What Is the Deal With Coffeyville? How Google Interprets Data and How You Should React

The world of digital advertising is full of surprises, some good and some bad. Every one of us lives for the moment we open our campaign dashboard and discover that a new audience segment we tested had an even better response to our as than we expected. On the other side of the coin, we all dread the moment we realize our consideration campaign has fallen flat and we need to go back to the drawing board in order to connect with our customers. These surprises are par for the course in digital advertising, but sometimes one comes along that leaves us scratching our heads and wondering just what the heck is going on here?

One such surprise has been plaguing Google Analytics clients for years, if you have been using GA for digital ads you may already be familiar with it, and that is an oversized amount of ad traffic originating from a town called Coffeyville. That’s not a cute nickname for Seattle, Coffeyville is a small town in south east Kansas about 6 hours outside of Tulsa with a population of around 10,000 people. Despite the fact that it is so remote and so minute in size, many GA clients find that upon reviewing their campaign data a large percentage of their ad traffic ends up originating here. Why is this? How could this even be possible? What’s the deal with Coffeyville? Let’s take a look behind the reporting and see if we can get to the bottom of this.

Getting to the bottom of the Coffeyville problem

The Coffeyville problem is far from a new one. Wired magazine covered this problem as far back as 2006! Suffice it to say, you are far from the first person to be left looking at a map wondering just what is driving so much traffic in Kansas. Luckily, the truth behind it has been discussed nearly as long: Google is simply showing you incorrect data. Well, almost. The reality is just a little more complicated.

To really explain what is happening, let’s take a look at the map and see just where Coffeyville sits.

Notice anything?

If you’ve heard this one before you may already know the answer: It is an approximate location for the dead center of the country. Why would Google show you an outsized portion of ad traffic being driven from a small town directly in the middle of the country? Well, that’s a question that may never be answered outside a board room in the Google offices.

See, when something is blocking the location of a specific intender you have targeted through Google, they still be shown your ad. Despite what some real estate agents will tell you location is not everything and if someone aligns well will your targeted product interests and consumer behaviors there is still a good chance they’ll be interested in your product regardless of location. This leaves Google with a problem, however: how do we report location for a consumer who’s location data we do not have? Their solution? They simply report them as being from dead center of their country. For the US that just happens to be Coffeyville Kansas.

Think of it as a rounding decision in your Google data. Your Coffeyville traffic is not actually coming from rural Kansas, it was simply attributed there to give you some kind of location to attribute to this consumer. Your data is not being reported 100% accurately, and that’s just how Google likes it.

What does this mean for my ad campaigns?

The reality of the Coffeyville problem is that it is not really much of a “problem” for your ad spend. That money is still being used appropriately and still being (mostly) attributed correctly. However there is an important lesson tobe learned here: Google Analytics are not to be taken entirely as gospel. Another, more philosophical, question arises as well: Do you feel comfortable advertising on a platform that will simply move around your data as they please to fit their reporting narratives?

If you are concerned that Coffeyville might throw off your ability to advertise effectively or at least read your reporting accurately, there are steps you can take. Namely, you can simply filter out all traffic from Coffeyville, Kansas. This will effectively block all traffic from intenders with hidden locations and leave you with only the ones whose location data is available.

Here at FieldTest we know that it’s extremely important that our clients know their data is being reported accurately. The ability to read and analyze your data correctly is central to your ability to make smart decisions about the future of your ad campaigns and marketing in general. We pride ourselves on our ability to present your data in a way that is transparent, comprehensive. After all, that’s the key to our clients success!

Get in touch to find out how you can take control of your data with full transparency on the FieldTest Platform