Why don’t my Campaigns stats match [something else]?
The first and most important thing to understand is that your ClickMagick stats are ridiculously accurate – unlike the stats you see in your ad networks and most other marketing apps you use.
And the fact that ClickMagick won’t always match up with these other apps is actually a good thing – because it means that ClickMagick is revealing your actual, statistically significant, and actionable stats.
Tracking is our only business. And our founder created one of the first click trackers for online direct response marketers all the way back in 1995, so we have more “in the trenches” experience than just about anyone.
We’ve processed and analyzed billions of clicks, we’ve worked tirelessly for the past 8 years to make ClickMagick as accurate as possible, and there’s literally nothing more accurate than ClickMagick once set up correctly.
With that being said, here are the common reasons for stats “discrepancies” …
If you’ve just recently started using ClickMagick, your stats are not going to match the other marketing apps you’re already using due to all the prospects already in your funnel prior to your starting to use ClickMagick.
Learn more
For example, imagine that someone clicked your Facebook Ad on Monday and entered your funnel, you start using ClickMagick on Tuesday, and then that prospect makes a purchase on Wednesday …
That sale will probably show up in your ad account and other marketing apps you’re already using – but it won’t be tracked in ClickMagick because the ad click happened before you started using ClickMagick.
You’ll start to see actionable stats within just a few days, but depending on the length of your sales cycle it could be weeks or even months before most or all of your conversions are tracked in ClickMagick.
Reason #2 – There’s a problem with your Tracking Code
Obviously your ClickMagick Tracking Code needs to be “installed” correctly to get accurate stats, so if it seems like things are “missing” in ClickMagick you’ll want to start here.
Learn more
For example maybe you’re doing a split test and forgot to add the ClickMagick Tracking Code to all of the test variations, which would cause the traffic going to those variations to not be tracked.
Or maybe your page builder isn’t outputting your Tracking Code correctly – which causes people using certain browsers to not be tracked correctly.
(Some page builders do some VERY weird and technically incorrect things – which is why we have a bunch of specific how-to articles for adding your Tracking Code using specific page builders.)
Reason #3 – Ad networks and other marketing apps do not provide accurate stats
You absolutely cannot rely on the stats provided by ad platforms or most of the other marketing apps you use.
It just doesn’t work, because individually they simply don’t have all the data points necessary to generate accurate stats. They only know what users do on their own platform, whereas ClickMagick tracks everything.
Learn more
There’s also a huge conflict of interest when it comes to the ad networks. They are greedy and will take credit for every conversion or sale they possibly can. Relying on them is like letting the fox guard the henhouse.
Please see the article below if you care to learn more:
And most of the other marketing apps you use are just far too simplistic when it comes to tracking ...
For example, if someone opts-in to your list 5 times using 5 different email addresses, your autoresponder is going to show that you have 5 new users on your list.
But this is clearly not what you want from a tracking or stats standpoint – so the stats they provide are useless.
Tracking is our only business. With the other marketing apps you use it’s just an afterthought.
Reason #4 – Different time periods, often due to time zone differences
To accurately compare two different sets of stats, you first have to make sure that you're looking at the exact same time period on both sides. Comparing apples to apples as they say.
Learn more
To help with this, ClickMagick allows you to display your stats in any time zone you want via the Time Zone setting in your Account Settings.
If necessary, you can also specify a custom time zone for each individual Campaigns Project which will override the default time zone in your account settings.
Reason #5 – You have “leaks” in your tracking, or other untracked traffic
ClickMagick Campaigns can only track visitors who arrive at your site via a proper UTM-powered link, including at a minimum, valid utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign values.
Anything else will be tagged as “organic” and not tracked the same as your paid ads.
Learn more
You could be getting traffic from ads or other sources you’re not properly tracking with ClickMagick, and while you may see events like opt-ins in your autoresponder for example, they won’t be tracked by ClickMagick.
Many times it’s just a case where you’ve set up some new ads and forgot to include UTMs for tracking ...
You should expect to see some of this when you’re new to ClickMagick, but over time as you begin to track ALL of your paid ads and online promotions with ClickMagick this shouldn’t be much of an issue unless you get a lot of organic traffic as compared to paid traffic and other sources that you’re tracking.
Reason #6 – Differences in counting “unique” clicks
The biggest issue here is that the major ad networks don’t publicly share how they determine a “unique” ad click, so it’s unlikely that the number of unique clicks shown in ClickMagick will exactly match your ad network.
Learn more
Based on the data, and based on public comments made by both Facebook and Google devs, major ad networks seem to allow roughly one unique ad click per user per day so that’s what ClickMagick Campaigns does as well by default (but you can also change how ClickMagick handles this via the cmc_unique parameter as well).
But this isn’t always exact …
If a user clicks an ad multiple times in the same day, it’s very possible that Google or Facebook will register and charge you for more than one “unique” click from the same user on the same day. We see it all the time.
Some clicks are also just untrackable – for example because the requesting client doesn’t execute javascript or accept cookies. In a case like this other “dumb” apps will count it as a normal click, but ClickMagick won’t – because if the user isn't trackable we don’t want to pollute your primary stats with untrackable clicks.
The important thing to keep in mind is that you should focus on things that can be tracked and optimized, and only pay attention to statistically valid stats.
You shouldn’t think of ClickMagick as a raw “click tracker.” You can always view your “non-standard” clicks in ClickMagick – things like untrackable clicks and “bot” clicks – but these are separated from your main stats ...
Because our primary goal is to show you the most statistically valid and actionable stats possible when it comes to the important things like your conversion rates, ROI and LTV.
This is super important, so if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Reason #7 – You're receiving fraudulent or “fake” clicks
This is unlikely with the major ad platforms, but there’s quite a bit of fraudulent traffic being bought and sold on some of the smaller ad networks, some of the CPV/PPV ad networks, and most certainly when it comes to “solo ads.”
These fake clicks are normally counted as real clicks by “dumb” platforms that can’t tell the difference, whereas they are separated from your real clicks by “smart” platforms like ClickMagick, if they can be tracked at all.
Learn more
If you’re paying for traffic, other people are making money selling it to you. And unfortunately the lure of easy money leads to some publishers and traffic providers generating and selling fake “clicks” on smaller ad platforms without the resources to combat it, or when selling traffic directly to the buyer as in the case with solo ads.
One example that can cause serious stats discrepancies between solo ad buyers and sellers is when sellers generate additional worthless clicks just to make more money.
Usually, an unscrupulous traffic seller will set up a page with multiple hidden "iframes" that all point to the same rotator. Then when an end-user lands on the page, multiple "clicks" will be generated all at the same time.
The end-user never actually sees any of the webpages, yet their web browser still generates clicks to each individual URL – and these clicks can’t always be tracked properly.
Fraudsters are often quite sophisticated, and there’s often nothing that you or we can do about it, and fraudulent traffic will lead to stats discrepancies.
Reason #8 – Bots “clicking” your ads and links
The main issue is that many bots do not follow redirects, so a bot may “click” on your ad or other promotional link, but not follow the redirect to your landing page the way a normal browser would so you never see the click.
Learn more
A “bot” (short for “robot”) is software that is programmed to do certain tasks. To learn more please see:
And while you’d expect ad networks like Google and Facebook to have highly advanced systems to protect you from this sort of thing, the truth is that their automated systems absolutely do not prevent or catch all the bots that are “clicking” on your ads, and you’re absolutely paying for some percentage of bot clicks.
Lucky for you, ClickMagick has world-class bot detection systems – perfected over the past 7 years and billions of clicks processed – that identify and “flag” many of these bots that slip through the cracks at the ad network level.
You can always view your “non-standard” clicks in ClickMagick – things like untrackable clicks and “bot” clicks – but by default these are separated from your real clicks ...
Because this is the only way to ensure that all of your other important stats – like your conversion rates – are as accurate as possible.
Reason #9 – Prospects and customers repeatedly clicking on your paid ads
Rather than use bookmarks, many Internet users simply Google your product or brand name and click whatever shows up at the top when they want to get back to your site.
Usually this is going to be your paid ad, and when they click it repeatedly over time, your ad network counts these as unique clicks and charge you over and over and over again.
Learn more
Imagine the following scenario ...
A user clicks one of your Google ads and ultimately ends up purchasing your product.
They forgot to bookmark your site, so a week later they type the name of your site or product into Google and click the first listing right at the top — which unfortunately happens to be your paid ad.
They are just trying to get back to your site but Google just counted and charged you for another “unique” click, whereas ClickMagick may not count this as another unique click depending on your settings.
If you’re not already aware of this problem you may be shocked to learn that instead of bookmarking their favorite sites, many users actually just use Google search to find sites they want to go back to, and if your paid ad is listed right at the top, you get charged over and over again each time they click on it.
If you take the time, and have the ability to look into this, you’ll probably discover that you have many users who do this multiple times per week, and they’re inflating your ad costs by a noticeable amount.
Fortunately, we’ve created a one-of-a-kind solution for this that allows you to block these people from repeatedly clicking your ads, allowing you to prevent a LOT of wasted ad spend. You can learn how in this article:
Reason #10 – Existing customers landing on a page with the sales conversion code
In addition to causing click discrepancies (and wasting your money), this can also cause issues with sales tracking if you don’t have a traditional Thank You page to install the Campaigns Conversion Tracking Code on.
Learn more
A traditional Thank You page is only seen once by a new customer when they make a purchase so it’s the perfect place to install your sales tracking code. But what if for example you’re selling access to a membership site and new users are immediately redirected into your membership area when they purchase, so you need to install the Campaigns Sale Tracking Code on the main page of your members’ area?
Again, consider the previous scenario ...
A user clicks your ad and becomes a member of your site. The sale is recorded and everything seems fine. But then a week or a month later they want to get back to your site so they search Google and click your ad again ...
Maybe they forgot to bookmark your site, maybe they’re on vacation using a different computer, or maybe they do it for any one of a number of different reasons. All that matters is that in some cases they may be treated as a new “unique” user when they click your ad again, so that when they get to your site, login, and access your members area another “sale” might be recorded in ClickMagick Campaigns.
Fortunately, Campaigns is quite flexible and there’s a simple solution to this problem …
If you redirect straight into a members area or something similar, you’ll simply want to remove the cmc_goal: 's', line from the code you place on the main page of your members area to track your sales, and instead pass in the cmc_goal=s parameter in the URL you use to redirect new customers into your members area.
It’s this line right here …
This will properly track a sale when a new user signs up, but it will NOT record duplicate sales when your existing customers use Google search and click your paid ads to get back to your site.
Here’s what to do if you still can’t figure it out ...
First off, know that minor discrepancies are actually to be expected for many of the reasons discussed above.
And remember – you shouldn’t think of ClickMagick as a raw “click tracker.” The purpose of ClickMagick is to provide you with statistically significant and actionable stats that will help you to optimize your marketing …
… and it really doesn’t matter if Facebook reports 1,002 raw ad clicks and ClickMagick reports 982 unique visitors.
For the purpose of optimizing your marketing like we just mentioned, the numbers that ClickMagick provide are always going to be “correct” and infinitely more useful than the numbers you see in other platforms.
With that being said, if you have a large discrepancy that you just can’t figure out, or you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out any time and we’ll be happy to help!
Reason #1 – You’ve just started using ClickMagick
If you’ve just recently started using ClickMagick, your stats are not going to match the other marketing apps you’re already using due to all the prospects already in your funnel prior to your starting to use ClickMagick.
Learn more
For example, imagine that someone clicked your Facebook Ad on Monday and entered your funnel, you start using ClickMagick on Tuesday, and then that prospect makes a purchase on Wednesday …
That sale will probably show up in your ad account and other marketing apps you’re already using – but it won’t be tracked in ClickMagick because the ad click happened before you started using ClickMagick.
You’ll start to see actionable stats within just a few days, but depending on the length of your sales cycle it could be weeks or even months before most or all of your conversions are tracked in ClickMagick.
Reason #2 – There’s a problem with your Tracking Code
Obviously your ClickMagick Tracking Code needs to be “installed” correctly to get accurate stats, so if it seems like things are “missing” in ClickMagick you’ll want to start here.
Learn more
For example maybe you’re doing a split test and forgot to add the ClickMagick Tracking Code to all of the test variations, which would cause the traffic going to those variations to not be tracked.
Or maybe your page builder isn’t outputting your Tracking Code correctly – which causes people using certain browsers to not be tracked correctly.
(Some page builders do some VERY weird and technically incorrect things – which is why we have a bunch of specific how-to articles for adding your Tracking Code using specific page builders.)
Reason #3 – Ad networks and other marketing apps do not provide accurate stats
You absolutely cannot rely on the stats provided by ad platforms or most of the other marketing apps you use.
It just doesn’t work, because individually they simply don’t have all the data points necessary to generate accurate stats. They only know what users do on their own platform, whereas ClickMagick tracks everything.
Learn more
There’s also a huge conflict of interest when it comes to the ad networks. They are greedy and will take credit for every conversion or sale they possibly can. Relying on them is like letting the fox guard the henhouse.
Please see the article below if you care to learn more:
And most of the other marketing apps you use are just far too simplistic when it comes to tracking ...
For example, if someone opts-in to your list 5 times using 5 different email addresses, your autoresponder is going to show that you have 5 new users on your list.
But this is clearly not what you want from a tracking or stats standpoint – so the stats they provide are useless.
Tracking is our only business. With the other marketing apps you use it’s just an afterthought.
Reason #4 – Different time periods, often due to time zone differences
To accurately compare two different sets of stats, you first have to make sure that you're looking at the exact same time period on both sides. Comparing apples to apples as they say.
Learn more
To help with this, ClickMagick allows you to display your Tracking Link and Rotator stats in any time zone you want via the time zone setting in your Account Settings.
Your “Public Stats” pages also have a separate time zone setting, allowing anyone using them to change the time zone to match their own systems.
Reason #5 – You have “leaks” in your tracking, or other untracked traffic
With Tracking Links, ClickMagick can only track people who click on one of your Tracking Links. So your Tracking Link stats aren’t going to show clicks or conversions for any visitors who didn’t click one of your Tracking Links.
Learn more
If you’re receiving traffic from other sources that aren’t going through a Tracking Link, you’ll see events and conversions in your autoresponder or shopping cart, but they won’t be tracked by ClickMagick.
Many times it’s just a case where you’ve set up some new ads and forgot to use a Tracking Link ...
You should expect to see some of this when you’re new to ClickMagick, but over time as you begin to track ALL of your paid ads and online promotions with ClickMagick this shouldn’t be much of an issue unless you get a lot of organic traffic as compared to paid traffic and other sources that you’re tracking.
Reason #6 – Differences in counting “unique” clicks
The biggest issue here is that most traffic sources don’t publicly share how they determine a “unique” click, so it’s unlikely that the number of unique clicks shown in ClickMagick will exactly match your traffic source.
Learn more
In fact, when it comes to counting clicks, many traffic sources and other “dumb” apps simply show a raw click count. Meaning if the same person clicks on your link 3 times they’re going to show 3 clicks.
On the other hand, ClickMagick “remembers” your visitors. So unless you change your default settings, if the same person clicks a specific Tracking Link 3 times it’s only going to register 1 unique visitor.
For the purposes of generating statistically significant stats you can use to grow your business, this is exactly what you want. If we were to use raw click counts when it comes to calculating your important stats like conversion rates, average order value, etc. they would all be horribly inaccurate.
Some clicks are also just untrackable – for example because the requesting client doesn’t execute javascript or accept cookies. In a case like this other “dumb” apps will count it as a normal click, but ClickMagick won’t – because if the user isn't trackable we don’t want to pollute your primary stats with untrackable clicks.
The important thing to keep in mind is that you should focus on things that can be tracked and optimized, and only pay attention to statistically valid stats.
You shouldn’t think of ClickMagick as a raw “click tracker.” You can always view your “non-standard” clicks in ClickMagick – things like untrackable clicks and “bot” clicks – but these are separated from your main stats ...
Because our primary goal is to show you the most statistically valid and actionable stats possible when it comes to the important things like your conversion rates, ROI and LTV.
This is super important, so if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Reason #7 – You're receiving fraudulent or “fake” clicks
This is unlikely with the major ad platforms, but there’s quite a bit of fraudulent traffic being bought and sold on some of the smaller ad networks, some of the CPV/PPV ad networks, and most certainly when it comes to “solo ads.”
These fake clicks are normally counted as real clicks by “dumb” platforms that can’t tell the difference, whereas they are separated from your real clicks by “smart” platforms like ClickMagick, if they can be tracked at all.
Learn more
If you’re paying for traffic, other people are making money selling it to you. And unfortunately the lure of easy money leads to some publishers and traffic providers generating and selling fake “clicks” on smaller ad platforms without the resources to combat it, or when selling traffic directly to the buyer as in the case with solo ads.
One example that can cause serious stats discrepancies between solo ad buyers and sellers is when sellers generate additional worthless clicks just to make more money.
Usually, an unscrupulous traffic seller will set up a page with multiple hidden "iframes" that all point to the same rotator. Then when an end-user lands on the page, multiple "clicks" will be generated all at the same time.
The end-user never actually sees any of the webpages, yet their web browser still generates clicks to each individual URL – and these clicks can’t always be tracked properly.
Fraudsters are often quite sophisticated, and there’s often nothing that you or we can do about it, and fraudulent traffic will lead to stats discrepancies.
Reason #8 – Bots “clicking” your ads and links
The main issue is that many bots do not follow redirects, so a bot may “click” on a Tracking Link or Rotator, but not follow the redirect to the actual landing page the way a normal browser would.
Learn more
A “bot” (short for “robot”) is a software application that is programmed to do certain tasks. To learn more please see:
This can be a huge problem and cause all sorts of discrepancies between different tracking systems – and even between two ClickMagick users – with certain types of traffic, especially "solo ad" clicks.
With “solo ads,” generally what happens is a bot will hit the Tracking Link of the sender, but then it doesn't follow the redirect to the buyer's Tracking Link and the buyer never gets the click.
This causes the bot click to be recorded in the seller's stats, but it doesn't show up in the buyer's stats – which leaves both sides scratching their heads and blaming the other.
Reason #9 – Flagged clicks are not included in your ClickMagick click counts
By default, ClickMagick detects and separates clicks from bots, search engine spiders, anti-virus programs, ad networks, and other automated processes that send clicks to your links but aren't real clicks from real users.
Learn more
To keep your conversion rates and other stats as accurate as possible, these automated "clicks" are not added to your TC (Total Clicks) and UC (Unique Clicks) counts if you have flagging turned on.
Instead, these clicks are added to the FC (Flagged Clicks) column of the Tracking Link or Rotator, and you can always view these by clicking on the number in the FC column.
Because flagged clicks are not added to the UC column, this means that the UC column does NOT show the raw total number of clicks the Tracking Link or rotator received – it shows the total number of real, unique human clicks received while the FC column shows the number of "flagged" – and often fake – clicks received.
So, if you're receiving clicks and the number of clicks your traffic source says they sent you doesn't match the number in your UC column, it's likely that some of their clicks were detected as automated clicks, separated from your main stats, and added to your FC column instead.
If you're sending clicks, remember that not only are you sending the clicks totaled in the UC column, you are also sending the clicks in the FC column.
Unfortunately, many other tracking systems don't do a great job of detecting automated clicks and count them as real clicks, which can lead to some serious discrepancies.
This also leads to the next reason …
Reason #10 – Different click filtering or blocking settings
ClickMagick Tracking Links and Rotators allow you to Flag or Block bots and other automated clicks, and this can be a big cause of discrepancies between two ClickMagick users if these settings are different.
Learn more
For example, imagine that you're sending traffic to someone and on their end they're flagging "Abusers" in their Advanced Settings, but you're not ...
When an "Abuser" click hits your account it'll be treated normally and included in your unique click count. But on their end the click will be detected as an "Abuser" and added to their FC count instead.
This will cause a "discrepancy" between the number of unique clicks sent and received.
To track down discrepancies between two ClickMagick users, you need to know both the flag and block settings for both users. If you're a solo ad seller, ask your buyer for the Public Stats page of their tracking link. This page will show you all of their flagged and blocked clicks so you can see exactly what's going on.
Of course, other tracking systems offer varying types of click filtering and blocking as well, which is almost always going to cause some type of "discrepancy" due to the different methods used.
Reason #11 – Clicks from “bulk traffic” sites blocked by ClickMagick
ClickMagick Tracking Links and Rotators automatically block clicks from many "bulk traffic" sites, so if this type of traffic is sent to a ClickMagick Tracking Link or Rotator it will not be processed and a "discrepancy" could arise.
Learn more
For a complete list of bulk traffic sites we currently don't process traffic from, and why, please see this article:
Unfortunately, many shady traffic sources will often mix in this type of “bulk traffic” with their other legitimate traffic to reduce their costs, and this is yet another thing that leads to stats discrepancies.
Reason #12 – Someone has reset a Tracking Link or Rotator
When people reset Tracking Links and Rotators – which is generally not recommended – you can run in to all sorts of problems and discrepancies when it comes to unique clicks vs. non-unique clicks.
Remember …
Learn more
Just because one tracking link or tracking system considers a click unique, that doesn't mean it's always going to be unique on the other end as that user could have already visited the other link.
This is actually a big problem in the "solo ad" world because essentially what you have is a bunch of people passing around a lot of the same clicks from the same users.
If you're involved in this, you should actually expect this type of discrepancy unless you ensure that you only send traffic to brand new tracking links that have never received traffic before.
An example should help here ...
Say you buy a lot of "solo ads", and you sometimes buy clicks from the same vendor over and over.
Imagine a vendor sends you 500 clicks, then you reset the link stats so you can track the next buy separately, and then they send you another 500 clicks ...
What's going to happen is that most likely you're going to get some repeat clicks from the first batch of 500, and the system is going to recognize these as repeat clicks.
If there are say 20 repeat clicks, the seller is going to claim they sent you 500 additional clicks but ClickMagick is going to report only 480 new and unique clicks.
This "discrepancy" can lead to a lot of confusion ...
... and since the original batch of clicks are deleted when you reset the link you won't be able to easily see which users/IPs are repeat clicks, or have a way to easily prove to the seller that you received 20 repeat clicks.
Here’s what to do if you still can’t figure it out ...
First off, know that minor discrepancies are actually to be expected for many of the reasons discussed above.
And remember – you shouldn’t think of ClickMagick as a raw “click tracker.” The purpose of ClickMagick is to provide you with statistically significant and actionable stats that will help you to optimize your marketing …
… and it really doesn’t matter if app X reports 1,002 raw clicks and ClickMagick reports 982 unique visitors.
For the purpose of optimizing your marketing like we just mentioned, the numbers that ClickMagick provide are always going to be “correct” and infinitely more useful than the numbers you see in other platforms.
With that being said, if you have a large discrepancy that you just can’t figure out we’ll be happy to take a look and see if we spot anything you may have missed. But please understand the following when you do …
1. In order for us to help, we need you to please detail everything that you’ve already looked at and considered, and what you’ve done to try to figure things out on your own. Without that info we wouldn’t even know where to start.
2. We don’t have the resources to spend hours and hours figuring out any one users’ stats discrepancy, nor do we guarantee that we’ll always be able to figure out the issue – because sometimes it’s just impossible, for example if someone is using sophisticated methods to generate fake clicks to your site.
3. We can’t help you with “solo ads” stats discrepancies. To learn more about that, please see this article:
