Facebook PPC - Number of Clicks According to FB Different Than Visits in Analytics?

[evolvingSEO]

Hi There

So I was trying out my first FB ads with a client.

I see according to FB there were 105 clicks.  But according to google analytics there were only 69 visits.  I am counting visits from facebook.com and apps.facebook.com

Any reason for this discrepancy, or any tips? Am I missing something?

Thanks!

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[DanSpeicher]

Clicks are usually different than visits in PPC. The same person can click your ad multiple times, which raises your clicks, but not your visits. This could certainly account for the discrepancy. Google Analytics isn't 100% accurate anyway.

[evolvingSEO]

Dan (nice name)

Thanks for the response!  I had assumed there would be a deviation between FB and GA - but is it typical for GA to show practically only 60-70% of the clicks?  It seems like a big difference?

Thanks!

-Dan

[DanSpeicher]

Right back at you.

Another possibility is the way Facebook shortens URLs:

"this is quite frequent problem. I guess that you click in FB and visits in GA will never be the same, but this difference is really huge.

From what I've heard, Facebook is using its own URL shortening methods for treating the outbound links such as Ads. The trouble is, that this method is apparently problematic with some features like redirected or shortened URL. Try to remove the goo.gl address and run the Ads on the full original URL (just keep the URL builder parameters)."

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google%20Analytics/thread?tid=425b634da546ab6f&hl=en

If you Google "facebook clicks different than analytics visits" you'll see many people in your situation.

[DanSpeicher]

This explains the link re-routing issue in more detail:

http://blog.thenetimpact.com/2009/10/how-to-track-facebook-ad-traffic-using-google-analytics/

[adrianvender1]

Daniel is making all the right points.  One important thing to remember that conceptually FB clicks and GA visits are calculated differently.  For FB, a click is a click.  It's going through their system so it's easy for them to accurately track clicks.  On the GA side, a visit is contingent on a user having JS/cookies enabled.  Although almost most devices will meet that requirement, GA also has to be told what source they came from.  FB ads (and other ad networks) will commonly use redirects because it's their method of tracking clicks before sending the user to the destination.  These redirects might cause issues because it may confuse the referrer being passed.  That's why building GA campaign tagged URLs will help alleviate that.

[evolvingSEO]

Yes, thanks guys!  Great info. I'm sort of new to any PPC at all - but in the article Daniel linked to, it took me here to the URL builder tool, which I'd never played around with before.  But this is exactly what I was looking for.

[JurgenEstanislao]

Does this hold true for Google Adwords? I am practically experiencing the same issues but with Adwords and Analytics.