December 1st was Cyber Monday, and a lot of publishers and advertisers have seen increases in earnings per click and even in Quality Score. These are great results for publishers and advertisers, but what exactly could be the cause?
Suspicions have been set on the biggest online shopping day of the year. After all, the Monday after Thanksgiving denotes big holiday discounts and preparation for the Christmas holiday. I've seen Santa running all over the television screen, for example, and in paper ads. The media is telling you that it's a good time to shop, and the public is listening.
Of course, high clickthrough rates don't necessarily mean purchases nowadays; people are checking out reviews before they buy.
Maybe it's not as easily explained as that, but it does seem that a lot of people were experiencing the same results on 12/1 and this does make some logical sense.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.