Google Ads and GA4 disagree. Where should you look?
A discrepancy does not automatically mean an error. Five checks to establish whether you are comparing the same thing.
Compare definitions, not just numbers.
Google Ads shows 36 conversions. Your website analytics shows 29. Which number is right? Start by defining the metric rather than choosing a system to trust.
Start with one event
A purchase, a form submission and a phone-number click answer different questions. Check which actions the selected column includes. The sum of all website key events is not the number of purchases from advertising.
Align the comparison
Google identifies attribution rules, conversion windows and reporting dates as possible causes of discrepancies. Google Ads also provides columns based on the time of conversion. Identical dates on screen therefore do not guarantee comparable reports.
A practical checklist:
- Select one business and one advertising account.
- Write down the event name and counting method in each system.
- Align the dates, time zone and report freshness.
- Compare attribution settings and conversion windows.
- Then investigate a missing event or tag configuration issue.
A useful question for your AI
Compare Google Ads and GA4 for the selected period. First check whether the events, dates and data freshness are comparable. Separate established causes from hypotheses. If evidence is missing, list the specific checks needed.
AdHatch keeps advertising results separate from website metrics. This lets you investigate a difference without turning incompatible definitions into a single total. Available detail depends on your connected sources and saved reports.
When to change the setup
Act on a specific finding, rather than on the discrepancy alone: a purchase event missing from one system, for example, or the same action being sent twice. Document the problem and check new data after the fix.