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Why there can be a discrepancy in clicks between Google Analytics and Launch and how to minimize it

In this article we discuss the top reasons that generate the biggest discrepancies between Launch and Google Analytics, and provide solutions to minimize those.

Note: Click discrepancies of 20% and less per campaign appeared to be average with an optimal set-up. 

 
Clicks and Sessions are different metrics.
When you are comparing the traffic that is generated with a Wonderkind campaign with the statistics on your website using Google Analytics it is important to understand the different metrics. Starting with explaining the difference between clicks and sessions. When someone clicks on a Google Ads ad, the click is immediately recorded in the Ad-server logs and communicated to our Launch platform. For example, if a user clicks on your ad once, clicks the back button, and then clicks your ad again, Google Ads registers two clicks while Analytics registers one session.
Google Analytics Sessions
Before a session is recorded, several things happen:
  1. When the click takes place, the browser is pointed to the advertiser's landing page.
  2. The advertiser's website then responds to this request and starts to transfer data from the web server to the user's browser.
  3. When the browser starts to download the landing page, there may be a request for several files at the same time, including JavaScript, CSS, images, video, audio, etc. The requests for JavaScript include the Analytics tracking code.
  4. The JavaScript file (ga.js or analytics.js) must first be downloaded and interpreted by the user's browser.
  5. The user's browser/device and security settings must support:
    • Cookies
    • JavaScript
    • Images
    If any of the above are disabled, analytics may not be able to record a session. 
  6. Next, the browser sends a separate request to www.google-analytics.com, the Analytics servers.
  7. Finally, a session is recorded.
The following diagram illustrates these steps.
unnamed
 
The key takeaway here is that the process to record a click is straightforward; however, recording a session involves requirements and checkpoints. The whole process from click to session should happen within seconds, but if latency is introduced at any of these checkpoints, then this can in turn reduce the click-to-session ratio (more clicks than sessions are recorded).

What can you do to decrease these click-to-sessions drop off

Position is important

We often get asked where the Analytics tracking code should be placed in the HTML source of a page. The answer is, it depends on how accurately you want to measure users who bounce. If a click takes place and it takes several seconds for a session to be recorded, then there is a strong possibility that some of these sessions may not get tracked. In general, we recommend placing the tracking code just before the closing </head> tag.

Mobile and short Clicks

As a general rule, mobile devices operate on slower network infrastructure (3G networks) than most Desktop connections (ADSL / Cable). If you target mobile devices, a fast-responding website is even more critical to preventing short clicks.

Test your speed page in Google Analytics

The page load time should ideally be between 3 and 4 seconds.

Analytics Site Speed reports now provide site speed suggestions. Enter your most-clicked Destination URLs to see suggestions on how to make those pages faster.