Solving Misattribution Issues for Google Traffic in Fospha Analytics
Recent privacy updates, such as changes with iOS 17 and restrictions from the Digital Markets Act (DMA), have caused instances where Google Click IDs (GCLID) are stripped from traffic, particularly on Safari. This has led to misattribution in Google Analytics, where traffic is sometimes labeled as "Organic" or "Not Set." As a result, some Google channels, like PMAX and Display, may have been under-attributed, while Paid Search Generic received more credit than it should have. To solve this issue, we’ve introduced our Google UTM Readjustment process, which brings you more accurate attribution across all Google channels.
Impact on Your Data
While the overall attribution across Google channels remains consistent, the main change to be aware of is that Paid Search Generic might have received more credit than it should have. Meanwhile, other channels, such as PMAX, may have been under-attributed, particularly where GCLID stripping occurred. It’s essential to know that this issue is industry-wide and affects all advertisers leveraging Google Analytics.
Introducing Fospha’s Solution: Google UTM Reconciliation
We’re addressing this issue through our new Google UTM Reconciliation process. This feature readjusts your sessions, conversions, and revenue data to account for Google ads traffic that may have been misattributed due to missing UTM information. Here’s how it works:
We identify instances where traffic from Google ads is mislabeled.
Using data from Google Ads, we apply a daily coefficient to redistribute the sessions and conversions across the appropriate channels (e.g., PMAX, Display) rather than defaulting to Paid Search Generic.
What Does This Mean for You?
More Accurate Attribution of Your Google Campaigns!
While your overall Google Ads attribution remains unchanged, Fospha’s attribution has improved the distribution of credit across your Google campaigns. This ensures that previously misattributed Google traffic, where parameters were stripped, is now correctly assigned within Fospha Attribution. The adjustment applies to all historic data from the moment this update goes live, so your past data will also reflect these improvements.
This only affects the portion of Google traffic where parameters were missing and doesn’t impact your broader Google Ads attribution.
With this change, we are also renaming the Google model available on Attribution Comparison to Last-Click. This reflects the inclusion of this re-adjustment, giving a more accurate representation of Last-click attribution than the LNDC default model in GA (which will still include the not-set channel data). Please note that this will mean a difference between Fospha's Last Click numbers and Google Analytics.
Next Steps
Our team continuously works to ensure your data accuracy is at its best. No action is required from your side, but we recommend enabling manual UTMs and auto-tagging in your Google Ads to avoid this issue moving forward. You can find a detailed guide here.
If you have any questions or need further clarification, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Customer Success Manager.