Data Views Discrepancy

[Jamie8989]

Hi there,

I'm wondering if anyone would be able to shed some light on a question I have. So when looking at login views to a mobile page, I can see the number (for arguments sake lets just say its 1,000) for a given day. But if I take the same data from another provider that logs "true views" for logins, that the data is consistently between 10-15% higher than what adobe is reporting. Which leads to the question, if this is the case for Logins, would that also very likely mean all data feeds from Adobe Analytics be under reporting by 15%.

My initial instincts on this are either.

VPN's preventing tracking

User sessions only allowing a login to be recorded 1 within a given time frame for a view (occurrences wouldn't work as they over inflate) 

Would anyone have any thoughts they can share on this?

[RobertBlakeley]

So you are comparing the reporting on the same thing from two different vendors and finding there is a difference. You might also ask, which one is correct?

In my experience, there is always a discrepancy when comparing the tracking between two different vendors. I read somewhere, some years ago, that 20-30% differences are typical for Web Analytics. There are many reasons for this.

Some are definitional. The rules for how, what, and/or when they count are different. From that perspective, they could both be correct. To know what those differences are typically takes a lot of (thankless) time and deep-diving to explain what is causing the differences.

Some are environmental. Things like dropped calls, vpns, etc. 

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Absolutely agree with this. All vendors have slightly different logic in how data is collected. They are also subject to other factors such as ad blockers, opt outs, temporary bugs that might prevent something from being recorded..

The values will always be different. What matters is if the trends are the same... both go up at the same time comparatively, both go down at the same time comparatively...

Web Analytics isn't about absolute values, and none of them are going to be 100% correct (there are too many factors).... what matters is the consistency over time and seeing if the site is improving or declining, seeing what sections or content is the most popular, etc....

[Jamie8989]

Great thank you both appreciate your thoughts on this. Very helpful