Google Analytics (GA) is a powerful tool for tracking website traffic and user behavior, but it is not designed specifically for evaluating the performance of advertising platforms such as Facebook and Google Ads. The data collected in GA is not directly tied to ad spend or ad campaigns, and the information it provides about advertising performance is limited.
December 11, 2023
GA only tracks users who have interacted with your website, not the entire audience reached by your ads. This means that the data you see in GA only represents a portion of the people who saw your ads. For example, if someone saw your Facebook ad but didn't click through to your website, they would not be included in your GA data. This can lead to an incomplete and potentially misleading picture of your advertising performance.
Second, GA only provides data on website interactions, not conversions that happen outside of your website. This means that if someone saw your Facebook ad, clicked through to your website, but then made a purchase over the phone, that conversion would not be included in your GA data. This is a significant limitation when it comes to evaluating the ROI of your advertising spend, as conversions that happen offline or on other platforms cannot be accurately tracked.
GA does not provide detailed information about the specific ads or ad campaigns that drive traffic to your website. This makes it difficult to determine which ad campaigns are performing well and which ones need to be improved. In contrast, advertising platforms like Facebook and Google Ads have their own reporting tools that provide detailed information about each ad campaign, including impressions, clicks, conversions, and cost per conversion.
GA's tracking code can be unreliable, and data can be lost if the code is not properly implemented on your website. This can lead to discrepancies in the data and make it difficult to get an accurate picture of your advertising performance. In addition, GA's tracking code can be blocked by ad blockers, which can further limit the accuracy of your data.
Finally, GA does not provide real-time data, which can be a significant disadvantage when trying to track the performance of your advertising campaigns. For example, if you want to make a quick adjustment to a campaign that's not performing well, you won't be able to see the results of that adjustment in GA for several hours or even days.
In conclusion, while GA is a valuable tool for tracking website traffic and user behavior, it is not well suited for determining the performance of advertising platforms like Facebook and Google Ads. To accurately evaluate the ROI of your advertising spend, it's important to use the reporting tools provided by the advertising platforms themselves and to complement that data with additional information from other sources.
