eRPM will be lower.
People who use social media are often more savvy so they ignore ads. So I can’t say I’m surprised you’ve noticed this. I would guess most of my clicks come from people who find me in Google.
I’ve a few self hosted blogs which are earning ‘normal;’, even if rates are down a lot on last year.I no longer seem to earn from are my youtube channel and my blogger blogs. My stats show ad clicks but earnings are now a big fat ZERO and have been for the past few weeks. Odd to say the least. None of my sites or youtube channel are spammy or sales/marketing based. Visitor demographics are the same.