Tracking differences¶

Here (In the following …) you can find a list of reasons why the tracking from a publisher, agency and/or a client can differ.

Different technologies¶

In most cases the publisher, agency and the client use different tools to measure clicks, ad impressions and visibility. Every tool works with different methods when measuring these values.

Note

Because of this (different methods), differences less then (up to) ±10% are usual. Even though, in some rare cases, it may vary up to ±20%.

Timezone issue¶

In some cases differences can also appear due to various timezones.

Example: Tracking Tool 1 uses GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) Tracking Tool 2 uses MET/CET (Middle European Time/Central European Time).

General tip

This issue could be solved by using tools which allow changing the timezone in the settings or while generating the reports.

Clients should be aware of the fact, that the analytics/tracking tool will not be loaded on clients website when declining all or at least the statistics/marketing cookies.

Here is a list of some analytics/tracking tools which might be affected:

Google Analytics
Matomo/Piwik
Facebook
Ad server/DMP analytics from Adition, Xandr, Bluekai, The Adex, Adobe Audience Manager, Mediamath, ...
and many more

Warning

In the worst case you might have a tracking difference from 100% in comparison to the publisher/agency.

UTM parameter

If the campaign uses UTM parameter to identify the campaign, you might be able to get at least some campaign statistics from the web server logs. Considering this, please talk to your web server admin to get further information.

Some Browsers¶

Some browsers, like the Brave browser, block all ads and analytics tools by default. Other ones, such as Safari and Firefox, block all third party Cookies in their latest version, which can also lead to tracking differences.

Ad Blocker/Firewall¶

An ad blocker/firewall can block all or partial requests from ad and statistic tools. In most cases those tools work with either potentially incomplete white/blacklists or specific keywords included in the URL. Furthermore, as some sites will not correctly work if those tools are active, the user is able to deactivate them for specific sites. This can also cause tracking differences.

Some Example for such Tools are:

Adblock Plus
uBlock Origin
Ghostery
and many more

Ads in Apps¶

Ads which will be served within an App are very often not affected by an Ad blocker. But as soon as the user clicks on a banner, the link to the landingpage will be opened in a standard browser. Since here an active ad block is possible, all requests to analytics tools are being blocked and the accurate counting in your analytics tools is being prevented.

Network issues¶

When the user is not connected to WIFI, this is a common problem on mobile devices. A poor internet connection in current locations can also make the device or the user itself cancel some of the network requests, which can again lead to tracking differences.

Technical issues¶

In some cases there can be identifies following technical issues:

wrong implementation
problem with the provided tags / not compatible with the used systems
problem with the macros inside of the tag
caching issues
and many more