Analyzing the Gap: LinkedIn Click Data vs. Adobe Analytics Traffic

[ValentinCh1]

Hi everyone!

We are experiencing significant discrepancies between the metrics reported by LinkedIn (specifically, total clicks for a post) and those captured in Adobe Analytics (AA) for our paid social media campaigns. This issue also extends to organic social traffic. While we are ensuring that our UTM parameters are correctly implemented, we recognize that the data will never be completely aligned. However, we want to understand the big differences in the numbers.

LinkedIn provides detailed click data for a specific post, while Adobe Analytics reports much lower visit and page view counts for the same campaign originating from LinkedIn, raising concerns about the effectiveness of our paid campaigns. Additionally, when comparing data from Sprout, we observe a noticeable difference between "Post Link Clicks" for a specific post and the corresponding traffic in AA for the same campaign.

One hypothesis for this discrepancy is that users may close the new window before the landing page fully loads, resulting in untracked interactions in AA. Understanding these differences is crucial for optimizing our measurement strategy and accurately assessing campaign performance.

Do you have any ideas why it may happen? 

Thank you in advance! 

[igupta · Accepted solution]

Hi @ValentinCh1 ,

I would probably start by looking at cookie acceptance rate in Adobe Analytics. Also, how each click is counted also matters by tool. For example, in LinkedIn if the clicks are by click instances, in Adobe Analytics, if you are looking at Visitor metric, then Visitor count would be lower than click count.

If the landing page load speed is slow, then your hypothesis definitely makes sense. If it's a publicly accessible campaign, feel free to DM me the link and perhaps I can be of more assistance.

Best,

Isha

[ValentinCh1]

Thanks a lot! It makes sense indeed. And we know that with the GDPR, the opt-out rate for cookie consent is high in Europe. 

[uni-adam]

This is a common scenario Valentin!

Usually Ad Platforms like to inflate their metrics and this causes a wedge between your marketing team and Adobe Analytics data.

Also be careful of bots landing on your site. We had an influx of Bytedance Bots inflating our landing page metrics recently. Look at hits for a single ECID and their behaviour on the site, you may find someting interesting.

If you're interested in bot discovery, look out for Dr. Augustine Fou - he has some interesting things to say!

[ValentinCh1]

Thanks a lot for your answer and for the Dr. Augustine Fou recommendation - very interesting.