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Comment by adarsh_thampy | Hacker News Reader

As I mentioned in one of the earlier comments, the difference in reported numbers is just too big. Some amount of discrepancy is acceptable.

If people are clicking on FB ads and not landing on our website for whatever reason, then those are probably bot clicks.

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Repeat the test with a small PHP script in between that does +1 every time it is called to a value in the database of a text file. Then redirect to the real website that you track using GA or your own tool.

Until then, unfortunately, your argument is invalid. I think you will see this number will be quite close to what Facebook reports. What's left then, still isn't 100% fraud done by Facebook as you somewhat imply, but also aborted clicks etc, but a number we can actually discuss.

What are your thoughts on "accidental clicks"? Say, I accidentally click a facebook ad while scrolling, then close the new browser window before your site's analytics scripts load. Would that account for a large difference?

I know that I thick-thumb at least 10 ads for every ad that I intentionally select.

Analytics scripts are at the very top of the HTML file usually, and are one of the first things loaded. In this case you'd be counted I think.

I doubt very much that your scenario matches the general public. My guess is your scenario is maybe 5% tops (based on no reproducible data!) :)

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