I couldnt sleep all night after doing some checking with the data and reports that analytics supplies me.
After finding some strange items I continued checking and end up doing so for about 8 hours straight getting more and more awake when seeing some strange things that appear to be in my favour. I dont know if this has been posted about as I havent read anything about it before. If its all correct this could me major blow to google.
Firstly i have opted out of content and search networks so the items below can not be blamed on those networks.
This is what I discovered:
1)Adwords clicks reported over month period is higher then what analytics reports over the same 1 month period. The difference equals thousands and thousands worth of dollars worth of clicks.
2)I do not want certain ads to show in certain countries and have therefor not listed those countries for those ads in the campaign settings and have done so correctly (believe me, i checked 10 times last night to be sure i was right). But why is it then that analytics is reporting hundreds of clicks from those countries for clicks that were generated by adwords. (so first they charge for too many clicks allready and now it becomes even worse with these unauthorized clicks)
3) When i check for example one campaign, for example 2 days ago between adwords and analytics, the number of clicks for a certain campaign might be correct but i found something strange. I then do a report on analytics about those clicks, lets say 200, and I run a country report, then i get a breakdown of all those clicks but they only show for 179 clicks for example including 50 clicks where country is unknown. So their own report shows for 179 clicks but they bill for 200. Furthermore the country that i did not want to have the ads shown had 20 clicks and then i am worried about the 50 unknown clicks as I am worried that they might very well come from that country where I dont want them to show. I tried to do a search also by other way and i did a breakdown of those 200 clicks for that certain campaign by screensize, internet connection, city etc and each time they showed for 179 clicks. So where are these clicks coming from. I checked through the records of the last 30 days and this happens time after time. If their own analytics tool (which is installed properly by the way) is informing me that there is serious over billing and their own tracking tool is unable to report any information about large number of visitors that we get billed for, then what the heck are they doing
I have used other tracking tools in the past which suggested similar differences and click fraud in the past and Google informed me that other software is not accurate or checks it different and the adwords centre suggested I should take analytics to get accurate information and so that I could optimize my account and spend less possible my seeing which markets. ads etc were not profitable. I did this and installed the tool. What can they now possibly tell me so as to get out of this and not pay me back for overcharged clicks
Sorry for rambling on like this but I have been at this all night and look forward to calling an adword rep when they open the office soon.
By the way, if someone sees a flaw in the way i approach the comparison please do tell me before I make an ass out of myself with google.
2)I do not want certain ads to show in certain countries and have therefor not listed those countries for those ads in the campaign settings and have done so correctly (believe me, i checked 10 times last night to be sure i was right). But why is it then that analytics is reporting hundreds of clicks from those countries for clicks that were generated by adwords.
I'm not an expert on Adwords & Google so I don't know if this could explain your problem - Let's say you are advertising in the UK. Is it possible that someone in another country - say Australia - has used google.co.uk instead of google.com.au as their search engine, hence have seen your ad and clicked on it. The serving of the ad would be valid because the search has come from .co.uk however the click IP would be shown as Australia?
I have taken the figures of a 30 day period as I know there can be some difference between one day to the next but I think that the differences I see can not be credited to a one day delay even of either one program.
1. Many people say a small proportion of visitors will not make it to your site using any PPC system. Estimates of between 2 and 8 percent have been made on this board. There are many theories as to why, most concentrate on the impatience/stupidity of people (especially on dial-up as there is more delay between click and arrival).
2. Location by IP is very tricky in the UK, we have a terribly managed IP space. There are ISP's that appear to be from abroad (which makes their users look American or European) but they are in fact serving a UK audience.
3. Large IT companies such as HP have massive IP ranges allocated to them (about half a percent of all usable IP addresses!), anyone accessing your site from such a network may look to be from the wrong country.
4. Everyone has the same problem so there is already a dampening factor on bid prices in effect. You have to turn a profit from what you recieve or alter your bid like everyone else. It may sound like I'm sticking up for Google, because I am to an extent, but you have to look at the benefits of AdWords at the same time as the drawbacks. I'd much rather take it with its problems than not have it at all.
For the record, we attract statistically significant numbers of visitors to one site that is aimed at the UK only and just uses AdWords for traffic. These are the percentages we see for it:
UK visitors - 97.5%
Visitors Vs Clicks - 96.5%
So we 'lose' roughly 6% of clicks to being from outside of the UK or not arriving at all.
2. Location by IP is very tricky in the UK, we have a terribly managed IP space.
I never heard this before - are we the only country considered to have poor IP space management? What makes it so poor?
The HP comment reminded me.... some of the stats may also be people who surf via proxies in other countries - I used to work for a company where our Internet connection went via Germany so any geo-targetted sites I visited would be in German, even though I was in the UK, so that would also affect what you are seeing.
I think there are genuine reasons why you are seeing these discrepancies for the countries meaning it's nothing to do with Google at all...it's just one of those things!
As for the discrepancy between Adwords and Analytics (if your figures are correct)...I'm undecided on this as it's a fairly high % and would be interested if any other scenarios for why this happens will be posted :)
Furthermore the country that i did not want to have the ads shown had 20 clicks and then i am worried about the 50 unknown clicks as I am worried that they might very well come from that country where I dont want them to show. I tried to do a search also by other way and i did a breakdown of those 200 clicks for that certain campaign by screensize, internet connection, city etc and each time they showed for 179 clicks. So where are these clicks coming from.
Geotargeting is not guaranteed to work reliably. You should read the paper I posted a link to in the tracking and logging forum to understand why this is so. Some of the reasons have already been stated, such as ISPs that operate in certain countries but use address ranges that have been allocated to other countries. But the idea of "country allocation" was not really meant for tracking purposes; it was established so that organizations incorporated in certain regions could have IP address space allocated to them (but could in turn reallocate that space any way they wished).
If you think you should not have ads exposed in places that geotargeting can't determine reliably, you could try asking G if they have the capability to turn off the ads for those accesses, but you would also be potentially depriving yourself of exposure in places you might actually want or need.
Take this with a grain of salt... but I believe Google Analytics uses a JavaScript tracking method. This means any visitor with JavaScript disabled (there are more than you would expect)or a non-JavaScript browser will not be recorded.
It's a bit long, but hopefully will help to clarify things. ;)
There are a few differences between the way Google Analytics and AdWords track visitors which may result in different statistics between reports in each. Below we will explain the main differences between AdWords clicks vs. Analytics visits, and then at bottom will explain the differences in conversion tracking between AdWords Conversion Tracking and Google Analytics.ADWORDS VS. ANALYTICS
First, there's a difference in the way Analytics and AdWords treat return visitors: under Analytics' definition of 'session', a user can leave the site for up to thirty minutes and come back without ending a session. The session continues until the user leaves your site for more than thirty minutes. This is called a "visit" in Google Analytics.Other main reasons why your AdWords and Analytics reports may not match:
1) Javascript Obstruction: Clicks reported on Google AdWords but not on Google Analytics may be the result of obstruction between the Google AdWords click event and the ability to load the Google Analytics tracking code inserted in the landing page HTML. If this is the case, ensure that the web hosting servers are functioning properly, the page is loading for all possible users and IPs, and the tracking code is installed correctly on your web pages.2) Visitor Browser Preferences: Visitors entering through AdWords may have JavaScript, cookies, or images turned off. If this is the case, Google Analytics won't be able to report these visitors, but they will be reported through AdWords. In order for Google Analytics to record a visit, the visitor must have JavaScript, images, and cookies enabled for your website.
3) AdWords filtering: Google AdWords automatically filters certain clicks from your reports while Analytics will report these clicks as visits to your website. The clicks we filter from your AdWords reports are the occasional instances of someone clicking repeatedly on your ad in order to increase your costs or to increase your clickthrough rate.
4) Different terminology: Please be sure that you are comparing equivalent items. Google AdWords and Google Analytics track different things. AdWords tracks clicks, while Google Analytics tracks visits. If a user clicks on your ad twice within thirty minutes without closing his or her browser, this will be registered as one visit to your site on Google Analytics, even if the user left your site and then returned shortly after. However, this activity will be counted as two separate clicks by AdWords.
CONVERSION TRACKING
Conversion Tracking in Analytics and AdWords, though separate, are geared toward a similar purpose - helping website owners analyze their website performance so that they can make better business decisions and get great performance results. Google Analytics is a more full-featured offering, with additional tracking that includes visitor information, site flow reports, and improved ROI information. There may be a number of reasons that AdWords and Analytics report different numbers of AdWords conversions.First, conversion rates may differ if either or both of the Analytics or AdWords JavaScript snippets are not correctly included and loaded on your page. There may also be occasional differences if a user clicks 'stop' or 'back' while one script is loaded but not the other.
Also, in your Analytics reports, a conversion is attributed only when the purchase happens within the original session after the user clicked on your AdWords ad. AdWords conversion tracking will attribute a conversion to a user from an AdWords click for up to 30 days after the click. Google Analytics will attribute a conversion to the last PPC campaign that the user clicked on up to 6 months in the past. This could be a source of some differences in reports.
AWA
