There are a number of reasons why Google Ads and Analytics may report different numbers of clicks and sessions. There could be a technical problem with clicks and session, like a tracking code being incorrectly configured or being missing from a landing page. Other times, when customers view data from Google Ads and Analytics together, the clicks and sessions don’t match in their reports. Having more sessions than clicks is actually an indication of positive engagement which is one of the common questions about Google Ads clicks and Analytics sessions. While these topics are centred around Google Analytics, the same concepts can apply to any third-party tracking integrated with Demand Gen.
You can also view this information through a troubleshooter.
This article will cover some of the main causes for clicks and sessions discrepancy for Demand Gen campaigns:
- Clicks and sessions are different metrics
- Google Ads filters invalid clicks from your report. Analytics shows all data
- You turned off auto-tagging for your URLs in your Google Ads account
- Turn on manual tagging
- Make sure that your Google Ads Import and Export settings are correct
- Your site has a server side URL rewrite
- Your landing page might redirect to a different page
- Make sure that the landing page for your ads is being tracked
- Users might have set their browser preferences in ways that prevent Analytics used on websites from collecting data
- Make sure that your landing page is able to load the code properly
- Users return during the lifetime of a campaign
- Users return to your site via bookmarks
- The server delays
Clicks and sessions are different metrics
Google Ads tracks Clicks, while Analytics tracks Sessions. If a user clicks on your ad two times within 30 minutes without closing the browser, this is registered by Analytics as one session, even if the user left your site and then returned shortly after. 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 Ads filters invalid clicks from your report. Analytics shows all data
Google Ads automatically filters certain clicks from your reports, while Analytics reports on all the resulting sessions. The clicks filtered from your Google Ads reports are the instances of someone clicking repeatedly on your ad in order to increase your costs or to increase your click-through rate. Google Ads considers these clicks to be invalid and automatically filters them from your Google Ads reports. You aren't charged for these potentially invalid clicks.
You turned off auto-tagging for your URLs in your Google Ads account
If auto-tagging is turned off, and you didn't manually tag the final URLs with campaign tracking variables, the traffic isn't marked as Google CPC (clicks that came through from Google Ads ads), but instead may be attributed to Google Organic (clicks from organic search results on Google.com). Ensure that your Google Ads account has auto-tagging turned on.
Learn how to enable auto-tagging.
Turn on manual tagging
There may be instances where the attributed dimensions, specifically from Google Ads (such as Google Ads campaign, ad group, ads, source/medium and session source platform), may display as '(not set)' if using WBRAID or GBRAID. We understand the importance of data accuracy and are actively working towards additional solutions that continue to balance user privacy and reporting. In the meantime, if you notice that there are fewer sessions attributed to the campaigns and more associated to '(not set)', you can add UTM parameters to your Demand Gen campaigns to be used as a fallback. This will improve session attribution reporting.
Here’s an example of manual tags to add in addition to auto-tagging:
?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=DemandGenCampaignName"
Learn more about manual tagging and how to collect campaign data with custom URLs.
Make sure that your Google Ads Import and Export settings are correct
If you're sure that the accounts are linked and you still don't see click or cost data, check that you have selected the option to import the data from the linked account to the view in question.
Learn how to edit your Google Ads Import and Export settings.
Your site has a server side URL rewrite
Adding additional parameters to your URL may cause your rewrite rule to break. A small percentage of websites don't allow arbitrary parameters in the URL and as a result serve error pages when you include those parameters. We suggest that you ask your webmaster to allow arbitrary URL parameters.
Your landing page might redirect to a different page
Redirects in landing pages can keep the Analytics code from launching and properly identifying the traffic as having come from a paid search campaign. For example, if your ad leads to http://mydomain.com/index.html, but you've created a 301, 302 or JavaScript redirect from that URL to http://mydomain.com/page2.html, the campaign information that was originally appended to the landing page is lost when it redirects.
Learn how to track redirecting pages.
Make sure that the landing page for your ads is being tracked
If the landing page for your ads isn't being tracked, your campaign information isn't passed to Analytics. Ensure that you're tracking all landing pages for your Google ads.
Users might have set their browser preferences in ways that prevent Analytics used on websites from collecting data
Users entering your website through Google Ads might have JavaScript or images turned off, or they might use other technologies to prevent Analytics from reporting about your website users (such as by installing the Analytics opt-out browser add-on). In some cases, Analytics might not be able to report these users, but they're reported through Google Ads.
Make sure that your landing page is able to load the code properly
Clicks reported on Google Ads but not on Analytics may be the result of an obstruction between the Google Ads click event and the ability to load the tracking code on the landing page. If this is the case, ensure that your web hosting servers are functioning properly, the page is loading for all possible users and IPs and the tracking code is installed correctly on your web pages.
Learn how to check that you've installed the Analytics code properly.
Users return during the lifetime of a campaign
During the lifetime of a given campaign, a returning user to your site is attributed to that one campaign. In such cases, you can expect to see more sessions than clicks. To see the number of sessions from returning users, cross-segment the campaign by User Type.
Users return to your site via bookmarks
Analytics uses the gclid parameter in your final URLs to identify traffic from Google Ads ads. The gclid parameter shows up in your landing page URL when a user arrives at your site from your ad. For example, if your site is example.com, when a user clicks on your ad, it appears in the address bar as:
example.com/?gclid=123xyz
If users bookmark your website along with the gclid parameter, Analytics records traffic from these bookmarks arriving from your Google Ads ads. However, Google Ads doesn't record the clicks and advertisers are not charged for these sessions since they're not actual clicks on the ads.
The server delays
If a user comes to your site from an ad, and then leaves the landing page before the tracking code executes, then the gclid parameter is never passed to the Google servers and that click isn't associated with the session. The result is a clicks vs sessions discrepancy.
