Conversion tracking numbers don't add up with actual sales

[avalon37]

I am researching reasons why Adwords conversion numbers don't match up with the actual number of orders on my website. I only have 1 adwords conversion tracking pixel and it's only placed on the order confirmation page. Google says I have X sales/conversions in the last week and our own internal tracking is quite a bit lower. I've confirmed that no customer have canceled orders. What other reasons have you seen that could cause Adwords conversion totals to be HIGHER than the actual number. Appreciate the assistance.

[TheRealSaxman]

I found that when people hit the Back Button after making it to the confirmation page, and then moving forward to the confirmation page again will trigger a double conversion. So long as they don't go back to the "Submit Purchase" page they don't get double billed.

My 2¢...hope it helps...

[eWhisper]

Are you looking at one per click or many per click conversion data?

One per click is unique conversions; many per click is aggregate.

So in the above example, if someone goes to your checkout page, hits the back button, then goes back to the page - the user is 1 one-per-click conversion but 2 many-per-click conversions.

One per click is much more useful for many people; especially in industries (such as whitepaper downloads) where the final thank you page is often left open, sometimes refreshed, the browser is closed/reopened to the same page, etc.

[TheRealSaxman]

I have a few client that utilize in-house management systems that go through that entire checkout process on one page...for instance:

".../CustomerScripts/page.aspx?page=checkout&pagetype=1"

In this case, and I'm wondering is avalon37 is having the same issue, if someone hit the back button it would register as an additional 1-per-click conversion. I've tested this, but if I'm missing something I would love to here some feedback.

Thanks!

[avalon37]

Appreciate all the responses. This weekend was bad again with Google saying X one per click conversions and our internal number of sale conversions being zero. What's making this more complicated is that the conversion activity, even Google's numbers, are very low about 1 a day. I did a search to see if how somehow my developers placed the conversion tracking pixel on any other pages by accident. They said they looked and it's just on the purchase confirm page.

[TheRealSaxman]

avalon37, Are there any other pages that lead to the same confirmation page? Perhaps a contact form? Just a thought as this usually isn't the case. However, it's obvious that people are visiting that confirmation page one way or another...the question is how?

[avalon37]

I don't think there are any other pages that lead to this confirm page. But even if there were, it would only be firing a Google conversion for people who come to this confirm page from Adwords click.

What I am curious about is that we added some parameters to the destination url like source=ppc & keyword=....this tracking code seems to disappear as people land on the checkout page. So perhaps that's why our database is not correctly capturing source and keyword info. That said, I did a live test with my credit card and that was the only time everything tracked correctly.