Using Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?
Learn about why numbers may be reported differently in GA4 and impact.com and what you can do about it here.
If you’re using Google Analytics alongside impact.com, you may notice some differences between the data being reported. Discrepancies are normal — different platforms can report data in differing ways.
This article offers a few key things to know about the differences between impact.com and Google Analytics.
In general, different analytics platforms can report different data depending on how they're configured and what they're reporting — variances should be expected.
impact.com tracks Clicks, which is when a customer clicks on content containing an impact.com tracking link, then lands on your site. If that customer has clicked on the same tracking link multiple times, impact.com can consider this a single click, since a rolling 30-minute window is used. Each time the tracking link is clicked, the rolling window resets.
Google Analytics tracks a Session — a 30-minute window of user activity that starts when the user lands on your site. A Session can include multiple page views, devices, or conversions within those 30 minutes. If a user is determined to be inactive after 30 minutes (i.e., leaves your site), the session ends. If they return the following day, a new session is created.
Click counts in impact.com can differ because multiple clicks on the same media source can count as a single click. Each time the ad content is clicked, the 30-minute rolling window resets.
Google Analytics can have differing click counts depending on whether the Session has expired or not — multiple clicks within the same session are counted as one, but once the Session expires, clicks on the same tracking link will count as new clicks.
When a conversion is reported to impact.com, it’s immediately attributed to the partner or network that drove the “winning” click (in most cases, this is the “Last Click” before the conversion) and becomes an attributed action to that partner or network. Depending on your Referral Window configuration, a partner can be attributed for a conversion if it occurred within this window, whereas Google Analytics might report it as a direct conversion.
Referral Windows are configured in your Template Terms, meaning they can differ depending on the contract you’ve created with a partner.
From the left navigation menu, select Contracts → Contracts.
Hover over the contract you want to view in the list and select
[More] → View.Under the Qualified Referrals section, find the Referral Window line item.
The value listed here is the amount of time after a click is tracked and still can be attributed to the partner that drove it. (e.g. "Last Click within 30 days” means the partner that drove the last click in a conversion path will be attributed with driving the conversion, even if up to 30 days have passed between that click happening and the conversion occurring.
impact.com reports revenue based on the contracts you’ve set up with your partners and for your networks. Recall that contracts can have custom Click Referral Windows configured.
A potential customer follows a partner’s Impact tracking link, landing on your website.
Once they land, impact.com records a Click and attributes it to that partner’s link.
The potential customer decides not to purchase yet, and leaves the website.
The following day, the customer returns to your site directly and purchases. impact.com has already anonymously identified that customer and can attribute the sale to the partner since it was within the Click Referral Window.
In this scenario, Google Analytics isn’t aware of the contract you have with that partner and therefore doesn’t consider it an affiliate purchase, whereas impact.com does.
- Cookieless Tracking:
Google Analytics tracks entirely via cookies. impact.com, in addition to a cookie, also takes a “fingerprint” of the browser (IP address, browser type, version, OS, etc.). If we can’t find the cookie, we will look at the fingerprint in order to track the traffic, resulting in higher, more accurate numbers. Some browsers also restrict cookies.
- Conversion De-duplication:
A big benefit of impact.com is that all conversions are automatically de-duplicated, meaning only one touchpoint will be credited as the winner. This can result in a lower number of conversions recorded, which of course the advertiser desires because they don’t double-pay for a conversion.
- Frequency Caps:
impact.com users can set various frequency caps in contacts, such as “stop after payouts reach $10K.” When a cap is reached, impact.com no longer registers new conversions. If Google Analytics is unaware of these terms, it will continue counting.
- Time Zones:
Do both vendors use the same time zone? Vendors that report based on different time zones return different results.