Briefly, in one month there are 27% fewer visits in Analytics than click throughs.
My conversations with Google have not been satisfying.
They have explained to me now 5 times the difference between visits and clicks, and it is not a concept I have a problem with. I only have a problem with the size of the difference.
Their stock response is as follows:
There is an important distinction between clicks (such as in your AdWords
Campaigns reports) and visits (in your Search Engines and Visitors
reports). The clicks column in your reports indicates how many times your
advertisements were clicked by visitors, while visits indicates the number
of unique sessions initiated by your visitors. There are several reasons
why these two numbers may not match:1. A visitor may click on your ad multiple times. When one person clicks on one advertisement multiple times in the same session, AdWords will record multiple clicks while Analytics recognises the separate page views as one visit. This is a common behaviour among visitors engaging in comparison shopping.
2. A user may click on an ad and then later, during a different session, return directly to the site through a bookmark. The referral information from the original visit will be retained in this case, so the one click will result in multiple visits.
3. A visitor may click on your advertisement, but prevent the page from fully loading by navigating to another page or by pressing their browser's Stop button. In this case, the Analytics tracking code is unable to execute and send tracking data to the Google servers. However, AdWords will still register a click.
To ensure more accurate billing, Google AdWords automatically filters invalid clicks from your reports. However, Analytics reports these clicks as visits to your website in order to show the complete set of traffic data.
The email four gives reasons why these figures will be
different. Reasons 2 and 4 explain why visits may be higher than clicks, and reasons 1 and 3, why clicks might be higher than visits.
However, my client is receiving almost 30% fewer visits than clicks. This is a huge number, and much more than these reasons would explain, in my opinion.
It assumes that reasons 2 and 4 are neglible, and reason 2 certainly isn't.
It assumes that we have large number of page misloads, which our server stats do not indicate.
It assumes that many visitors click on the ad multiple times, and this is the only reasonable explanation.
However, our likely visitors are not engaged in comparison shopping. The difference between clicks in visits suggests (approximately) that for two visitors, one clicks twice on the ad. That seems to me very unlikely.
I responded to Google again, stating the above. They reply:
I do realise that the fact that there is a discrepancy of approximately 30% between the clicks and visits reported via your Google Analytics account and your AdWords account. I have consulted with an Analytics Specialist on this matter for you. They have confirmed that this discrepancy that you have identified is expected and normal behaviour given that clicks and visits are tracking different actions and so refer to different data. This refers back to the differences in terminology and the distinction made between both types of data. Please rest assured that these common occurrences: bookmarking pages, hitting the back button, refreshing browsers and returning visits all represent legitimate contributions to such discrepancies. In addition, as I mentioned above, given that clicks indicate how many times your advertisements were clicked by visitors, while visits indicates the number of unique sessions initiated by your visitors it is common and expected that these figures will differ as the are not tracking or reporting the same data.
I'm I the only one that doesn't buy this?
If I get a resounding message from the esteemed WebmasterWorld users that Google's explanations sound correct, and that it is true that a really substantial number of site visitors return to a site through the paid ad they first used to find the site, then I'll get down off my high horse.
It's just that 27% seems like an awfully big number to me, and, what is worse, to my client.
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We have a small Adwords campaign running for a client, and I have great difficulty explaining the difference between the clicks we pay for and the visits received.
Briefly, in one month there are 27% fewer visits in Analytics than click throughs.
My conversations with Google have not been satisfying.
They have explained to me now 5 times the difference between visits and clicks, and it is not a concept I have a problem with. I only have a problem with the size of the difference.
Their stock response gives 4 reasons for differences:
1. A visitor may click on an ad multiple times. When one person clicks on one advertisement multiple times in the same session, AdWords records multiple clicks while Analytics recognises the separate page views as one visit. Google states that this is a common behaviour among visitors engaging in comparison shopping.
2. A user may click on an ad and then later, during a different session, return directly to the site through a bookmark. The referral information from the original visit will be retained in this case, so the one click will result in multiple visits.
3. A visitor may click on an advertisement, but prevent the page from fully loading by navigating to another page or by pressing their browser's Stop button. In this case, the Analytics tracking code is unable to execute and send tracking data to the Google servers. However, AdWords still registers a click.
4. To ensure more accurate billing, Google AdWords automatically filters invalid clicks from reports. However, Analytics reports these clicks as visits in order to show the complete set of traffic data.
Reasons 2 and 4 explain why visits may be higher than clicks, and reasons 1 and 3, why clicks might be higher than visits.
However, my client is receiving almost 30% fewer visits than clicks. This is a huge number, and much more than these reasons would explain, in my opinion.
It assumes that reasons 2 and 4 are neglible, and reason 2 certainly isn't.
It assumes that we have large number of page misloads, which our server stats do not indicate.
It assumes that many visitors click on the ad multiple times, and this is the only reasonable explanation.
However, our likely visitors are not engaged in comparison shopping. The difference between clicks in visits suggests (approximately) that for two visitors, one clicks twice on the ad. That seems to me very unlikely.
I responded to Google again, stating the above. They replied to the effect that they understood that there was a discrepancy of approximately 30% between the clicks and visits, that they had consulted the Analytics specialist and confirm that this discrepancy "is expected and normal behaviour given that clicks and visits are tracking different actions and so refer to different data."
I'm I the only one that doesn't buy this?
If I get a resounding message from the esteemed WebmasterWorld users that Google's explanations sound correct, and that it is true that a really substantial number of site visitors return to a site through the paid ad they first used to find the site, then I'll get down off my high horse.
It's just that 27% seems like an awfully big number to me, and, what is worse, to my client.
