Shopify sessions do not match with google ads clicks and tiktok ads clicks

[nmathiou]

Hi everyone,

I am currently running both google search ads and tiktok ads.

The thing is that google campaigns report 85 clicks for tha last two days and tiktok reports 300+ clicks for the same period. Shopify analytics on the other hand report 30 sessions for the same days. (google analytics reports 20 sessions).

I get that ad clicks do not neceserally lead to sessions. But that kind of difference makes me think that there is some kind of problem (that I can not pinpoint).

My store speeds are not terrible, so that it would explain such gap on the clicks and sessions.

Any answer or insight would be really appreciated!

[cjehle15]

I’m having the same exact problem and hope to hear a solution as well

[IsabellaM]

Hi @nmathiou,

There is a difference between clicks and link clicks, take a look at how many link clicks you have vs. the sessions. That one is the number that should be pretty close.

Meta/FB takes many interactions in your ads as clicks but only the ones that lead to a website session a link click. That's why the number you should be comparing to the sessions is the link clicks.

I'm not sure about TikTok, but probably has a similar metric. 

For Google it might be people that bounce or that the same people are clicking on the ad several times, for that issue there are tools like Clickcease to prevent people from doing that. 

Take a look at those stats and check if the problem persists! 

[nmathiou · Accepted solution]

Well, after quite some time and testing I came to the conclusion that since I am operating in EU I have the ''strict'' cookies policy enabled by default. I am not 100% sure but shopify does not track or show visitors that have not have accepted cookies.

[takethelongroad]

I have multiple brands in the US and have no issue with the traffic translating from Meta platforms to Shopify. We recently acquired a company in the EU and I have had the same issue as you described - less than 20% of link clicks are coming through on the Shopify end. Is the strict cookie policy a requirement? Would love to hear more if you have learned anything else. Thanks in advance!