How to reduce the performance gap between Facebook & Google
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2025 4:29 am
I want to dispel any misconceptions right away: You'll never be able to align the metrics from Facebook Analytics and Google Analytics. The reasons mentioned above are responsible for this.
However, you can keep the performance gap as small as possible with a few adjustments:
1. Choose the same basic setting as possible
A basic setup that is as consistent as possible should visibly reduce differences in the various reports. Make sure you correctly configure and view the same attribution models, the same attribution windows, the same observation periods, macedonia phone number data and the same performance metrics.
In Google Analytics, you have the option to adjust various default settings, such as the 30-minute session time, to just a few minutes or seconds. If you or another employee made this adjustment, the metric will differ significantly from the Facebook metric.
2. Prioritize Google Analytics tags
If you've integrated Google Analytics via Google Tag Manager, you should load the tag at the top of the page. This ensures that page views are measured and a session is triggered. If you've manually integrated the Google Analytics tag into the page source code, place it in the header of your website.
3. Working with UTM parameters
Use Google Analytics UTM parameters in all Facebook ads to exclude referrers and ensure Facebook traffic is tracked in Google Analytics.
Furthermore, I recommend that you not only add these tracking parameters to your Facebook ads, but also to every link you share on your site whose traffic you want to track.
Using UTM parameters is very simple: There are a maximum of five parameters you can use. Three of them are mandatory for Google Analytics to assign traffic to the correct channel. These are utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign. You can use or not use utm_content and utm_term at your discretion. This is what a finished link looks like:
reachx.de/?utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=Magazin_JuliaMeier_
However, you can keep the performance gap as small as possible with a few adjustments:
1. Choose the same basic setting as possible
A basic setup that is as consistent as possible should visibly reduce differences in the various reports. Make sure you correctly configure and view the same attribution models, the same attribution windows, the same observation periods, macedonia phone number data and the same performance metrics.
In Google Analytics, you have the option to adjust various default settings, such as the 30-minute session time, to just a few minutes or seconds. If you or another employee made this adjustment, the metric will differ significantly from the Facebook metric.
2. Prioritize Google Analytics tags
If you've integrated Google Analytics via Google Tag Manager, you should load the tag at the top of the page. This ensures that page views are measured and a session is triggered. If you've manually integrated the Google Analytics tag into the page source code, place it in the header of your website.
3. Working with UTM parameters
Use Google Analytics UTM parameters in all Facebook ads to exclude referrers and ensure Facebook traffic is tracked in Google Analytics.
Furthermore, I recommend that you not only add these tracking parameters to your Facebook ads, but also to every link you share on your site whose traffic you want to track.
Using UTM parameters is very simple: There are a maximum of five parameters you can use. Three of them are mandatory for Google Analytics to assign traffic to the correct channel. These are utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign. You can use or not use utm_content and utm_term at your discretion. This is what a finished link looks like:
reachx.de/?utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=Magazin_JuliaMeier_