Serving ads but CTR dropped to 0

[Martin]

Hello Google Mobile Ads SDK team / forum,

One of my iOS apps is still serving ads but obviously it seems that clicks are not counted anymore. While impressions haven't changed at all and still stay on a normal level, the clicks / CTR suddenly dropped to 0

Please see screenshot attached!

The app exists since many years and still serves banners. I haven't changed anything - last update was many months ago. 

The app uses iOS SDK version 7.64.0.

Is this an SDK issue? But why dropped it so suddenly from one day to another (screenshot attached) when I haven't changed anything?

Will it help updating to iOS SDK v8?

The strange thing is I have many apps still using iOS SDK v7. But only this one seems to be affected. On all my other apps impressions, clicks etc. are still absolutely normal.

What happened to this particular app? Is this a SDK issue or something else? What can I do?

Please find attached a screenshot.

I hope you can help. Thank you so much.

Kind regards,

Martin

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Martin,

Thank you for reaching out to us.  Having read over your post, the fact that you are able to see ads and that the issue appears to be that the tracking of them is incorrect, would point to a potential backend problem. As we deal with the technical implementation of the SDK. And you are able to see the ads, there is not much we can do as it looks like everything is ok to us. What we would suggest though is to contact our Product Support Team , as they have the tools to look into why the clicks are not being counted.

Regards,

William Pescherine Mobile Ads SDK Team

 

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[Martin]

Hello William,

Thank you so much. So this is nothing that I can solve on my end? Only Google can solve it?

Kind regards,
Martin

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Martin,

Thank you for the reply. Yeah, from what I am seeing, the fact that you are getting ads but the metrics associated with them appear to be incorrect. The only thing that you might want to check on, is to make sure your app is linked to the admob account, and that you have no holds or suspensions against you. beyond that you would need to contact the Product Support Team and let them see what they can find, as they have better tools to help with that kind of thing.

[Khizar Tariq]

Same goes here. Did you get any luck in contacting support team? Did the issue resolve

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[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Khizar,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

For CTR concern, we recommend raising this to the Product Support team as they are handling this kind of concern. We hope that you get a positive response from them the soonest time possible.

Regards,

Princess Pamela Pineda Mobile Ads SDK Team

 

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[Martin]

Hi Khizar,

I contacted AdMob support using the link in the help section in the AdMob account.

The clicks are obviously not counted anymore because Google is suspecting invalid clicks.

We are using AdMob since many years, never clicked on ads, used test ads during development etc. We don’t want to risk a many year long partnership. I believe that a third party is causing invalid ad clicks in our app with the intention to harm us.

Regards,

Martin

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

As we are seeing this issue for both of you. We would suggest that the Product Support Team are the ones who can help you best with this. The fact that you are seeing ads but not receiving the proper numbers indicates that you have the SDK set up correctly, but for reasons that we are unable to see. Are not getting the clicks counted. At the same time, depending on if this is a new app, you also might want to check out this link . As it talks about some changes made recently to Admob and new apps.

[Nadhir Boukorsi]

Hi, I have the same problem and it has never been solved since march. I am using native ads and the policy center saying nothing. Clicks are almost zero. It looks like it is due to a new update in 2021 to the Admob algorithm that makes the system define some real clicks as invalid clicks. It is impossible that 100% of the clicks are invalid. It is also possible that it is an SDK issue. Whatever the cause this is not acceptable at all. Eight months without earnings. Admob should fix that soon. Now I can't contact Admob using the platform because the contact button is hidden after the earning drop!

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Nadhir,

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. First allow me to to say that this forum is for helping users who are having issues with implementing the SDk into there app. From what I am seeing, this is working just fine, as you were able to receive ads previously. But then recently saw this drop to near zero. With that in mind we would start by suggesting that you contact our Product Support Team , as they will be able to look into the ad serving as well as account side of this.

At the same time, we suggest for users to check their account for any violations or holds against them. If you want to share with us via the "Reply to author" button with you app id and ad unit id. We can try to look further into this for you.

[Martin]

Hi William,

I opened this thread in August and still don't have a solution. As you can see from the previous other posts in this thread and in others that other developers have the same problem.

Everyone still has impressions on normal level, no one can see a policy violation in the policy center, but clicks are not counted for months.

Unfortunately AdMob's product support team isn't helping either. Me and other developers have already contacted them. They confirmed there is no policy violation and no SDK implementation issue and said they hope that clicks will soon be counted again. But nothing happened. 3 months have passed and the problem persists. Banners still appear, impressions are on normal level but CTR stays at 0.00% since 3 months.

This is a really disappointing situation for many developers. The account's policy center says that there is no violation but clicks are not counted. Developers in this thread and in others have the same problem and AdMob support doesn't provides a solution:

- https://support.google.com/admob/thread/130625691/impressions-normal-clicks-suddenly-not-counted-no-violation?hl=en

- https://groups.google.com/u/2/g/google-admob-ads-sdk/c/CBjqRuT0VHc/m/MLHgydMtAQAJ

Could you please raise this issue to someone at AdMob who is responsible for this? As you can see there seem to be quite a few developers who face this issue and are clueless what happened and AdMob's support doesn't know a solution either.

Regards,

Martin

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Martin,

Thank you for the response. As we have stated previously. We are able to help with the technical implementation of the SDK within your app. This is an issue with the ad serving. Which we do not have any visibility on. That is why we suggest the Product Support Team. With that in mind, I will bring this to my team and see if they can give us any feedback on this.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Martin,

My name is Nick, I will be happy to help you figure out why the advertising clicks are not being recorded correctly. 

Can you provide us with a network trace log of the incident? For instance, a charles proxy log. This will help us diagnose the problem. Here is a guide for setting up the recording on android. Here is a guide for setting up the charles recording on iOS. Moreover, please include the App Id and all relevant advertising unit Ids. Alternatively a minimal sample application which replicates this issue would be acceptable.

Please send this data privately. If you encounter an issue when sending those details privately, you can send those details to our testing email address (mobileads...@gmail.com) instead.

 

Thanks,

Nick

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[Nadhir Boukorsi]

Hi Martin,
did you tried this

https://support.google.com/admob/thread/133446873/all-the-clicks-counted-as-invalid-clicks-since-march-for-no-reason-policy-center-empty?hl=en&msgid=133458070

[Martin]

Hi Nadir,

I have already tried what is described there. I have already changed from smart to adaptive banners and have removes banners completely for some weeks. It didn't help.

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Martin

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi Martin,

Can you declare the AD_ID permission to your AndroindManifest.xml file? I have included a code sample below.

 <application>
        <meta-data
            android:name="com.google.android.gms.ads.APPLICATION_ID"
            android:value="ca-app-pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx~yyyyyyyyyy"/>

        <!-- Required permissions for GMA SDK version 20.3.0 or lower to work on Android S devices -->
        <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID"/>

    </application>
</manifest>

Let us know if you need further assistance,

[Martin B.]

Hi Nick,

It's not an Android app. It's for iOS only.

As you suggested I have already sent you an email to mobileads...@gmail.com with details from my other email address.

Regards,
Martin