Mismatching in data is often frustrating for rookie advertisers and digital marketers. Why does not data always match up? This issue is known as a ‘discrepancy’ and this is a common thing in data collection.
What is data discrepancy?
Statistics on one platform may not match statistics on another. This is called data discrepancy. 100 clicks in TrafficStars stats, 90 clicks in a Third-party tracker, 85 clicks in an Affiliate network, a familiar situation, isn't it?
Most of the discrepancies in statistics are due to multiple redirects. Here is the standard path that users go from clicking an ad to see a landing page.
TrafficStars → Tracker → Landing page → Affiliate network
Each new redirect increases the chance of click loss due to timeouts, ad blockers, and many other possible factors.
💡 Keep in mind that running popunder ads, you will see only impressions in stats. While your tracker may interpret them as clicks.
How to minimize click loss?
☑️ Don’t use Google Analytics.
That's why:
- Google Analytics register sessions, not clicks. These are essentially separate metrics.
- The visit will not be registered if the GA code has not been loaded.
- GA code can be blocked by privacy solutions.
- Unlike GA, trackers track redirects. This means that when a user clicks on a link, they are redirected to one of the tracker's servers and then landed on the website.
☑️ Increase landing page loading speed
Your landing page should load in less than 2 seconds. According to the statistics 1 second delay in page load time means 11% loss of page views. This is especially important for mobile traffic.
☑️ Test your website performance testing
Check your landing page regularly to avoid wasting your ad budget.
☑️ Check server location
The risk of losing clicks is inevitable if the servers are located around the globe. In case you are targeting US users, it’s best to use localhost.
☑️ Create blacklists
In some cases, a certain website may have a high click loss rate. Add such sites to the blacklist. This will increase your overall click loss rate.
☑️ Use cloud-based trackers
Cloud hosted trackers outperform self-hosted in terms of page loading speed. Since cloud trackers use servers all over the world to ensure the fastest redirect and minimize losses.
💫 TrafficStars servers located in Europe, North America and South Asia.
Platforms work differently, you need to accept this fact. It is not always necessary to achieve complete data matching. The normal level of discrepancy can be up to 20%. For some GEOs, % of click loss can increase up to 40%.
TrafficStars have integrated with dozens of trackers. Here you can find the actual list.