Why is my data different in Google Analytics different to Google Ads?

[This article first appeared on the Skittish Blog.]

Data is a wonderful thing for us marketers. We can use it to assess the return on investment we're getting from our marketing efforts, track how users found us and get to know more about how they interact with our content. But, if you run ad campaigns on Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc, you may have noticed that the figures in your reports don't always reflect the data you'll see in Google Analytics.

This can be confusing and frustrating, to say the least and make you doubt either platform is giving you the real data, but there are some genuine reasons why this happens.

Discrepancies between Google Ads data and Google Analytics can be difficult to get your head around, especially when both platforms are owned by the same entity and can be linked to share data. So, this article focuses on some of the key differences between the two platforms and why some metrics and reports will look different.

Google Ads and Google Analytics data discrepancies

Advertising on Google Ads can get expensive, so tracking your leads, sales and revenue is vital to ensure you're not wasting advertising budget. The great thing about Google Ads is that you can import data from Google Analytics, so your conversions, transactions and revenue should all match up. However, sometimes they don't and here's why:

Clicks versus Sessions

Google Ads tracks clicks on your ads, whereas Google Analytics tracks sessions. Whilst it seems common-sense to assume that a click on an ad results in a session on your website, it's important to remember that they are two different metrics recorded on two different platforms. A session on Google Analytics can last for up to 30 minutes, so if a user clicks on your ad, then clicks again without closing their browser, you'd see two clicks in Google Ads, but only one session in Analytics, so your sessions can look lower than your clicks.

If you're seeing less clicks and more sessions, this can be down to Google removing certain clicks from your reports where it suspects someone is repeatedly clicking your ad. Google Analytics won't remove these sessions, so your sessions may sometimes appear higher than the number of clicks your ads received.

Conversion Rate discrepancies

Conversion rate is measured differently on Google Analytics versus Google Ads. In fact, it's a completely different metric. For Google Analytics, the conversion rate is the percentage of users that complete a conversion action. On Google Ads, it's the percentage of clicks that result in a Google Ads conversion, so the metric will usually be different.

When a Conversion is recorded

In Google Ads, conversions are attributed to the time of the ad click, not the time of the actual conversion event. For example, if a user clicks an ad on Monday but completes the conversion on Wednesday, Google Ads will attribute the conversion to Monday, the day of the ad click. This approach aligns conversions with the advertising spend on the day the ad generated the initial interest, giving a clearer view of the ad's immediate impact.

Google Analytics, on the other hand, attributes the conversion to the time of the actual conversion event. Using the same example, if a user clicks an ad on Monday but converts on Wednesday, Google Analytics will attribute the conversion to Wednesday, the day the user completed the action (e.g., form submission, purchase). This approach reflects the actual day of user action, which is more relevant for tracking user behaviour and website performance.

Turning off auto-tagging

Auto-tagging your URLs in Google Ads, allows for more accurate reporting in Google Analytics, so switching off auto-tagging means you will need to manually tag your URLs to pass the information through to Google Analytics. If you forget to do this for one or two landing pages, you could find the data in your reports doesn't add up as Google will see the visits from Google Ads (CPC) as organic traffic from Google.

Tracking errors

Discrepancies can also be down to errors in your tracking code installation, so if you're seeing major discrepancies (e.g. clicks in your Google Ads report but no sessions recorded in Google Analytics), check Google's troubleshooting guide to make sure you're all set up correctly.

These errors can be caused by the landing page not loading the tracking code or the landing page redirecting the user to another page and tracking information being lost.

They can also be caused by not linking your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts correctly. Perhaps you missed a step in the process, or linked to the wrong account. Either way, it's worth ironing out any issues as they arise so you know your data is as accurate as it can be.

Attribution models

We go into more detail about attribution models here, but in short, each platform may be using a different model which affects how conversions are attributed to Google Ads. Some models will give full or partial credit to Google Ads, whereas others will ignore the interaction with Google Ads and credit the source that the user last used before converting.

Whilst you may see different data in your reports, both can provide vital information as to how your campaigns (and your website) are performing.