My Impressions Always Seem Off

1. 75

   melbelposted 7 years ago

   Okay, so as a Hubber I am to get 60% ad impressions.
   
   But say, for example on January 31, according to Google Analytics, I got 6,434 users which resulted in 6,911 sessions. In addition, numbers from day-to-day on HubPages seem to corroborate this.
   
   However, under earnings on HubPages, it gives me 2,427 impressions.
   
   2427 of 6434 is roughly 37%.
   2427 of 6911 is roughly 35%.
   
   Neither is even close to touching 60%. I expect numbers to be off a bit, but I've been getting steady traffic over 5k per day for a while and still barely touch 2500 impressions in the earnings section.
   
   Just curious where I'm going wrong. It's just so demotivating to write and write and never seem to really pull ahead.

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   1. 89

      agvulpesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Shoot me if I am wrong but the way I understand the 60/40 breakup has nothing to do with Impressions.
      We hubbers are given a 'time-share' by that I mean our Adsense number is placed on our pages 60% of the time and the other 40% of the time is covered by Hubpages Adsense number.   Which in my mind is not the same thing as sharing impressions? 
      Maybe someone smarter than me can correct this reasoning?

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      1. 75

         melbelposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I don't see how this differs. As a writer, 60% of the number of impressions should belong to me.

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         1. 68

            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            melbel, I guess you didn't read my reply to you above. Here's a more detailed response.
            
            Among that 60% that belongs to you, about half the readers may be using ad blockers.
            
            In addition, if people don't see right up front that your article is what they were looking for, they will click away before the impressions are served. There is a small delay in serving ads in order to be fair to the advertisers and not charge them for readers who click away quickly.
            
            Based on these two reasons, less impressions will be counted than actual page views. 
            
            Take a look at the view duration on your hubs and make sure you don't have any with just 1 star.
            
            Here is Google's explanation:
            
            https://support.google.com/dfp_premium/answer/2521337

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            1. 99

               DrMark1961posted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Glenn, I have  a related question that you may be able to answer. I have several articles on naming your dog and although they get decent traffic they only have two stars on duration. The articles I write on health and selection always have five stars. Are these articles on dog names even getting impressions, and are they even earning anything? I do not plan on deleting them but is it just a waste of my time to publish others?

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               1. 68

                  Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  I would leave them. I’ve experienced having articles that sat there earning practically nothing for years, and all of a sudden came alive. Two stars isn’t that bad. It means the visitor did not click away at the start.
                  
                  Of course it also means they left early, but that might have been due to following an ad. If that happened, it means you made money. It's not possible to know for sure what occurred. But you know one thing for sure with two stars—most readers got past the beginning.

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                  1. 61

                     HoneyBBposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Where do I go to see the stars on my hubs? I never even knew about this feature.

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                     1. 99

                        DrMark1961posted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        Open the article, click on stats, and check the first thing that comes up. Under metrics there are stars showing for page duration time and for incoming links.

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                        1. 61

                           HoneyBBposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           Oh my gosh!  Thank you so much DrMark!  How cool! I can't believe I never clicked on that in the past 5 and a half years...lol.  It's exciting! It sure will help me figure out how to make some things better.

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            2. 68

               eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Hmm... so that delay is deliberate. So how can we keep all those fickle reader's attention?

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               1. 68

                  Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Very good question. One thing that I found works is to give instant gratification. People who write hubs that ramble on before getting to the point usually lose their readers way too early. If you answer the question that they searched for (that brought them to your hub) right up front, then they will feel more secure sticking around to read the rest.

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            3. 75

               melbelposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Nah, I saw yours. Ad blocker = boooo, but I get it, I get it.

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2. 68

   Glenn Stokposted 7 years ago

   Actual impressions are much lower than the 60% you would expect because only people who don’t have ad blockers see them. More and more people are using ad blockers these days. It just something we have to live with.

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3. 99

   DrMark1961posted 7 years ago

   As I understand it the number of impressions you have is also much lower if the readers open your article, read a sentence or two, then immediately move on to something else. They were not on the page long enough to see the ads so we are not paid for an impression.
   I think this is why we are always told to add more photos, videos, polls, etc. Writing longer articles also seems to help.

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   1. 68

      eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Also I've noticed that even though I have a reasonably fast Internet connection (100MBS) and hubs with maybe 30 or 40 photos load in less than 10 seconds, it can sometimes take 20 seconds or more for ads to be served up. So if someone leaves quickly, we lose out on impressions.

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4. 68

   eugbugposted 7 years ago

   Do impressions on non-unique pageviews count?

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   1. 68

      Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Not sure what you mean. What do you mean by non-unique pageviews?

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      1. 68

         eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         For instance if a reader re-loads a page or navigates to a linked page and uses the "back" button on their browser to return to the original page. There's a column in GA for "page views" and "unique page views", so I always thought that was the explanation.

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         1. 68

            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, you answered your own question. The unique page views in GA do not include returning people. But as far as counting impressions on returning people, I don’t have the answer to that.

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5. 68

   eugbugposted 7 years ago

   Should there be an option to display a "Please turn off your Ad-blocking software" notice on our hubs? It would be an interesting experiment to see whether readers would disable their software to continue reading and whether impressions would increase.

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   1. 68

      Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I’m sure it would be an interesting experiment but I don’t know what the legalities are.  Besides, I doubt anyone would care to do it since there is no motivation.

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6. 57

   Shehireeposted 7 years ago

   Well this is really an issue so many people around using different ad blockers because of number of aggressive ads came up, i am bit confused in that like for suppose if 100 people viewing my article and all of those have installed ads blocker plug-in, they will surely not get to see the ads on my article so is this mean i will get paid ?

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7. 92

   alikhan3posted 7 years ago

   Hi Mel, This is exactly what I noticed with my analytics some years back. For me it was like I was only getting paid for 42 - 43℅ of the total impressions on google Analytics.
   
   I tried to investigate and post on the forums, ended up getting simillar explanations as this thread.
   
   I am still curious about the fact that do we really get a 60℅ share as claimed by HP.
   
   Even after including early dropoffs and adblockers the figure should not drop down to a bare 40℅ as per my observation.
   
   Just adding to it. Impressions in your Adsense account, if you are using it will be even lower then those on HP ad program. Do check that also.

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