More ad clicks than Google Analytics pageviews?

I got a lot of questions why tracks the ad system way more clicks than Google Analytics pageviews. Or, why the ad clicks are not equal to Google Analytics pageviews.

In an ideal world these 2 metrics should be equal, but is is not an ideal world, so these 2 metrics are not equal.

Is it a big issue? Should you concern about it? No, this is a the behaviour of the ad/tracking systems. I know, it is a bit confusing, but let me explain it 🙂

First of all, the ad system and the tracking system (no matter which one) are two different system. The two different system tracks the user interactions differently and have different metrics and dimensions.

These looks almost the same, but they are not, they are different, so you can’t compare the two almost same metrics with each other. So it is not compare to apple to apple rather apples to oranges.

So, let’s examine a real life example.

You see more facebook ad clicks than Google Analytics pageviews. Of course, the landing page is the same on both sides and you only check the traffic from the Facebook ad/campaign. How can it be possible?

First of all, the difference between the two metrics.

Facebook use ad clicks, which is a click (surprise!) Google Analytics tracks the landing pageviews. As you can see, these are not the same metrics. I know, in an ideal world, someone who clicks on your ad is lands on your site, but it is not happens every time. Usually it does, but not every time.

Why the click not followed by a landing pageview? There are few answers which can cause the difference between the two metrics.

The user clicked on the ad, but didn’t wait to load the page with the tracking code (Google Analytics). So, Facebook track one ad click, but Google Analytics can’t track any landing pageviews. It happens when the user clicks the back button or simply close the new tab.

The user clicked on the ad, but she/he has ad blocker installed on the browser, so the tracking code can’t loaded after the landing pageview.

The user clicked on the ad (no ad blocker), but the browser failed to load every element/code snipet, so the tracking code failed and no landing pageviews.

All in all, the differenc between the two metrics are based on the different platforms and the user behaviours.