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What should I do when the MAAC data is different from the Universal GA(UA) / GA4 ? What should I do when MAAC data is not available?

  • Updated

    🚨 Attention：GA4 is fully supported through MAAC started from 2022 Q4, addressing the issue that Universal GA(UA) will no longer process new data from July 1, 2023. If you need to switch from Universal GA(UA) to GA4 , please contact Customer Support or your CSM for setting.

    📌 Since June 2026, "Unique clicks" is calculated directly by MAAC from click events and is no longer estimated through GA, so unique clicks no longer have a "mismatch with GA" issue. The guidance below on MAAC-vs-GA differences applies to the metrics still provided by GA (add-to-cart, orders, revenue). For the new unique clicks calculation, see 〔Feature Description｜Broadcast Report Unique Clicks Calculation Update〕.

    ▶︎ Which Event is the MAAC number compared to the Universal GA(UA)?

    1. Clicks (connect with GA and set the UTM link) ga:users
    2. Add to Cart：ga:productAddsToCart (number of times)
    3. Number of orders：ga:productCheckouts
    4. Revenue：ga:transactionRevenue

    ▶︎ Which Event is the MAAC number compared to the GA4?

    1. Unique clicks: since June 2026, calculated directly by MAAC from click events and no longer mapped to a GA Event, so it is not part of this GA comparison.
    2. Add to Cart：addToCarts (number of times)
    3. Number of orders：transactions
    4. Revenue：totalRevenue

    ▶︎ Phase one Check｜Ensure that the Universal GA(UA) / GA4 authority and MAAC settings are correct

    1. First, check whether the Universal GA(UA) / GA4 authorization is normal and whether the time interval filtering statistics are correct.
    2. Verify that you are using the MAAC link correctly, fill in the UTM, and check the box to track website user behavior.
    3. Click on the link generated by MAAC and check if the value of utm_term is listed on the website, if not, please check if the official website will refresh the UTM parameters(Usually it is the step that requires login, or when jumping to a different domain, that causes problems). If the UTM on the URL is refreshed, it may affect the MAAC tracking, please check with IT or the web provider.
    4. Go to "All Traffic/Source Medium" in the Universal GA(UA), and use the same UTM set to filter the number of clicks on the links for comparison.
    5. The data captured through the Universal GA(UA) / GA4 API may differ slightly from the Universal GA(UA) / GA4 figures due to different filtering criteria, usually by no more than 35 %.

    🚨 Attention：
    - If you want to separate the content of different links and different time points, please set different UTM.

    - Please do not use spaces in the UTM string, it may affect the data capture.

    After the above check, if the data discrepancy is higher than 35%, or the data is not updated for more than one day, please enter the second stage of the check.

    ▶︎ Phase two Check｜Check for different conditions

    ➤ MAAC Capture Data Method

    • MAAC uses the UTM collection (Including Source, Medium, Campaign, and Content) to automatically obtain information from the Universal GA(UA) / GA4 system by means of a program (Universal GA(UA) / GA4 API).
    • The MAAC system will automatically capture data from the UTM collection every hour for two days.

    ➤ Data Related Conditions and Possible Causes

    1. MAAC data delay occurs: The reason is that Universal GA(UA) / GA4 data delay occurs.
      💡 Reminder： The possible reasons for the delay are a large amount of data and the time required by Universal GA(UA) / GA4 to calculate the data.

    2. MAAC data is different from Universal GA(UA) / GA4 : The data is obtained automatically through the system (Universal GA(UA) / GA4 API), which will be different from the Universal GA(UA) / GA4 report.

      Reason 1: The system uses four UTM data - Source, Medium, Campaign, and Content - to capture data from Universal GA(UA) / GA4 ; and Universal GA(UA) / GA4 reports can only use up to three UTM data for viewing.

      Reason 2: The data viewed on multiple days at once (e.g. 2021 / 4 / 22 - 2022 / 5 / 1) is different from the data viewed on individual days (e.g. 2021 / 4 / 22 - 2021 / 4 / 22). MAAC will capture the data every day, and then add up the data in MAAC.

      💡 Reminder： Sampled data may appear in both ways. When the amount of data for Universal GA(UA) / GA4 calculation is larger, the data will be calculated as Sampled data. 

    3. Missing data for a specific date: Universal GA(UA) / GA4 API is late in providing data, probably due to the amount of data available for that date.
      💡 Reminder：
      - The possible reasons for the delay are a large amount of data and the time needed for Universal GA(UA) / GA4 to calculate.
      - Sampled data may appear in both ways. When the amount of data for Universal GA(UA) / GA4 calculation is larger, the data will be calculated as Sampled data. 

    ➤ Check Method

    1. MAAC data delay occurs: Please use the same UTM in the Universal GA(UA) backend to filter the number of link clicks in the Universal GA(UA) shared with Crescendo Lab by "All Traffic/Source Medium".If there is no data originally, but the data appears after more than one day, then it is a data delay problem.
    2. MAAC data is different from Universal GA(UA) / GA4 : This condition cannot be avoided.
    3. Missing data for a specific date: In the Universal GA(UA) you shared with Crescendo Lab, click on "All Traffic/Source Medium" in the Universal GA(UA) backend, and use the same UTM group to filter the number of link clicks to see if there is any data. If you have any information, please click on the bottom right corner of MAAC to contact our helpers, who will help you to check and add information.

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