How are clicks tracked?

Skimlinks tracks clicks in near real-time each time a user interacts with one of your monetized links. Most click data is processed and visible in your Publisher Hub performance reports within 2 to 3 hours of the event.

Click Reporting Speed

Unlike sales data, which depends on affiliate network synchronization, click reporting is much faster:

• Near Real-Time: Every time a reader clicks a monetized link, the event is captured by our redirect technology.
• Processing Window: It typically takes 2 to 3 hours for the raw data to be validated and displayed in your Publisher Hub reports.
• Real-Time Report: You can view your most recent activity in the Real-time Clicks report under the 'Reports' tab.

Why do my clicks differ from Google Analytics?

It is common to see slight differences between Skimlinks and other tracking tools (like Google Analytics). This is usually due to:

• Bot Filtering: Skimlinks automatically filters out "noise" from search engine spiders, bots, and crawlers to provide you with clean, actionable data. Google Analytics may include this non-human traffic.
• Redirect Logic: Skimlinks records the click at the moment the redirect starts. If a user closes their browser before the merchant’s page fully loads, Skimlinks will count the click, but the merchant's site-based tracker might not.
• Unique vs. Total: Ensure you are comparing "Total Clicks" in both platforms, as "Unique Visitors" is a different metric.

Testing your Click Tracking

If you want to verify that your installation is working correctly:

1. Navigate to a page on your website where Skimlinks is installed.
2. Click on a monetized merchant link yourself.
3. Wait for approximately 3 hours for the system to process the data.
4. Check your Real-Time Clicks report to see if your test click has been recorded.

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