20-25 percent difference in view in between Facebook ad clicks are visible in Google Analytics [duplicate]

Question

We advertise blog posts of our blogging website on facebook but there is a huge difference between Fb ad clicks and clicks available on Google analytics.

Few user has reported about this issue that when they click on our website page Fb post, Sometimes it doesnt take it to our website.

When i tried to debug a problem then i found this that whenever we click on any post on fb, Instead of taking it directly to our website , It makes a http-post request to this

Facebook url

using form-data like this

*__a:1
__af:i0
__be:-1
__dyn:aKhoFeyfyGmaomgDBUOWOGi9EwlUJ6yUmyVbGAEG8UNFLOaA6em5-rmi9GaxOfiLyFpe8QueCHxvxqqqUnCG22aULhUKbkwzzEG5WAzHBA--VRxeUWbByp-EiGtWzVUogHDh8LBxDVF8SLQhDBzA5KuiaAz8gAVCcy46oZolByFGADh8zyogyVoWbCAwBxl5DyFLZoSLiQ48Ccy8CF8hJkQiambGl7m8UmVmEhDCGVt4gmx2iiESnAiKaCWVE
__pc:PHASED:DEFAULT
__req:5s
__rev:2806747
__user:100003297861120
fb_dtsg:AQHTCPlVp6c1:AQGsGXeHA0-B
ph:V3
q:[{"user":"<someuserid in Numeric>","page_id":"<page id>","posts":[["click_ref_logger",["0hC3",1485929631555,"act",1485929631554,41,"https://www.someurl.com/","click","click","timeline_main_column","r","/ourwebsite/?fref=ts",{"ft":{"tn":"HH","top_level_post_id":"1421442361208771","tl_objid":"1421442361208771","fbfeed_location":36},"gt":{"type":"click2canvas","fbsource":703,"ref":"nf_generic"}},476,9653.222473150425,0,1012,"b6omca","XPagesProfileHomeController"],1485929631555,0],["ods:ChannelTransport",{"sendPull.json":[1]},1485929631564,0]],"trigger":"ods:ChannelTransport","send_method":"ajax"}]
ts:1485929631565
ttstamp:2658172846780108861125499495865817111571881017265484566*

Ofcourse they do this for analytics and from their internal server they redirects to our page.

My question is how can i debug that why my users are not able to reach my website from fb post clicks.

I have already checked this fb share url debugger url debugger tools from facebook and my url are fine for sharing

Also if a url is scrapped by Fb scrapper and its already posted on Fb page, Then it shows that there is no issues with our url.

Answer 1

One of the biggest issues you see between Google analytics and any advertising platform including google adwords is the placement of the Google Analytics Code. Google Recommends always putting the Analytic Code in the header of your website to ensure it can capture all click data before the page loads. Facebook, especially on mobile and tablets that use the facebook app.

The other issues some advertisers have is with the Audience Placement. If the ad was shown and clicked accidentally by a user and they backed out quickly. If your analytics code is not in the header it would not have captured that click.

Another way to test it, is to setup a cookie to track your users and register your clicks to your own database. For example your final url from facebook could be yourwebsite.com/?trackcookie=facebook you can save that get variable and compare your facebook click data. If your cookie and facebook match up, you know you have an issue with google analytics and how it is implemented.