Audits and results

Why does my score differ from an agency audit?

Where the differences between our score and an agency audit come from - scope, repeatability, timing, 30-day data - and how to compare the two reports meaningfully.

2 min read

You once commissioned an agency audit, and our report shows different conclusions? That's normal - and worth understanding, because the two approaches partly measure different things.

Methodological differences

Scope. Our audit is 62 standardized checkpoints - identical for every website, based on Google's documentation and best practices. An agency audit may be narrower (selected areas) or broader (measurement strategy, an implementation roadmap, workshops) - depending on the brief and the auditor's experience.

Repeatability. An automated check returns the same verdict for the same state - every time. Expert judgment includes a subjective element: two specialists can weigh the same issue differently.

The moment of examination. An audit is a snapshot. If the agency's report is six months old, differences may simply reflect changes on the site and in the configuration - not diverging assessments.

30-day data. Some of our checkpoints analyze the last 30 days. An audit run during the sales season and one run in a quiet period can produce different signals on behavioral checkpoints (the funnel, channel conversions).

What to do with a discrepancy

1.Compare checkpoint to checkpoint, not score to score. The agency's overall "grade" and our Quality score are different scales. Real value lies in comparing specifics: we say "transaction_id duplication in 3% of orders" - did the agency's report examine that area at all?
2.Check the evidence. Every error we raise carries evidence - concrete numbers from your property. It's verifiable: you can reproduce the data in GA4 reports.
3.Treat the approaches as complementary. Automation excels at detecting technical problems and guarding against regressions over time; an expert brings business context, strategic priorities and implementation. Many of our users run GA4audit as continuous monitoring between periodic expert audits.

And if you need a manual expert audit or help implementing the fixes - GA4audit is built by the team behind Data Wolves, an analytics agency: happy to help.

Related articles:

•What do the 62 checkpoints cover?
•How is the Quality score calculated?

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