When witnessing discrepancies between AT Internet and campaign data from another tool, you must always consider that a click on a campaign and a full-on visit are two very different things, even though they are linked.
Please find below, 4 of the main reasons that explain why visits and campaign data will always be far from equal no matter the tracking methods one uses:
- If the end user decides not to let the page load after clicking on a campaign link, the click is recorded, but there's no visit because there is no page load.
- If tracking parameters are cut off during any level of redirection (for example, on Google Display Network), the click is not recorded, and the visit is attributed to "Direct traffic".
- If the page takes over 30 seconds to load, the source information is dropped, and the visit ends up in "Direct Traffic" while a campaign link click is recorded.
- If the end user clicked on a campaign link while already being on the site, or within the "session timeout" range of a previous visit, the original referrer is kept, equating to a click on a campaign link, but no visit.