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01.07.10 AdClicks And Web Analytics Will Always Yield Different Results  By
Matthias Postel Have you also experienced this? The numbers your traffic agency (marketer) reports to and charges you differ immensely from those which you yourself have measured on your website? Doubts arise concerning your traffic agency and your own web analytics tool. As a consequence you get yourself involved in endless discussions over bills, pricing, range of coverage and counting methods with your marketer. People often ask me how this could be, where the difference originates from and what can be done about it. One thing has to be made clear in advance: The numbers from your marketer (which are generated via his pixel) will ALWAYS differ from the ones from your analytics tool, no matter whether you got them via logfiles or website tagging. It would be a miracle if they would match perfectly. The question should rather be: How much do the numbers differ? As a rule one could say that variations of +/-5-20% could be considered normal. If they should deviate further, I would strongly recommend a deeper investigation. Where do these deviations derive from? There are a number of explanations that could apply. Among others: • different positions of the evaluation pixel on your webpage. The pixels are placed below each other. It could happen that one is activated, the other not. This might happen for example, if the user has already clicked on the next link although the page hasn't completely loaded yet. • your webpage is too big and doesn't load completely. As doesn't the pixel. • different counting methods, for example AdClicks vs. page loaded • you pay for AdClicks, but the user quits straight after he has clicked on your banner on an external page before he gets to your website or landing page. No arrival is counted on your page - in contrary to him being counted by AdClicks. Here are some suggestions that have proven useful in practice: • pay for the generated sales / leads not the AdClicks • the marketers pixel should always be the last one on your page • arrange with your marketer in advance whether you bill according to his numbers or the numbers generated by your analytics tool • get it straight who does get the reward for a purchase or lead: the campaign that has generated the first or the one that has generated the last contact - or distribute the claims linear alongside the campaigns via which the customer or lead has visited your website • be attentive to when your marketers evaluation pixel is activated on the confirmation page of the shopping or lead process • make sure that your landing page is small sized, as it only serves as a transit for your customers Comments About the Author: Matthias Postel specializes in website and conversion optimization. He looks back on more than 15 years of experience in the online business. Matthias Postel is founder and managing director of the iCompetence GmbH in Hamburg, Germany. |
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