Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Google Analytics CPC and PPC not Matching
-
Hi
Why do our CPC in Google Analytic not match our PPC in Adword, surely they should be identical? We have Auto-tagging switched on and data in our history is wrong so it is not a timing issue.
Thanks
-
Hey! This is a common issue between AdWords and GA. Analytics is tracking the number of visits, and AdWords is tracking the number of clicks. I'm not completely up to speed on what qualifies as an actual Visit to GA but it's not the same as what you're paying for. Sometimes when people don't stay long enough to count as a GA defined visit, it won't appear when reviewing traffic sources.
And when you see higher numbers in GA than in AdWords, there are a few other things that could be happening as well. AdWords is always about 4-6 hours behind the real up to date time. So as long as you aren't looking at today only, this shouldn't be a factor. Google also will credit you for what they believe to be fraudulent clicks, so they will also lower your numbers in AdWords.
What kind of variance are you seeing?
Also, you may want to look at the Advertising>AdWords>Campaigns section instead of the Traffic Sources section. I don't know when Analytics starts tracking last non-direct touch (if that's only in the goals or if that's throughout). But as soon as you leave the Advertising tab, things start to get wonky.
-
-
I have just noticed one instance where Adwords clicks are higher..thus breaking the theory
-
Hi
Yes they are linked. I think I may have just solved it. In Google under Traffic Sources the "google / cpc" is always a bit higher than the clicks in Adwords for a given period. On looking into the data more I can see that they are reporting the same keywords but on some of the keywords GA is reporting a few more clicks. I am guessing this is due to people revisiting. Is it that GA records the second visit again but adwords only records the original click?
Does this theory sound right? It the only thing I can think of. I suppose another way to ask the same question is "Does GA record revisits but adwords doesn't?"
Thanks
-
Sorry, I'm not sure I understand.
Is data in Advertising -> Adwords in Google Analytics not matching data in Google Adwords?
Are your Google Adwords and Google Analytics accounts linked?
-
Sorry I should have made it clearer. By CPC I mean the traffic source. Paid clicks as opposed to Organic clicks
I would expect that the CPC source in GA to match the PPC clicks in Adwords but they don't
-
Have you got the correct currency set in Google Analytics?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
304 "If Modified Header" Triggers Error in Google Ads?
We have a client who is launch some Google Ads campaigns, and they recently asked us to fix 304 "Errors" on their website as per this feedback: "When we inspected the website we came across a number of 304 status errors. In order to get the ads running, we will need all of the website domain status codes converted to 200. “ Of course, all of their website pages return a 200 Status, it's just the HTTP headers that additionally clarify with a 304 Response (not an error). Has anyone else ever run into this issue with Google Ads? IMHO it makes no sense to remove this functionality. Google has even recommended in the past to use this it: https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/11/date-with-googlebot-part-ii-http-status.html Thanks for any tips or feedback!
Paid Search Marketing | | mirabile0 -
Clients Keep Googling Themselves
Hi, I have a common problem with my clients where they google their own business name or keywords they want to rank for and freak out when they don't show up on the first page of results. The same is true for my paid search clients. Is there a good way I can explain to them how Googleing themselves is not the best way to know if they are performing well? If there is an article out there that explains it that I can share that would be even better.
Paid Search Marketing | | GuardianOwlDigital0 -
Looking at google shopping results from other country
Hi, I run shops in several languages out of London. One of our key revenue drivers is google shopping. It is important for me to look the the shopping search results for example in germany. Recently Google changed something so when I want to look at the german shopping results from here, eg. http://www.google.de/shopping it always shows me the english ones with prices in pounds. Is there a trick to still get the foreign results? Thanks in advance Dieter
Paid Search Marketing | | Storesco1 -
Best practice to separate paid from organic conversions in Google Analytics
I have a PPC campaign for a client with standalone landing pages with a form, not reachable from the website (although in the same domain). I've added the AdWords conversion code to the "thank you" page and I also added a Goal in
Paid Search Marketing | | DoMiSoL
Google Analytics whose counter is increased every time the thank you page is reached. This way I can track conversions with both AdWords and Analytics. Is that correct? Should I import back in AdWords the goals from Analytics, as suggested in the AdWords account? I have another landing page with a form in the website, where I send users coming from
organic search, so I set up a second goal in Analytics for the thank you page of this form. Is this the reason why I am supposed to import in AdWords the analytics' goals, so that I could see both kind of conversions in both accounts? But the most important question is: If I send both PPC/organic visitors to the same landing page is there still a way to separate PPC from Organic conversions? Thank you very much for your advice. DoMiSoL Rossini0 -
How long does it ramp up a PPC campaign?
I was speaking to a SEO the other day. He is going to be working on an ecommerce site soon. I was suggesting that he might want to augment his SEO efforts with PPC in order to be able to show some results in the near term, as it would most likely take some time for his SEO work to be showing results. His response was that while he hasn't utilized them as much, he's found that it can take 3-6 months to get a PPC campaign to really make money. I'm just curious if you guys feel that this is an accurate statement?
Paid Search Marketing | | brettgus0 -
Increasing Google Ad spend - is it worth it
Hi We are currently spending approx £500 pcm on google ad words however if I increased this spend to £4000 pcm what kind of results would this achieve? For example would it just be more visits per day as the budget is larger? Also what is the best way to track the success of an adwords campaign - the ultimate goal of the campaign would be to generate a lead whether this be a phone call, email or using our book an appointment form. Our service covers a geographical area (Scotland) and for organic search we are doing well 1st pages listings for searches such as pvc doors edinburgh etc so I am unsure whether it's worth increasing my PPC spend or put more resource into SEO, or even Facebook ads?
Paid Search Marketing | | ocelot0 -
PPC question for the experts
I know this is paid search but since Moz had a section for it, I thought it would be ok to ask. 🙂 According to: http://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2497836?hl=en Broad match modifier +tennis +shoes Ads may show on searches for tennis shoes
Paid Search Marketing | | MattAntonino
buy tennis shoes
best shoes for tennis Ads won't show on searches for running shoes
tennis sneakers I'm using (for a client) +wedding +photographer. It should show on wedding photographer hire a wedding photographer best wedding photographer in dallas It should not show on photographer in Dallas become a photographer dallas pictures But it is. Why would this happen? Isn't that exactly what it says it won't show up on? Also, Google writes: Don't leave space between the plus sign (+) prefix and the word you're modifying! •Correct: +leather +shoes
•Incorrect: + leather + shoes
•Incorrect: +leather+shoes Yet the client was told by Google the opposite. "I spoke with Google and they confirmed that the space after the plus and before wedding (“+ wedding”) would notrequire “wedding” to show up." How on Earth does this reconcile or make ANY sense? ETA: This is fairly clear to me: Be sure there are no spaces between the + and modified words, but do leave spaces between words. The right way to do it: +formal +shoes. The wrong way to do it: +formal+shoes. http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/bmm.html0 -
Multiple keyword match types - same ad group, or separate ad groups?
Hi guys, Looking at an account that has historically used broad matching, and i'd now like to take some of the better performing keywords and duplicate as phrase and/or exact match to increase the quality of traffic to the landing pages. I know I can add red shoes, "red shoes" and [red shoes] to the same ad group, however I've also read that people are creating separate groups for each match type. Other than easy of management (same group), or more granular targeting of ads (separate groups), should I go with either approach, or a blend of the two? My key objective in this restructure is to drop the currently high bounce rate on the landing pages by improving the relevance of the incoming traffic. Cheers, Jez
Paid Search Marketing | | jez0000