Linkovers and Google Analytics

[Caprice]

So...on Z, it says that linkovers are 'when an external referral you've created gets clicked on."  To me - this means the page/product has been viewed, yes?  Yet I have no evidence in google analytics that these were views. 

For an easy example - let's say my linkover history from yesterday says 100...but my GA views are 50,

?????  

[idraw]

See if this leads you toward an answer---

https://popupsmart.com/blog/is-google-analytics-accurate#2cross-domaintrackingerrors

Cross-Domain Tracking Errors
Google Analytics allows you to track visitors' activities on domains and subdomains separately, but by default, it tracks sessions using a single domain across all subdomains.Tracking users who come to your site from a link across domains can cause problems, such as attributing higher traffic numbers.This is because cross-domain tracking in Google Analytics, by default, has no way to distinguish between traffic that came from the link and users who came directly to the new domain through a search engine.This can impact your capacity to understand your visitors' behavior significantly.Additionally, it can make it seem like your marketing campaigns are performing better than they actually are! (AKA inaccurate data). You can either use Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager to set up cross-domain tracking.Google Analytics offers instructions on adding the necessary parameters but, on the other hand, strongly suggests using the official Google Linker plugin instead of trying to implement cross-domain tracking yourself.In any case, it may be more convenient to implement Cross Domain Tracking using Google Tag Manager,, which offers two options.Link Click / From Submit Tags allow Analytics to find out when a link is clicked or a form is submitted.Auto Link Domains uses cookie values and is the easier option for setting up Cross Domain Tracking in Tag Manager, but it provides less flexibility than the first approach.

[Caprice]

Thanks for posting.  If I understand this correctly - and that's a big IF 😝 - it seems to say that GA would have MORE views than Z linkovers? But I see the reverse.  

[PacifierCity]

@Caprice  Have you ever linked to your store?  Have you promoted someone else products?  Have you ever added your rfid to a link that did not land on a product but that lands on a Zazzle page?  If any of those are true, then those links could be the ones getting clicked and counted in your linkover history.

PC

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[Caprice]

This seems to be specifically related to promotion on Twitter.  If I don't promote there...no linkovers.  If I do - then many appear.  It's just that the linkovers and GA view numbers don't match.  *shrugs*

[tracytrends]

Example was:
Linkovers (click thrus) = 100
GA page views = 50
Assumption: referral links are only to the creator's own products

1) Do GA Page Views = unique visitors? Could the difference be that the same person clicked thru more than once and that is why linkovers is higher?

2) Does the information on "Cross-Domain Tracking Errors" have anything to do with whether we tick the box "Enable Cross-Domain Tracking (optional)" inside our Zazzle settings?

I am trying to decide if I want to use the same code on Zazzle + website and whether I want to tick this box. It feels like maybe we should not do any cross-domain tracking.

thank you for helping (interesting info in this thread)