Before you start reading this blog post for some kind of exclusive tool then you should take a step back because we are going to give you a small hint on a public service offered by Google which can help you in finding out any blog’s actual or real traffic easily. Stop checking out the tools like Alexa or Statcounter which can be faked using some third party tricks but the one offered by Google cannot be faked because its very hard to do that. The entire point of this article is that when you visit different blogs on the web, they would fake their stats claiming that they reach lakhs or millions of visitors every month but thats not entirely true.
The tool about which I have been talking about is the Google DoubleClick Ad Planner which offers you with some excellent insights as mentioned below. Lets take a example of Tech Crunch which is one of the best blogs on the web around Technology related content [Sister Blog of Gizmodo]. Now if you visit their advertising page you would find that they claim to have around the following traffic :
- 12+ million unique visitors / month
- 35+ million page views / month
Now how do you confirm these stats if they are right or atleast near to the exact estimates? You would either check out the Alexa Rank which can just give you a rank but no estimated stats, next option is to try out Quantcast which mentions that the owner has hidden the stats, followed by Check Website Stats which guesses the stats to be around millions of visitors every day, clearly showing that the stats are wrong followed by Compete.com which again reports that TechCrunch gets less than a million visitors because they report only US based traffic. When your search for finding actual traffic is not completed then its time to check out the Google Ad Planner as mentioned above.
Link : Techcrunch.com Stats on Google Ad Planner
As you can see the comparison of what the blog is claiming and what Google Ad Planner, there isn’t much difference in both because the statistics are not linked with their Google Analytics account. In most cases the Ad Planner is linked to the respective Analytics Account of the blogs following which the stats would be almost exact to whats the real traffic the blog gets as recorded by Google Analytics.
How DoubleClick Ad Planner data is generated
DoubleClick Ad Planner combines information from a variety of sources including anonymized, aggregated Google Toolbar data from users who have opted in to enhanced features, publisher opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in external consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. The data is aggregated over millions of users and powered by computer algorithms.
For a Example of Analytics Linked data, check out the Stats of MakeMyTrip.com which have a message under description which says ‘(Data source: Publisher)‘ which clearly means that the site owner has linked their Google Analytics account and which is why the statistics mentioned here are almost exact.
Now i hope you can find out the difference between actual statistics and the fake stats claimed by bloggers in order to increase their followers or charge advertisers higher amounts. Hope this helps you, and feel free to respond back if you have any queries.
Thanks for sharing this Amit…
Questions:
1] Will it be exact data even if the same website is not claimed under AdPlanner account?
2] I am having an issue. When I sign-in to adplanner for my website it shows – Failed to connect to my analytics account whereas I am using GA account for the same website.
Would be gr8 if u could put some light.
[Reply]
Amit Bhawani Reply:
December 24th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
1. As mentioned in the article if the website is not claimed and linked then the data is a estimation based on the Google Toolbar.
2. Try to post the problem on the Google Forums and it can be fixed following which you can connect both of these services.
[Reply]
for my site its shows like this : Ad Planner could not locate sufficient data to display for domain: mobile-repair.org
[Reply]
Amit Bhawani Reply:
December 24th, 2011 at 8:25 pm
That means that there isn’t much traffic which Google has recorded yet, would suggest to link your Analytics account with the Ad Planner for stats to show up.
[Reply]
The Doubleclick ad planner is out there since many years, and if you’re an adwords user then you can also see these details while you are targeting your campaign.
[Reply]
Amit Bhawani Reply:
December 24th, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Right said!
[Reply]
Interesting information, I am sure most Advertisers are unaware of this hidden google gem
btw how often is the data updated in Ad Planner?
[Reply]
Amit Bhawani Reply:
December 24th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Its updated every month with the stats of the previous month being updated after the first week. Its useful to advertisers too.
[Reply]
nidhi Reply:
January 18th, 2012 at 8:14 am
Yes your are right anoop.
[Reply]
If the site is using BuySellAds, then we can also see the impressions it generates a month and that’s what the traffic it is getting.
Thanks for the tip !
[Reply]
Amit Bhawani Reply:
December 24th, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Yes buysellads is also good but you can always use the same add codes on multiple blogs and show the impressions for one blog, which cannot be actually correct.
[Reply]
THANKS A LOT SIR
[Reply]
Hi,
for some site it showing “Ad Planner could not locate sufficient data to display for domain: yourdaom.com. why??
[Reply]
Amit Bhawani Reply:
December 24th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Already mentioned the answer above, in short you can link your account with analytics and fix the same and also try to increase the traffic to your domain.
[Reply]
I tried it many times but i don’t always get exact traffic.. However best tool to give approx idea.. Sometimes it predicts very poor..
[Reply]
Amit Bhawani Reply:
December 24th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
True, Nothing is perfect but atleast in most cases its going to give you better estimations.
[Reply]
Thanks for sharing this information as i am new to blogging and this information is very helpful for me
[Reply]
Thanks for sharing it !!lrt mr too find out
[Reply]
yet another useful tip
though for my blog traffic details reports not shows yet, i think still Google didn’t find any efficient traffic from my blog.
[Reply]
Okay, Thanks.
I tried connecting both services but still getting the same error.
Yeah, will post it on the forum…
[Reply]
I have checked and verified for many of the sites such methods. Sometime it gives you good results but sometime you will not find the data so accurate. You can’t be 100% assured on these methods but only get an idea.
[Reply]
Nice information. Using this many webmasters can easily keep a track of stats of other blogs and compare where they are standing and same stands for advertisers too. They can verify the information as shown in the article. Thanks for sharing.
[Reply]
it seems that details of new sites are not shown in GoogleClick Ad Planner.
[Reply]
Its nice but http://www.compete.com is one of best site option available if you are just interested in looking after No. of visits.
[Reply]
Amit Bhawani Reply:
January 24th, 2012 at 12:18 am
It shows mainly US Traffic only.
[Reply]
this is a fantastic tool .Someone earlier said it did not show details of new sites,i think it shows only details of those sites that allow private advertising,correct me if im wrong.thank you
[Reply]
This is really a nice and informative article. Never ever thought to use Google Double Ad-planner like this.
[Reply]
What is someone has denied to share his analytics data in analytics settings ? i mean does it have any negative impact ?
[Reply]