Adobe Analytics: Visits < Clicks Recorded

[dicksont7494219]

Hi there,

There was a similar discussion back in 2016 but the findings did not shed any information on my scenario.

I have been running a campaign for just over a month (35 days to be exact), with AdWords, DCM as push channels to DotCom. As with the title, I noted that in this duration, DCM clicks are less compared to the web visits attributed via tracking codes. Interestingly, this did not apply with AdWords.

I have noted the following:

1. All tracking codes are unique to individual digital asset (1 banner = 1 tracking code) and not re-used
2. There have been no expiry date set to the tracking codes

The increment is about 15% more visits than clicks and beyond our tolerance threshold and I'm curious to know what could be the reason behind this behaviour.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you

[PratheepArunRaj]

Dear Dickson,

I suspect that the problem is with the Expiration and because of returning customers.

Lets assume the below Scenario.

I landed your website through DotCom with the Tracking Code 'Test'. Now, Tracking Code would have received 1 click and 1 visit.

After a month, i landed again to your site through Google Search. Now again Tracking Code will receive once more Visit since there is no expiration set, but Click is still be 1 right? So now, Visit is 2 but Click is 1.

You didn't see the behavior in Ad-words and it might be because there are no returning customers using the channel.

Thank You

Arun

[dicksont7494219]

Hi Arun,

Thanks for your reply and suggestion.

Yes, that is a possible scenario. What I did to check against that was:

1. Check Instances when tracking ID was fired
2. Test for new/return visits
3. Tracking code expiry (We have a 7 day default)

In both tests (1 and 2), it still reports figures above clicks. We're using an agency to report our DCM performance, so I'm gradually inclined to believe that the issue lies with DCM reporting rather than Adobe.

[PratheepArunRaj]

Dear Dickson,

So clicks you are referring here is not in Adobe then.

If so, it is really hard to map the differences or understand the gap since both are different platforms and uses different logic to attribute.

Thank you!

Arun.

[nickh86417692]

If you're reporting on "Unique Clicks" in DCM, this will only report one click per user, regardless of whether that person clicked multiple times. Where adobe will report a new visit each time that unique user clicks through on a campaign. This difference in reporting methodology ihas the potential to cause the inconsistency you're seeing. Especially if this is a retargeting campaign, and the same users will be seeing the same ads multiple times.

Is DCM showing more unique clicks than Adobe is showing unique visitors? Those two numbers should ideally be in close alignment.