Advertising on social media channels such as Facebook has many challenges for businesses. There’s targeting and budgeting, creating visuals that engage an audience and dealing with the latest iOS update removing the ability to track certain users and optimise campaigns. One of the biggest challenges we can face is making sense of the data in our reports. Viewed in isolation is one thing, but when we compare the data in Facebook Ad reports to the data in Google Analytics, we can be left wondering why they’re not the same.
Data discrepancies happen when you try to compare campaign reports across different platforms as we’ve discovered with Google Ads and Google Analytics data. The reason why data discrepancies happen is usually down the the way in which the platform records events and actions such as clicks and conversions as well as using different attribution models. The differences don’t mean that one platform is incorrect, it just classifies actions differently.
Let’s look at some of the differences you will see in Facebook Ad reports vs. Google Analytics.
Facebook clicks vs. Google Analytics sessions
In your Facebook reports you’ll see the number of clicks from a campaign and may assume that each of these clicks is the equivalent to one person visiting your website. However, there are two distinct metrics in Facebook: ‘Clicks‘ and ‘Link Clicks‘.
The first can refer to any click on your advert including a click on a “see more” link, a click to enlarge an image or a click on a reaction to your post. The second refers to clicks on the links within your ads. These are likely to be links back to your website so they look like they should be comparable with sessions in Google Analytics.
However! Facebook records a link click as the button or text link is clicked on their platform. Google Analytics will only record the session if the landing page, along with the tracking code, is loaded. This means there’s often discrepancies between these two metrics as the landing page may not fully load before the user hits the back button (often after realising they clicked on the link by mistake whilst scrolling through their feed). This means Google Analytics will usually report a lower number of sessions compared to Facebook’s reported link clicks.
Facebook will also record every time a user clicks on your ad, whereas Google Analytics will only record another session if the previous session has ended (or 30 minutes has passed). So if you have users who click multiple times on your ads, your data will look different; recording more clicks in Facebook than sessions in Google.
And! (As if that wasn’t enough) Google Analytics relies on first party cookies to track users and sessions on your site. If a user disables cookies, you won’t see their session in your reports, however Facebook will still record the click as it doesn’t require cookies to record this data.
Facebook conversions vs. Google Analytics goal conversions
Attribution models play a huge role in how Facebook and Google record conversions. By default, Facebook will record any conversion after a user has seen an ad on Facebook (even if they don’t click on it!). Google Analytics has no way of knowing whether a user has seen an ad on Facebook, only if they followed a link in the ad, then converted on your website.
Facebook will also record a conversion even if the user visits the website several times after the initial click on a Facebook Ad. So, if a user clicks on an ad, but doesn’t convert, then they come back via a Google search or simply direct to the website, Facebook will still give itself credit for the conversion, but Google Analytics won’t (by default).
Google Analytics will usually follow a last-click attribution model so Facebook will only get the credit for the conversion if it was the last interaction the user had before completing a goal.
One report that could give you better insights into how Facebook has contributed to a conversion is the Multi-Channel Funnels report under Conversions. The Multi-Channel Funnels reports shows you the interactions a user has with your website before they convert. You can also change the report to show data using different attribution models, which will show how Facebook has assisted in a conversion.
To summarise…
It’s not that your data is wrong on any one platform, it’s just how the data has been collected and recorded. Comparing metrics is often impossible as they’re simply not the same thing. It’s therefore important to view your reports as separate entities. The data in your Facebook reports may seem inflated due to the way it collects data, however it’s still useful for assessing how users engage with your ads. Google Analytics data should be used to assess the customer journey once the user lands on your website.