Adwords & Analytics doesn't match

[Steve Sellers]

My adwords account is consistently saying I have had more clicks than what my analytics account says.

Are google ripping me off, is this a bug, or something else?

Advice appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[Horton_Sakaria]

Have you linked your GA and Adwords accounts... Also are you looking at Page visits and not hits.

Can you give me an example of what you have seen??

 

[Steve Sellers]

I haven't linked them...I will do that now...

My example is for example yesterday on google adwords I was charged for 12 hits but the end of the day in my analytics account it only showed up that I had 7 referrals, what happened to the other 5? :|

 

[Horton_Sakaria]

OK so under sources in GA,you have three sub sections;

All traffic: This includes all traffic, and the one you should really look at. Under that section you will have something called cpc (adwords) that where this should match up to your adwords and you will seen then that this is correct

Direct: Mean visitors coming directly your website. Not through search engine

Referrals: These are visit's coming from other website. Like facebook, yell etc.

Let me know if you need any more help

 

[Steve Sellers]

All traffic: This includes all traffic, and the one you should really look at. Under that section you will have something called cpc (adwords) that where this should match up to your adwords and you will seen then that this is correct

Thanks, it is these that are out, and have consistently been out by 5-6 clicks per day for the past week....which kind of makes me think google is pulling my pants down

 

[Andrew Baker]

My adwords account is consistently saying I have had more clicks than what my analytics account says.

Are google ripping me off, is this a bug, or something else?

Advice appreciated, thanks in advance.

They aren't Steve, there are a number of reason why your AdWords data doesn't match your Analytics data.

You are comparing clicks to visits...

The most likely reason you have the discrepancy is down to the users browser settings. Visitors need to enable JavaScript, images, and cookies within their browser for a visit to be reported by Analytics whereas with AdWords it will report these visitors, as it is only tracking a click... different methods of tracking.

There is also the chance especially with comparison shopping behaviours that a unique visitor will click your ad multiple times so each click is tracked however there is only 1 visitor session reported in Analytics.

I would echo the advice above, link your AdWords data source / cost data to your Analytics account and enable auto-tagging. You'll get a much better suite of reporting available to you.

I hope that helps...

 

[Steve Sellers]

Thanks guys, your help and input is appreciated.