15 Reasons for Tracking Limitations
Approximately 20-50% of traffic cannot be measured in analytics and remains invisible. This means that if you measure 100 conversions in analytics, the actual number could be between 120 and 150, or even more.
The main reasons: Ad blockers, technical barriers, or Do Not Track (DNT) browsers.
Discover the 15 most common reasons for tracking limitations and learn how you can enhance your website tracking with server-side tracking.
15 Potential Reasons for Tracking Limitations:
1. Browser Settings and Privacy Policies
Users can set their browser preferences to allow or block tracking. They can reject cookies or adjust privacy settings in their browser accordingly.
These measures protect user privacy but can make data collection more challenging, as websites may not be permitted to record all user behavior information.
Ensure that your website, if required, uses a clear, easy-to-understand cookie banner like Cookiebot, which allows users to individually set their tracking preferences (for the EU region).
In Switzerland, according to the current nDSG (as of 01.09.2023), a cookie banner is not mandatory in most cases. You can find more information in our blog post.
2. Ad Blocker Usage
Many internet users use ad blockers, which can block the tracking of advertisements and other elements on a website.
In 2022, approximately 35.2 percent of internet users used ad blockers. This can potentially prevent or distort tracking.
Number of Desktop Ad Blocker Users Worldwide from January 2011 to December 2021 (Statista, 2024)
Observing this chart from January 2011 to December 2021, it's evident that ad blocker usage is growing each year, reaching 290 million users globally by 2021.
3. JavaScript Deactivation
Users have the option to turn off JavaScript in their browsers. Because many tracking tools, like Google Analytics, depend on JavaScript to function, they won't be able to gather data if it's disabled.
This is why some providers, such as Matomo, are developing alternative ways to collect data that don't rely on JavaScript.
4. Server Issues
Technical problems on the server, like it being overloaded or completely down, can prevent data from being properly collected.
Overloads occur when the server is overwhelmed by too many requests or too much website traffic.
Server outages are even more serious, as the website becomes inaccessible, making any tracking impossible.
To prevent these issues, it's important to use strong server infrastructures and monitoring systems like Uptimerobot.
5. Unsupported Devices or Browsers
Tracking methods need to be compatible with a wide range of devices and browsers to gather accurate and complete data. Regularly testing with tools like BrowserStack helps ensure that tracking works correctly across all platforms.
Tracking should also be optimized for mobile devices to ensure accurate data collection.
If website visitors use outdated or unupdated web browsers that don't support specific tracking scripts, data about their behavior cannot be accurately collected.
Also, implement alternative tracking methods as a backup for situations where the main method isn't supported. For instance, server-side tracking can help close gaps when JavaScript tracking on the user's browser is blocked.
6. Connection Issues
Users might experience internet connection problems, which can cause interruptions in data collection.
These issues can prevent requests to analytics tools from completing successfully, leading to incomplete data and potentially skewed analysis results.
Optimize your website for quick loading times, especially for users with slower internet connections. This involves reducing the file sizes of images and scripts and using techniques like lazy loading.
Also, review and adjust the timeout settings for tracking requests to better accommodate users with slower connections, increasing the likelihood that data will be sent successfully.
7. Caching
Some browsers or proxy servers save copies of webpages to speed up loading times. However, this can result in certain visits not being recorded.
Using cache-busting techniques can ensure that tracking codes run with every page view, even when the page is loaded from a cached version.
Server-side tracking can also help to fix this problem.
8. "Do Not Track" Option (DNT)
Some users activate the "Do Not Track" option in their browsers, which means they do not wish to be tracked.
Websites and analytics tools can reduce or completely stop tracking for users with DNT enabled.
Example: A user activates the DNT option in their Safari browser. Websites that respect the DNT signal will then no longer collect tracking data from this user.
9. Firewall Settings
Network firewalls and security settings can block access for analytics tools, leading to incomplete traffic records.
Example: A company has a strict firewall that blocks many external tracking domains. Employees accessing websites from this network therefore leave no tracking traces on these pages.
Here too, server-side tracking can help, as this tracking method occurs directly on the web server and is therefore less susceptible to being blocked by firewalls.
10. Apple's Changes to Tracking and Cookies
Since the introduction of App Tracking Transparency (ATT) in iOS 14.5, apps must explicitly ask for permission before tracking users across different apps and websites. This has led to a significant reduction in tracking capabilities.
Platforms like Facebook and other ad-based companies have reported that they have lost billions in advertising revenue as many users decline tracking. This has not only made Targeting more difficult but also complicated Attribution.
11. Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP)
In addition to Apple's privacy measures, Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) has also drastically restricted tracking.
ITP blocks third-party cookies by default and makes cross-website tracking more difficult.
Other browsers like Firefox and Brave are also increasingly implementing privacy features that restrict web tracking. These browsers often block not only cookies but also other tracking technologies like fingerprinting.
12. Multi-Device Journeys
Consumers using multiple devices makes it difficult to precisely track user journeys.
Users switch between smartphones, tablets, and computers, and tracking mechanisms therefore struggle to capture a user's entire path across multiple devices, unless they are logged into the same platform on all devices.
This challenge is further exacerbated by data privacy regulations and restrictions on the use of third-party cookies.
13. The Dominance of Apps
More and more users spend most of their digital time within mobile apps. These 'closed' systems make it difficult to track user activities using traditional web tracking methods. Since apps often use different tracking technologies than web browsers, many interactions remain invisible to web analytics tools.
Companies should therefore increasingly focus on in-app tracking and partnerships with app developers to close these data collection gaps.
14. Zero-Click Consumption
Zero-click search means that more and more search queries end in Google and other search engines without users clicking on links.
Studies show that up to 60% of search queries end without a click, as users get their information directly from the search results pages.
This significantly complicates attribution, as websites no longer see direct traffic, even if they are responsible for the information users consume.
15. Dark Traffic
Dark Traffic refers to traffic that appears as 'direct' in analytics tools, even though it actually originates from other sources like social media or messaging apps.
Platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and TikTok hide referrer data, making it challenging for businesses to identify the source of their traffic. This results in significant tracking gaps that are difficult to close.
🚀👉 Server-side Tracking to Enhance Your Tracking
To overcome these challenges, it's crucial to implement alternative tracking methods as a fallback.
A particularly effective solution is server-side tracking. This method helps to fill gaps that arise from blocked JavaScript tracking.
Since server-side tracking occurs directly on the web server, it is less vulnerable to blocking by ad blockers, JavaScript deactivations, or firewall settings.
This allows you to ensure that you collect precise and comprehensive data on user behavior, even under challenging conditions.
We would be happy to assist you with the implementation of server-side tracking.