Why we can't trust Google Analytics

When I entered the advertising industry last year, I was determined to follow a simple rule: be honest. The ad industry has always carried a stigma of being dirty and dishonest. Part of this to me meant that the advertisers only pay for clicks that not from bots, duplicate clicks and fraudulent attempts.

CPC (cost per click) has been the cornerstone of our business since day 1. Since the beginning, we have been only charging on a CPC basis. I had always considered this as a competitive advantage.

We started hearing from our advertisers that their Google Analytics data did not match our internal data. As a test, we ran an ad campaign through a 3rd party that verified our data was correct.

We decided to switch our pricing model to CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions). The irony of it all is that ever since we switched, advertisers have been happier.

Lessons learned.

Read more about it on our blog at https://blog.codefund.app/the-cpc-illusion/