Facebook vs. Google Analytics: Why the KPIs are so different

[sakibkhan22197]

While Facebook Analytics is still a hidden analytics tool for social media managers, Google Analytics is already firmly integrated into the everyday workaround of almost every online marketer. Why not? Google Analytics provides a wealth of data on user numbers, distribution channels, and conversion tracking that none of us would ever want to be without. If Google Analytics were shut down overnight, the world would end for many of us online users.

It's a good thing that there are also various tools from the Facebook advertising platform – especially Facebook Analytics. Because with Facebook Analytics, Google is increasingly facing competition in the analytics market. Read on to learn about the differences between Google Analytics and Facebook's statistics, what explains the various KPIs in the reports, and which tool you should ultimately use.

The reasons for different reporting
There are plenty of reasons for the different performances. I've compiled some of them for you below:

1. Attribution Model & Attribution Window
Anyone who has ever created a report for Facebook Ads and compared the figures with the data in Google Analytics knows that the metrics can differ significantly. This is primarily due to the attribution model used by both tools. By default, Facebook Ads Manager, where you primarily view campaign results, uses the Last Click Attribution attribution model. This means the channel that receives the last click before the purchase receives the credit.

But Ads Manager—or rather, Facebook—is ruthless, and whenever a Facebook ad was involved in the customer journey, the purchase is counted toward the ongoing advertising campaign—regardless of whether the last click came from Facebook or not. You can find more detailed analyses in the Facebook Attribution Tool or in Facebook Analytics.

Unlike Ads Manager, Google can run a wide range of attribution models – and these models accurately reflect all channels in their statistics. If you'd like to learn more about attribution models and Facebook's attribution options, this free webinar by Dennis Fäckeler might be just the thing for you:

OMT Webinar
Webinar
OMT Webinar — Dennis Fäckeler
Facebook Attribution is Facebook's answer to the ongoing discussions surrounding discrepancies in conversion numbers in analytics tools. Has Facebook found the holy grail of cross-channel budget allocation?

Watch for free
It's not just the attribution model that can lead to different numbers being input into the two analytics tools. Another reason for potential and significant differences is the attribution window. Google Analytics has a standard malaysia mobile phone number data attribution window of 31 days, while Facebook has a default attribution window of only 28 days.

Facebook Analytics attribution window
Source: Screenshot from Facebook Analytics – Attribution Model



Although you can customize the attribute window in the company settings in Business Manager to your liking, 28 days is always the maximum.

For example, Google still includes conversions in a campaign even after 30 days have passed. On Facebook, the conversion is already assigned to another campaign—in the best case scenario.

2. User-based tracking vs. cookie-based tracking
While Google identifies users based on the cookies they set, Facebook tracks its users based on their individual user ID. However, cookies can be erased by deleting browser data, and new cookies must be acquired by the same user in order to be tracked again by Google Analytics. This person is then registered by Google not as a known user, but as a new user. This means that the same person who visits your website, then deletes your cookies, and then visits your site again will be recognized as two people in Google Analytics. This can, of course, falsify data and, to a limited extent, destroy statistics.

Fortunately, that can't happen to Facebook! Because Facebook tracks its users not with cookies but with their individual user IDs, Facebook doesn't lose track of the user. User-based tracking also makes it possible to track users across different devices and assign only one user ID to each one, while at the same time, Google assigns multiple cookies to the same user because multiple devices were used.