Why do my user sessions not match my clicks? [Answered]

In the world of pay per click (PPC) marketing, two metrics appear often: sessions and clicks. Many people assume they’re the same thing, that if someone clicks on an ad they’ve gone on to start a session on a website, but that isn’t always the case.

In this in-depth guide, we provide a definition of what sessions and clicks are, what they tell us as marketers, and what the differences are between them.

We also take a look at how to fix any discrepancies that may exist between these metrics so that you can work with the very best data possible.

Let’s start with the basics.

What are sessions?

“Sessions” is a relatively new metric in the analytics world. However, it’s become a fundamental part of all PPC marketers’ lives. It’s designed to provide vital information on user behavior and engagement, such as how long they viewed the page and whether they converted or bounced.

A session refers to a single user’s interaction with a website within a specified period of time. Whatever they do on your website within that timeframe is all counted within that session. So for example, they could land on a blog page, click on a link to a product page and make a purchase. That’s all classed as one session.

Sessions often end when the user exits the site or after a set period of inactivity, for example, if they left the browser open all day.

If that same user returns to the website an hour later, that would be classed as a new session.

Sessions are often tracked using cookies, with Google Analytics being the most commonly used tool to do so.

What do we mean by clicks?

A click is a metric used to gauge the performance of an advertisement. It forms part of the step before the metric of sessions is considered and is used to determine the success of ad copy, such as the page title, meta description and image.

So, if you’re looking to buy some new shoes, do a Google search and open an ad at the top of that search, that would be classed as a click.

A vital metric that’s associated with clicks is click-through rate (CTR). This refers to the percentage of impressions a search term receives versus the number of clicks received. The higher the CTR percentage the better, or so is usually the case. There are instances of ad click fraud which can lead to inflated CTRs.

And it’s for this reason that measuring both sessions and clicks is vital so that you can identify bad practices that competitors may try to pull.

Other factors can also lead to discrepancies between these two metrics, but first, let’s take a closer look at the differences between sessions and clicks.

Sessions vs clicks — the biggest differences

We’ve looked at both sessions and clicks separately, but it’s vital as a PPC marketer to understand the different functions they perform and the different pieces of information they give us. Here’s a handy breakdown:

• Sessions look at user behaviour on the website, whereas clicks look at interactions with the ad, usually placed on a third-party site, like Google Search, Facebook or TikTok.
• Clicks provide a limited insight into user behavior, whereas sessions can provide detailed information such as pages visited, time spent on site, and actions performed, which is key to maximizing your conversion rate. For example, session data can tell you if your page lacks call-to-action features like buttons, but clicks can only inform you about the ad that takes the person to the page.
  

In an ideal world, sessions and clicks should marry up. But one thing both of these metrics share in common is that they can be subject to discrepancies.

Why Is there a discrepancy between my sessions and clicks?

If you’ve worked on PPC campaigns before you may have noticed a difference, or discrepancy, between clicks and sessions. If you’re new to PPC, this is an important thing to look out for.

While it may seem great that you have a high CTR, if your sessions metric doesn’t match up to that number of clicks, alarm bells should start to sound. You may also be left scratching your head at a high sessions number and next to no clicks.

There are various reasons why it could be occurring, and that’s why it’s necessary to do some simple troubleshooting. Here are our top tips:

👣  Not all clicks get tracked

That’s why it can be necessary to use a click tracker. This way nothing gets missed. Click fraud tools like Hitprobe come equipped with features like this to ensure no click gets discounted, including clicks with very fast bounces. Standard tools and analytics codes often miss these because they don’t get a chance to even load up on the page.

🖱️  Sometimes people click on an ad multiple times

This will show in your metrics as numerous clicks, but the session count will likely be lower. For example, a user could click on an ad three times in a row but only interact with it on one occasion. That would be classed as three clicks and one session.

✋  Browsers, add-ons, extensions and scrapers

Some browsers, add-ons, extensions and scrapers block session tracking. Clicks may be registered, but in order for a session to be clocked, the website’s JavaScript tracking code must execute when the page loads. This JavaScript can be disabled by users, however, meaning a click could get registered but no session.

So those are some of the main potential reasons for a discrepancy between sessions and clicks. Why is it important to fix this problem?

Why is it important to fix the differences?

As you may be starting to see as we’ve explored this subject, a difference between sessions and clicks isn’t helpful to you as a PPC marketer. If you leave distorted data unresolved, it can lead to poor decisions, wasted money, and missed opportunities for optimization.

For example, if you’re trying to decide whether to increase your ad spend or cancel your ad, it’s hard for you to make an informed decision if the tracking code on your website is broken, meaning you’ve only picked up a fraction of genuine clicks.

A misinformed decision could see you commit to a much larger budget that never has a chance of leading to a return on investment. You could, for instance, see a lot of clicks and that could entice you to spend more, whereas the reality is the number of sessions is much lower, meaning you're spending a lot for a little.

It’s also important to tackle a discrepancy in sessions and clicks because of fraud. If you operate in a competitive niche, it’s not uncommon for competitors to pay for click farm attacks to drain PPC budgets. If you can see a high number of clicks and few conversions, this could be what’s happening.

How to fix discrepancies in sessions and clicks

Now we understand why it’s important to fix discrepancies, let’s take a look at how to do it.

Minimize these types of clicks

There are certain types of clicks that we’ve covered above that you should watch out for. In doing so, you’ll help eliminate a lot of the issues that can distort your sessions vs clicks data.

The first is clicks with a fast bounce. These clicks never lead to sessions so should be discounted. There are multiple reasons for a fast bounce, such as a slow website load speed, technical errors like layout shifts, or poor optimization for mobile. Misleading ad copy can also contribute if it doesn’t align with the landing page, though this is likely to factor in a few seconds after loading. So, run a speed test on Page Speed Insights to identify areas to fix and do a review of your copy to see if matches your ads.

The second type is duplicate clicks by the same user. The sessions metric only counts this once so it’s vital that the click rate matches up. To address this problem, you can try Google Ads’ built-in invalid click detection to filter out duplicate clicks automatically. You may also be able to set frequency caps to reduce how often a person sees the ad. Poor site speed can also lead to multiple clicks if the site doesn’t load quickly enough.

Use click fraud software

One of the simplest and most effective ways to fix discrepancies in sessions and clicks is to use click fraud software. Our technology here at Hitprobe, for example, tracks all types of clicks, even those that lead to nowhere and disappear in a flash.

Implementing click fraud software is a lot easier than you think, too. With Hitprobe, for example, all you do is add a code to your site, just like you would like Google Analytics.

This means that you get to work with clean, accurate data that will enable you to make informed decisions that could turn your PPC campaign around. Plus, you save money.

Key takeaways on sessions vs clicks

• A session is a metric used to describe a person’s engagement with a website after they’ve clicked on it.
• A click is the metric used to measure the success of an ad in getting people to click on a page, so it’s the step before “sessions”.
• In an ideal world, sessions and clicks should be similar, but discrepancies in data can occur. Some of the reasons for this include click fraud, accidental clicks, and poor site performance.
• The best steps to take to fix differences between sessions and clicks are to run a site speed audit to improve bounce rate, utilize click fraud software to identify genuine clicks, and ensure ad copy and landing page copy match.