Google Attribution Vs. Facebook – Which One Should I Use?

We have many customers that ask us “why doesn’t my Google Analytics and Facebook reporting align?” The reason is attribution.

Google Analytics and Facebook attribute sales in different ways which results in different numbers being reported. This can be confusing and can make it difficult to understand the full extent of your advertising performance.

Therefore, it is important to understand how each of the different channels report so you can continue optimising efficiently and effectively.

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How Does Google Analytics Attribution Work?
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Google Analytics uses the data-driven attribution model to attribute a conversion to a traffic source from the past 30 days. This means that Google Analytics uses machine learning to assign credit to each touchpoint based on how much it contributed to the conversion. This model takes into account the order, frequency, and recency of the touchpoints, as well as the user characteristics and behavior.

For example, you might visit the website first through a Google search, then via an ad from a Facebook post. Finally, you purchase by visiting the website through an email that you received. In this case, Google Analytics will use the data-driven attribution model to calculate how much credit each of these touchpoints deserves for the conversion.

However, due to the increasing limitations on user-level tracking across platforms and devices, Google Analytics may not be able to track and attribute all the conversions to the correct sources, especially for cross-device and cross-platform conversions. As a result, you may see more conversions attributed to direct or unknown sources, and less conversions attributed to paid or organic sources.

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How Does Facebook Attribution Work?
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Facebook also uses the data-driven attribution model to attribute conversions to its ads. This means that Facebook uses a dynamic attribution window that varies depending on the conversion path and the campaign objective. This model takes into account the type, placement, and format of the ads, as well as the user characteristics and behavior.

In the previous example where you visited the website first through a Google search, then via an ad from a Facebook post, and finally purchased by visiting the website through an email, Facebook will use the data-driven attribution model to calculate how much credit its ad deserves for the conversion.

However, like Google Analytics, Facebook may also face challenges in tracking and attributing conversions to its ads due to the privacy regulations and browser changes that limit user-level tracking. This may affect the accuracy and completeness of the conversion data reported by Facebook.

Comparison of the Two Interfaces
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If we were to compare the two interfaces, we would find that there are advantages and disadvantages of each. Analytics allows you to compare across different channels, but it may not be able to track and attribute all the conversions to the correct sources. Facebook tracks and attributes conversions to its ads using a dynamic and data-driven model, but it may also face limitations in tracking and attributing conversions due to privacy and browser changes. Due to both channels having pros and cons, it can be difficult to determine a source of truth.

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What does this mean for me?
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Comparing the sales from Google Analytics and Facebook is not an apples for apples comparison. You can’t take the data from Facebook and compare this to the performance of other channels in Google Analytics. Due to the variation in what is tracked, how it is attributed between the interfaces and the AI models used, it’s not an accurate measurement to directly compare performance.

If you are looking to measure Facebook campaign performance on its own, then we would recommend using the Facebook interface. We would also recommend this if looking for optimisations and Facebook account opportunities.

However, if you are looking to compare Facebook performance to other channels, then we would recommend using Google Analytics. This is because Google Analytics is useful to compare different traffic sources to the website and view the overall consumer journey (this can be done using Google Analytics ‘top conversion paths’).

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