Comparing Parse.ly metrics against other analytics tools

When comparing metrics across multiple analytics tools, you may occasionally see differing results. If you’re seeing a discrepancy between Parse.ly and another tool, it is likely due to one of the following issues:

• There is a difference in integration (e.g. one is set up to track mobile or app traffic, but the other is not)
• Tracking of special web pages, like image galleries or infinite scrolling, is different between the tools (e.g. one is tracking each image click the other is not)
• Load times of javascript tags. Parse.ly loads last as a rule to ensure that we do not slow down your site experience for your users. If you are using other analytics tags, there may be discrepancies due to readers clicking away from the page after one tag loads but before the other.
• You’ve configured Parse.ly incorrectly. Consult our integration overview for a comprehensive list of the steps involved in a successful implementation.
• Using different metric definitions. Other analytics systems may consider a unique visitor or the actions for “engaged time” different. Make sure you understand the definition of the metric you’re looking at.
• You’re looking at different buckets of time. Make sure that if Parse.ly is showing 24 hours that you are not only looking at “today” in another analytics platform (or vice versa).

A 7-9% relative difference between analytics tools is within the normal range and should not be considered problematic.

If you compare metrics and find much larger discrepancies, please contact our support team for further investigation.