Google Analytics

[Intrested]

Hi Folks

I'm currently measuring multiple goals with Google analytics. At the end of the month I compare the Analytics numbers with my actual, from a diffident data base, and there is often a variance. My questions are;

1- Is there an accepted Delta % in goals eg: + or - 10%

2- Is there a resource that anybody found incredibly useful on this topic

3- does anybody have any tips on trouble shooting here?

Thank you in advance

[masdigitalmedia]

Hi Ali,

While the contributors above make great points, it may be helpful to look into some resource info for more details.  This won't provide you with a quick answer, but I found this book quite helpful in discussing issues on the discrepancies.  Brian Clifton goes into quite a bit of detail in, "Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics".  He addresses the points from the contributors above and quite a bit more.

best of luck.

[Intrested]

but does this explain why the Google Analytics figures are always higher than actual?

[danatanseo]

David's answer is spot on. One thing he didn't mention is that it takes time for the goal javascripts to load. Many times, people who complete a transcation close the "Order Finished" page before the javascripts have a chance to load completely. Consequently, you are getting their conversion but it's not counting in the GA total.

[Intrested]

Google Analytics

Goal 1  .... 237
Goal 2  .... 59
Goal 3  .... 3339

According to our numbers

Goal 1  .... 222
Goal 2  .... 53
Goal 3  .... 2928

[David_ODonnell]

Just how different are the numbers? There are a number of possible reasons, including:

Google Analytics requires JavaScript, cookies and images to be enabled in the visitors browser in order to record visitor activity. It should be noted that there is an opt out plug-in for Google Analytics that will exclude visitors with the plugin installed from reporting their activity on your website.

Also, Google Analytics does not have a noscript section, so Google Analytics cannot track conversions for visitors with JavaScript disabled.

See also: http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1009616