Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Why does my google analytics show a massive discrepancy from facebook's reported website clicks?
-
We're running a Facebook news feed ad that is pointing at our homepage. Facebook says that for yesterday there were 47 website clicks. Google analytics shows 15 total visitors from facebook with 3 of them landing on the homepage. I understand that there is likely going to be some discrepancy with users accidentally clicking and clicking back before the page loads, but this seems a little insane. I tested the ad using a page that pulls the Analytics cookie data using php and it is working properly so I don't understand what's happening. The url isn't tagged with utm parameters, which is going to be fixed. Anyone experience this or have any insight as to what could be this issue? Is this click fraud?
Edit: For more clarification I was checking on my completely unfiltered google analytics profile/view.
-
I have the same thing but at a larger scale.
122k clicks according to facebook, 1450 visits according to Omniture... and no sales. That's the less optimized 2.5k€ I've spent on a campaign
-
My Facebook ad manager shows 3668 website clicks whereas in GA it only shows 1310.
-
We have exactly the same problem. According to Facebook 274 website clicks, but Google Analytics shows only 50. And this hasn't happened for the first time. Actually, this is the usual discrepancy in our Facebook campaigns. Probably most of the traffic is caused by bots, so a lot of Facebook budget is wasted for nothing....
-
Thanks for the response. That was all I could really find on the topic as well. I'm using the newest version of the asynchronous tracking code besides universal analytics. I understand the possibilities for discrepancies, even 50% might be understandable but my visitors in analytics is at 6% percent of recorded clicks at 3 out of 47 which just seems insane.
I guess I'll just have to suggest that we stop running those types of Facebook ads, at least for now.
-
I did some digging around and found some information:
https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10153294676310223
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/analytics/pHOQxwrYh_s
http://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/inaccurate-google-analytics-traffic-sources/
Don't shoot the messenger -- I cannot know whether these reasons are true for you. Just to summarize some possible issues from those links:
Ad clicks is not the same think as website visitors
Old Google Analytics code
People blocking cookies or having other setups that interfere with GA trackingI hope these resources might help!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
"Duplicate without user-selected canonical” - impact to Google Ads costs
Hello, we are facing some issues on our project and we would like to get some advice. Scenario
Paid Search Marketing | | Alex_Pisa
We run several websites (www.brandName.com, www.brandName.be, www.brandName.ch, etc..) all in French language . All sites have nearly the same content & structure, only minor text (some headings and phone numbers due to different countries are different). There are many good quality pages, but again they are the same over all domains. Current solution
Currently we don’t use canonicals, instead we use rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default": <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-BE" href="https://www.brandName.be/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-CA" href="https://www.brandName.ca/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-CH" href="https://www.brandName.ch/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-FR" href="https://www.brandName.fr/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-LU" href="https://www.brandName.lu/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.brandName.com/" /> Naturally this si reflected in ""Duplicate without user-selected canonical” . Issue
We create the same ad in Google Ads for 2 domains. So the content is mostly identical, ads are identical, target URLs differ only in domain. Yet Google Ads “Quality score” is different (10/10 vs. 6/10) and “Landing page experience” is very different (Above average vs. Average). Some members of our team think lower “Landing page experience” increases the Google Ads costs, which I personally don't believe, but I want to double check. Question: Can “Duplicate without user-selected canonical” issue decrease the “Landing page experience” rating and as result can it cause higher Google ads costs? Any suggestions/ideas appreciated, thanks. Regards.0 -
304 "If Modified Header" Triggers Error in Google Ads?
We have a client who is launch some Google Ads campaigns, and they recently asked us to fix 304 "Errors" on their website as per this feedback: "When we inspected the website we came across a number of 304 status errors. In order to get the ads running, we will need all of the website domain status codes converted to 200. “ Of course, all of their website pages return a 200 Status, it's just the HTTP headers that additionally clarify with a 304 Response (not an error). Has anyone else ever run into this issue with Google Ads? IMHO it makes no sense to remove this functionality. Google has even recommended in the past to use this it: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/11/date-with-googlebot-part-ii-http-status.html Thanks for any tips or feedback!
Paid Search Marketing | | mirabile0 -
Can Google Shopping Ads Lower Ranking due to Bounce?
I am noticing Google Shopping Ads are showing up for really irrelevant keywords on some of my products. This quite predictably causes a high bounce rate when a user comes from these ads. There is very little control over what Google Ads seems to decide are relevant keywords from what I can see. Only control is by viewing search terms and setting as negative keywords, but his doesn't help much. Negative keywords are often ignored or they come up with some other really irrelevant new keyword. Seems this high bounce rate could hurt ranking? Any experiences shared with Google Shopping ads appreciated!
Paid Search Marketing | | Chris6611 -
301 Redirects and Google Shopping Feeds
I am moving my site from Volusion to Shopify. The domain remains the same but the URL paths are different. With respect to my Google Shopping feed, is it best to send old URLs (with 301 redirects) or to send the new URLs?
Paid Search Marketing | | vgusvg0 -
What is the best way to update Adwords final URLs if I'm moving to a new CMS?
Hi there - One of my clients is redeveloping its website. That means, the domain is remaining the same, but the whole site is being rebuilt in wordpress so all the adwords final URLs need to change OR be redirected. There are 550 live adgroups and 3400 ads. We haven't set up tracking. I can't find anywhere what the best thing to do is in this case. The key issues seem to be: 1. 301 redirects - given we have to do these anyway as part of migration, this seems to be the easiest path as Google is ok about redirects as long as they don't go to a different domain. From what I'm hearing, you don't get adversely impacted in terms of quality score etc. This has the huge advantage that you don't have to edit the ad therefore no loss of statistical history or risk of downtime whilst you wait for approval. HOWEVER, there is some concern that if you then redirected again IN THE FUTURE, the redirect might not work (in some browsers) or cause a loop. I'm also concerned that it's messy to leave it like that (ie: with the wrong URLs throughout). 2. Buik updating ads - I don't think this is an option as if you bulk download and then reupload, Google will see this as a new ad, and delete all the statistical history - I'm also concerned that that WOULD impact quality score as you'd be starting from scratch! 3. Changing each ad individually - as far as I understand you'd have to create copies of all the ads (so that you keep the history of the old ones) and effectively create new ones with the correct URL - one by one. You end up with a messy account (a lot of paused ads) but you keep the history? This is obviously the most time consuming and I can't see a way of avoiding ads having to go in for approval again, given the urls are all different, so you'd have to do this a an ad level, not an adgroup/campaign level etc. People redevelop their websites (without changing domains) all the time. It seems strange that no one is mentioning this problem! Any ideas?! Many thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | catalystmdc0 -
Moving from old GTM to New Version of GTM - Analytic & Adwords transaction and revenue stop refelecting
Hi Guys, I am moving from old version of tag manager to new version of tag manager. But when i do so at that time in my google analytic 1) my adwords transaction, revenue and ecommerce conversion rate stop showing. 2) In ecommerce -overview also transaction, revenenue and ecommermce conversion rate stop showing. Can any one tell me what is the issue? I am sharing with you the details configuration of my old tag manager and new version of tag manager - I am using google analytic having id - UA-12345678-9 I am using old version of google tag manager in that i have configure 5 tags - a) google adwords conversion tracking
Paid Search Marketing | | devdan
b) GA pageview tracking
c) google remarketing
d) GA conversion tracking
e) twitter conversion tracking I did following configuration for all - Tag Name - google adwords conversion tracking
tag type - Adwords conversion tracking
conversion id - 123123123 ( from adwords)
conversion lable - sdfsnfs-sfsf ( from adowrds) Firing rule -{{url}} contains ordersuccessful.aspx
{{event}} equals gtm.dom save Google Analytic PageView Tracking
Tag Type - classic Google Analytic
web properid id - UA-12345678-9
track type - page view Firing rule - all pages save GA conversion Tracking
tag type - classic google analytics
web property id - UA-12345678-9
track type - transaction Firing rule -{{url}} contains ordersuccessful.aspx
{{event}} equals gtm.dom By above configuration everything work fine with google analytic. In New versoin of tag mananger following configuration i did - Adwords conversion tracking
Choose Product - Google Adwords
choose tag type - adwords conversion tracking
configure tag - conversion id - taken from adwords
conversion label - taken from adwords
conversion value - {{google_conversion_value}}
Fire on - Name - order successful page
type - custom event
Filter- Page url contains ordersuccessful.aspx
event equals gtm.dom save Choose Product - Google Analytic,
choose tag type - universal analytic
configure tag - tracking id - UA-12345678-9, track type - page view Fire on - All pages save GA conversion tracking Choose Product - Google Analytic,
choose tag type - universal analytic
configure tag - tracking id - UA-12345678-9, track type - transaction Fire on - Name - order successful page
type - custom event
Filter- Page url contains ordersuccessful.aspx
event equals gtm.dom save By above configuration my analytic stop reflecting transaction, revenue, ecommerce conversion rate for adwords and ecommerce overview. Thanks!0 -
Google URL Builder / Campaign Tracking on two Different Domain using the Same Analytics Code
Hey Everyone, I think I know the answer to this but I'd like to get some confirmation. I currently have a landing page at "www.xyz.com", it's a separate domain in which only the landing page exists and not a vanity URL which redirects. However, the navigation and all the links on "www.xyz.com" actually link out to "www.abc.com". The domain / landing page "xyz" has the same analytics tracking code as domain "www.abc.com". My question is this, if I use Google URL builder to create custom URL's to track for each ad that I'm running in Adwords, will this data show up in the analytics of "abc" even though it's a separate domain because it has the same analytics code? In other words, does campaign data show only if the domain and the google analytics code line up, or does the domain not matter and as long as you have the same analytics code (despite two separate domains) that campaign data (built through Google URL builder) will show? My hunch and best guess it that as long as the analytics code is the same (regardless of a separate domain) that the data in campaign will show with the custom URL's I build. I'm aware that I can test this and I will but I'd like to get an idea from the community first to make things easier. Anybody have experience with this? Answers greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Paid Search Marketing | | EvansHunt0 -
CPC or CPM for Google Display Network?
HI all I'm setting up my first Remarketing campaign on the display network. I'm targeting those that have visited a specific product page at the moment and therefore there won't be a massive amount of traffic to remarket to - roughly no more than 50 clicks/day. My question is - what is the best bidding option for a campaign like this? Not sure whether to go for CPM or traditional CPC. I have previously found CPM much better for Facebook but obviously thats very different to Google. All help appreciated!
Paid Search Marketing | | SamMaley0