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!
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
-
Top of funnel google ads campaign not hardly converting, why?
Hi, I really hope someone can help me with this. I'm running two search ad campaigns and a google shopping campaign in google ads. The search campaigns are targeting top-of-funnel keywords as the business doesn't have universally known collections which everyone would search for so they are just unique to my business. So the campaigns are driving traffic but really converting whereas google shopping is converting because searchers are looking for particular products so they're lower down the funnel closer to aking a purchase decision. I feel I've optimised the campaign well and for the most part, most keywords have 7/10 quality score. The landing page seems fine. However, our offering wasn't as strong as competitors so we've offered a discount the same as them to compete. Since I started google ads we have nearly doubled our monthly revenue and the product types targeted in campaigns have increased in quantity sold so it seems it's having an effect but the campaigns aren't showing a good performance. Does anyone have any suggestions or input that could help me? I looked at first interaction attribution model and even there it's not performing well which makes this even more difficult to resolve. I'm thinking I should enable USER id feature in Google analytics so i can track signed in users across devices which may then help attribute sales to paid search channel as I saw in search console that the keyword that generates the most traffic to the site is our brand name and we're not a well-known brand so makes me think they may be starting their buyer's journey on a work computer on their mobile and finishing on their computer at home as an example. However, I don't believe this will be the main cause or solution as I would only have data for signed in users which still won't give me the full picture. Also if the campaign is optimised effectively but conversions are minimal could not having many conversions affect quality score? If someone can help or provide me with a different perspective it would be much appreciated. Please let me know if I need to clarify or explain further. I hope I've made myself clear. Thanks, T
Paid Search Marketing | | TZ19820 -
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 -
Talking about competitors on your own website to improve quality score
Hi Mozzers, I'm seeing more and more companies improving their quality score by including information about their competitors on their website, when driving traffic from competitor brand terms. For example, for 'Yahoo Mail' related terms, Zoho drive traffic via an ad to this page: https://www.zoho.com/mail/yahoo-mail-alternative.html I'm planning a new campaign targeting competitor keywords and wondered what people think about this approach, and the legalities around talking about and comparing yourself to competitors on your own website?
Paid Search Marketing | | Zoope0 -
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 -
Looking at google shopping results from other country
Hi, I run shops in several languages out of London. One of our key revenue drivers is google shopping. It is important for me to look the the shopping search results for example in germany. Recently Google changed something so when I want to look at the german shopping results from here, eg. http://www.google.de/shopping it always shows me the english ones with prices in pounds. Is there a trick to still get the foreign results? Thanks in advance Dieter
Paid Search Marketing | | Storesco1 -
Google Shopping Feed being blocked by robots.txt
I had created a manual Google Shopping Feed that was working fine, and then someone well meaning put a block in my robots.txt file so Google couldn't read the images folder. because of this, Google now won't accept my feed. I changed the robots.txt file to allow them to read the images again, but it's been 3 days now and I'm still getting the error saying my products are disallowed because the robots.txt file won't let them scan for images. Does anyone know how long it will take for Google to see it again?
Paid Search Marketing | | sparrowdog0 -
How Can I Target Certain Countries in Google AdWords without Excluding Other Countries?
So, here is the situation: Our company works with merchants worldwide (with the exception of those who live in excluded high-risk countries--mostly in Africa), but most of our Google AdWords leads come from Indian merchants. My CEO wants our campaigns to convert leads from other countries (i.e., the UK, Germany, US, Canada, Australia, etc.), but I have no idea how to do that without excluding India. However, my CEO does not want to exclude India from our AdWords campaigns as the leads are profitable. We simply want more diversity with out leads in terms of geographic location. I am sure there are resources on the Web about how to do this, but I am not an Adwords expert and am unsure of what phrases to search to find the answers. Direct advice or helpful links are much appreciated. Regards,
Paid Search Marketing | | Instabill
Meghan0 -
What is a good CTR for a Google AdWords Remarketing banner campaign?
Hello there, given that in the banners we offer a promotion with "some bonus if you sign up", what is from your experience a good CTR for a Google AdWords Remarketing banner campaign? Many thanks to everyone that answers. YESdesign
Paid Search Marketing | | YESdesign0