In order to understand this conversion gap, we must take into account that each platform uses different data. In addition, it collects and calculates it differently. In our case, we will briefly focus on some main points, although there are many more:
In Analytics, conversion and e-commerce transaction attribution is usually used to the last click, although we can modify this in the “Model Comparison band database Tool” section. However, in the case of Google Ads, we would count a conversion only if the user has purchased through a click on one of our ads.
So the conversion may be counted in Google Ads if a user clicks on one of our ads and, days later, accesses our website organically and converts. However, Analytics may count it as a conversion from the organic channel.
2. The conversion window
To the first point we add the fact that there is a conversion window , that is, how long we want our tools to “look” back in time, before the conversion has occurred.
The conversion path will be very different if we track actions 30 or 90 days ago, don't you think? If we only consider 30 days prior to the conversion and it turns out that 31 days before the conversion the user first accessed our website through an ad, we won't count Google Ads as the main channel that led to the conversion. In our case, we expanded this window to the maximum so as not to miss a single user action.
3. Differences in the dates of attribution
Here we must take into account that in Google Ads, the day and time of conversion attribution will be the day on which the user clicked on our ad . However, in Analytics, this is attributed to the exact moment in which the conversion occurred.
4. Importing data at different times, both in campaigns and in reports
Another important fact that we should not overlook is the updating of data on our platforms. In Google Ads it usually takes up to 48 hours , while in Analytics we may already have the data shortly after it has been produced. That is why if we compare a report from yesterday from both platforms there may be a lot of data that is still missing or that may unbalance the analysis.
5. Differences in conversions counted in Google Ads and Analytics
At the configuration level in Google Ads, we can choose to count the conversions we collect once or every time . If, for example, we configure that we want to count the forms that arrive only “once” and the same user sends 2 forms through our campaigns, it will only count as one conversion in our “Conversions” column. However, in Analytics we will be counting all the completed objectives, thus showing the two forms in our “Completed Objectives” column.
