Understanding the discrepancy: Google Analytics data vs clicks on marketing reports

Web analytics software, like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics, are commonly used tools to identify what actions are performed by website visitors and where those users came from.

These web analytics tools provide website owners with a wealth of information that is immensely helpful, but it can also be confusing to many.

A common question I receive is, “Facebook report says there are 1000 clicks but Google Analytics says there are only 700 clicks.”

By default, Google Analytics will display referral traffic in their acquisition report broken down by?Sessions?or?Users, and not by the same Clicks metric used in digital marketing reports from demand-side platforms.

A sole user can generate multiple clicks and a single Google Analytics session can contain several clicks from just one marketing campaign.

If I clicked on a Facebook ad on my computer and spent five minutes on the landing page, and 15 minutes later on my phone, on the same WIFI network, I was served another Facebook ad from the same advertiser, and I clicked on the ad and visited the same landing page again to complete a purchase, then Google Analytics will record that as a single session and a single user in their acquisition?report, while the Facebook campaign generated two clicks.

It is incorrect to equate the metric Clicks in marketing reports with the metrics Sessions and Users on web analytics reports.

Advertisers rely on their agency partners to help make sense of data, but seldomly are client-facing teams at agencies prepared to respond to questions about these types of reporting discrepancies because they themselves don’t have a solid understanding of the reasons for the difference.

This type of misinterpretation of data is common, and it often leads to a lack of trust between advertisers and agency partners, as well as creating a sense of distrust of the digital marketing industry as a whole if not addressed competently, which then makes upskilling client-facing teams and improving their data literacy skills vital.