Data Quality · 5 min
5 Signs Your Analytics Implementation Is Broken
28 May 2026 · Beneath Analytics
Broken analytics does not throw an error. It produces plausible numbers that are wrong. Look for these five signs.
1. Two tools disagree by more than a few percent
Some drift between platforms is normal. A gap that is large, or that changes suddenly, usually means an event fires in one place and not the other. Compare the same event over the same period before you blame the tools.
2. A metric changes the day after a release
A step change that lines up with a deploy is almost always instrumentation, not behaviour. If sign-ups halve overnight and nothing else changed, check the event before the funnel.
3. Parameters are missing or say (not set)
Reports full of empty values mean events are firing without the properties you planned: no currency on a purchase, no plan name on an upgrade. Required parameters should be checked automatically, not discovered in a dashboard.
4. Events fire twice, or not at all
Duplicates inflate conversions and are common in single-page apps where a route change re-triggers a tag. Silent gaps are the opposite: a page or component that never sends its event. Both show up when you reconcile event counts against backend records.
5. Analytics and the backend disagree
If your analytics counts 1,000 orders and your database has 1,150, you are missing events. Some loss from blockers and consent is expected; a gap you cannot explain is a defect. Server-side collection narrows it, and monitoring tells you when it widens.