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How to track clicks of ads in email using google analytics?

Why is there a huge discrepancy between Adwords and Google Analytics reports?

  • Hello, my problem is the actual clicks I received on my site do not match the Adwords click report.   I'm using campaigns where most of the clicks come from display networks. Adwords reports show I have 3400 clicks, while the number of clicks recorded by my site analytics is 2200.   The 2200 number is recorded by Google Analytics, and consistent with other 3rd party tools such as Mixpanel and Optimizely. There's a huge gap between the Adwords clicks and clicks I received.   What should I do? Is this an issue that can be solved or would I need to resort to CPA ads instead? Thanks so much.

  • Answer:

    They're not, usually.  If there are, then you have an issue that needs to be solved, but most of the time, there is definitely not a huge discrepancy between AdWords and Google Analytics reports. If your concern is clicks in Google AdWords vs. what you see in Google Analytics, the difference might be that Google Analytics doesn't report clicks, but visits and page views, which are measured differently. That alone may trip some up, so check that first.  Otherwise, there may be some larger issue afoot.

Jeff Ferguson at Quora Visit the source

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One of the very basic reason of click/session difference in Adwords and analytics report is the difference between the notion of click and sessions in Adwords/Analytics. Read more here : https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1034383?hl=en

Saurav Tiwari

There could be several reasons, most of which are documented here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1034383?hl=en However, it is hard to give you one answer without having seen the setup and exact nature of the discrepancy.

Dikdyuti Sen

Analytics records sessions while AdWords records clicks, so if someone clicked your ads twice or three times within a 30 minute window (without closing the browser) the visits will count as one session(Analytics) and many clicks (in Adwords). Have you synced your Google Analytics account and Adwords account? https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1704341?hl=en Once you link the accounts you will be able to see clicks in Analytics. Until then you will only see sessions. The not so obvious may also be the culprit. Filters that limit the type of traffic you are tracking in that specific view. Check the raw analytics view that you hopefully keep as a separate quality control environment. Webmaster related server errors caused the clicking visitor to be shown server error instead of your landing page. This wouldn't trigger the Analytics tag to fire so hence more clicks than visits. Ask for your server log to compare against clicks, and sessions. If you use redirects the tags related to a paid search campaign can be lost upon redirect. Once again webmaster related. There is an extension in chrome to opt out of google analytics which will cause your clicks to not have any tracking in GA at all. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-opt-out/fllaojicojecljbmefodhfapmkghcbnh?hl=en This is also good to use for marketers, so you don't mess up your own data set. Although, there are more elegant solutions. Use the WASP app or another developer tool in your browser to ensure that the GA tag fires on the landing page in question. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/waspcrawler-analytics-sol/fdogdfpioiggoomoobmfkgckbkheckik?hl=en There are likely some items I missed. I am actually writing an in-depth article about this and would be happy to provide you the link when it is done. I will add it in the comments when ready.

Dmitri Larionov

I don’t know what you mean by “huge”. If it’s over 5% then you should deep dive. some sources of data discrepancy

Goran Maurac

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