Is my data really accurate?
The general wisdom goes: “the more accurate data we have, the better decisions we make.”
I’ve heard founders questioning Google Analytics data accuracy. “Can I trust in Google numbers?”
It is unlikely that Google Analytics and Mixpanel -or any other tracking tool- will report the same values. They have different models to collect the data. If you develop your tracking solution, your numbers will be different too.
So why is this such a big deal? What’s the real cost of not having accurate data? It depends on what you do with the data. If you make “data-driven” decisions, the cost of not making the right move could be expensive. For example, betting on the wrong audience.
The problem is not whether you can trust your tracking tool numbers or not. The problem is not having at least two implemented. To make a better-informed decision, you need to have two data points about the same metric (page views, unique users, etc.)
