Optimizing Your GA4 & Google Ads Setup: Fix Discrepancies and Track What Matters

When Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Ads aren’t fully in sync, it’s more than just a technical setback, it could be  a data problem that can lead to wasted budget, missed opportunities, and sometimes shaky decisions. Maybe your conversion numbers don’t line up. Maybe your remarketing lists aren’t populating the way they should. Or maybe things seem fine, but something just feels off. In this post we’ll walk through how to audit and optimize your Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads setup, including fixing common tracking issues to make sure your conversions, audiences, and reports are working the way you expect.  

Link GA4 and Google Ads Properly

Before going deeper, it’s important to make sure your Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads accounts are set up to talk to each other correctly. This connection forms the backbone of your tracking and reporting. If the integration isn’t solid, the data you rely on for decisions might be incomplete or misleading.

Let’s walk through the key steps to ensure your setup is working the way it should.

It might sound obvious, but one of the most common issues comes down to a missing or incomplete link between GA4 and Google Ads. To double-check this:

1. In GA4, go to Admin → Product Links → Google Ads Links

2. Click Link, choose the correct Google Ads account, and follow the prompts.

3. Make sure you enable both Personalized Advertising and Auto-tagging. These are essential for remarketing and attribution.

This simple connection allows data to flow between platforms, so you can share audiences, track conversions, and report performance accurately. To verify this integration you can follow these steps in Google Ads. To confirm this connection in Google Ads, you can follow these steps.

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.

2. Go to Tools → Data Manager. You should be able to see the integration setup for all other platforms linked to your Google Ads account.

Import Conversions Into Google Ads

Verify Key Events Imports in Google Ads

Once your accounts are linked, the next step is to ensure your GA4 key events (f.k.a. conversions) are properly imported into Google Ads. This is what enables Ads to optimize campaigns based on the actions that matter most to your business. 

Prerequisites

Before you go on to the next section you need to ensure that you follow these prerequisites first: Ensure the specific user actions you want to track as conversions (e.g., form_submit, purchase, lead_generate) are marked as "Key events" in your GA4 property. You can do this in GA4: Admin > Data display > Events > Toggle "Mark as key event" ON.
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Import Process (New)

Several users have reported changes in the Google Ads interface that make the direct "Import from Google Analytics 4 properties" option less immediately obvious, or sometimes seemingly absent. Google frequently updates its UI, and this appears to be one of those cases.

Here's what seems to have changed and how to adapt (as of recent observations and community discussions):

The direct "Import" option might not be the first thing you see when creating a new conversion action, or it might be nested differently. The most common scenario for the "missing" import option:

When you click + New conversion action, instead of directly seeing "Import," you might now be presented with options like:

• Website
• App
• Phone calls
• Import (this is what you're looking for, but it might be hidden or appear differently)

If you select "Website" (which is common for GA4 web conversions):

The interface often tries to guide you towards a "recommended" setup that involves scanning your website or using Google Tag. This is where users get stuck because they expect to immediately see the GA4 import option.

The Fix / Where to find it now:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. Click the Goals icon (a flag) in the top right menu.
3. In the section menu, click Conversions, then Summary.
4. Click the + New conversion action button. If you don’t see this option, click Create new conversion action button. 
5. If you see "Import" directly, click it. This is the easiest path.  
6. If you DON'T see "Import" directly, or if it guides you to "Website":
   
   • Click on "Website" as your conversion source.
   • You might then be prompted to "Enter your website domain to scan." Enter your website URL.

• After this, the interface might present options for setting up conversions. Look for a link or option like "More ways to connect" or "Other options" or "Select tag type" / "Google Analytics (GA4) & Firebase."
• This is where you'll find the "Google Analytics 4 properties" selection.
• Once you select "Google Analytics 4 properties," the process should continue as before, allowing you to choose your Key Events to import.

Why this change?

Google is constantly streamlining interfaces and sometimes tries to guide users to what it perceives as the "easiest" or "recommended" setup. For web conversions, it might initially push users towards direct Google Tag or website scan methods, expecting them to eventually find the GA4 import option if that's their preference.

Troubleshooting Checklist (beyond the UI change):

If the steps above still don't work, double-check these common issues:

• GA4 Key Events are Marked as Key Events: In GA4, go to Admin > Data display > Events. Ensure the toggle for "Mark as key event" is ON for the events you want to import.
• GA4 and Google Ads are Properly Linked:
  
  • In GA4: Admin > Product Links > Google Ads Links.
  • In Google Ads: Tools & Settings > Linked accounts > Google Analytics (GA4) & Firebase.
  • Confirm the link is active and the correct accounts are connected.
• Permissions: You need Editor access in GA4 and Admin access in Google Ads to manage these links and imports.
• Data Flow: Ensure GA4 is actually receiving data for these Key Events. Check GA4's Realtime report or DebugView to confirm events are firing correctly.
• Event Naming: GA4 event names are case-sensitive. Ensure the event name in GA4 is exactly what you expect. Very long event names (over 40 characters) can sometimes cause issues.
• Attribution Settings: While not directly preventing import, ensure your GA4 attribution settings are appropriate (Admin > Attribution settings).‍
• Time Lag: It can take a few hours (up to 24-48) for newly marked Key Events in GA4 to become available for import in Google Ads.

Set Up Audience Sharing and Remarketing

GA4 offers powerful audience-building tools, but they only become useful in Google Ads if you’ve enabled audience sharing:

1) Back in the Google Ads Link settings in GA4, confirm that Enable Personalized Advertising is turned on.

2) Then go to Audiences in GA4 and build segments based on user behavior (e.g., product viewers, abandoned carts).

3) These audiences will automatically become available in Google Ads for targeting. Here are the steps:

• Sign in to your Google Ads account.
• Click the Tools 
• Under "Shared Library," click Audience Manager.
  
  • Find Your GA4 Audiences:
• You’ll be presented with the list of audiences that are ready to be added to your campaign. You should see your GA4 audiences listed here. They will typically be labeled with a source like "Analytics (GA4)" or start with something like the audience name you gave it in GA4 followed by "-GA4 ".

Note: It can take up to 24-48 hours for a newly created GA4 audience to populate and become available in Google Ads. Also, audiences need to meet minimum size requirements (e.g., typically 100 active users in the last 30 days for Search Network, 1,000 for Display Network) before they can be used for targeting.

This step is critical if you’re running remarketing or performance max campaigns. Without it, you’re missing a major opportunity to re-engage valuable users.

Avoid Common Mistakes

Even with the right intentions, a few technical missteps can throw your setup off course. Watch out for these:

• Duplicate Events: Firing the same conversion event multiple times within a single session (e.g., if tags are placed both in Google Tag Manager and hardcoded directly on your site). This inflates your conversion numbers.
• Broken Platform Links: Unlinked or incorrectly linked accounts (like Google Ads and GA4) can silently halt data sharing, leading to incomplete insights.
• Incorrect Tag Configuration: Events and variables in Google Tag Manager might be set up with faulty triggers, filters, or values, causing data to fire at the wrong time, to the wrong place, or with incorrect information.
• Missing Consent Management: Failing to properly implement a consent solution (like Google Consent Mode) can lead to significant data loss if users opt out of tracking, impacting your ability to gather comprehensive insights while remaining compliant.
• Improper Data Filtering: Incorrectly configured filters in your GA4 property (e.g., excluding necessary traffic or including irrelevant internal traffic) can skew your reports and provide a misleading view of performance.
• Lack of Validation: Skipping crucial post-setup validation steps, such as using GA4's DebugView or checking Realtime reports, means errors can go unnoticed, leading to unreliable data down the line.

Doing a regular audit using tools like Google Tag Assistant and GA4 DebugView can help catch issues before they become bigger problems.

Overall, a clean GA4 and Google Ads integration sets the stage for reliable tracking and smarter decision-making. Start by linking the platforms correctly, importing conversions, and enabling audience sharing. Then keep an eye out for common issues like outdated tags or duplicate events. Getting this foundation right can save you time, money, and a lot of second-guessing down the road.

Troubleshooting GA4 and Google Ads Data Discrepancies

Most users are comparing conversion numbers in GA4 and Google Ads only to find they don’t match. This is one of the most common points of confusion for marketers and also analysts. The good news? It’s usually not a bug or an issue. More often, these differences come down to how each platform defines, tracks, and attributes conversions. In short, we should not be comparing these platforms because they are two different technologies and they differ in collecting conversion data. 

Think of it less like comparing apples to apples, and more like comparing apples to a fruit basket that happens to contain apples. While related, their nature and purpose mean they track things a bit differently.

Here are the main reasons why you shouldn't expect those numbers to perfectly align:

1. They're Measuring Different Things at Their Core

• Google Ads is "Click-Centric": Its primary job is to measure the effectiveness of your ads. It focuses on attributing a conversion back to a specific ad click (or sometimes an impression, for view-through conversions). It counts a conversion if it happens within its predefined "lookback window" (e.g., 30 days) after an ad interaction.
• GA4 is "User-Centric and Event-Based": GA4 is all about understanding the entire user journey on your website or app. It collects every interaction as an event and groups them into sessions. It doesn't inherently care if an interaction came from an ad, social media, or direct traffic, until you apply attribution models.
  

2. Attribution Models Can Differ

Both platforms use attribution models to decide which touchpoint gets credit for a conversion.

• GA4's default attribution model (often Data-Driven Attribution, but sometimes last-click for certain reports) might distribute credit across multiple channels. So, if a user clicks a Google Ad, then later comes back directly and converts, GA4 might give partial credit to the ad and partial to direct, or full credit to the ad depending on your model.

• Google Ads will typically give 100% of the conversion credit to the specific ad click that drove it, within its own attribution model and lookback window. Even if Google Ads uses Data-Driven Attribution, its calculation is focused solely on ad interactions in the path, whereas GA4 considers all organic and direct channels too.

3. Counting Methodologies are Distinct

• Google Ads conversions: Counted when the ad system successfully registers a conversion. This might happen even if the GA4 tag on the page had a slight problem or wasn't allowed to fire due to consent settings.
• GA4 conversions: Counted only when the GA4 event tag successfully fires on your website or app and records the event. If the page doesn't fully load, or there's a strong ad blocker, or the user hasn't given consent for analytics cookies, GA4 might miss it, even if Google Ads registered the initial click.
  

4. Lookback Windows May Not Match

• You can set a "lookback window" (e.g., 30 days, 90 days) for your conversion actions in Google Ads. This defines how far back an ad click can get credit for a conversion.
• GA4 also has lookback windows for its conversion events. If these are set differently, you'll naturally see discrepancies.
  

5. Consent and Data Thresholds

• How your cookie consent banner is implemented can impact GA4's data collection significantly. If a user rejects analytics cookies, GA4 won't track their behavior (or will track it in a limited, non-personalized way with Consent Mode v2). Google Ads, however, might still count the initial ad click and potentially even a conversion if it happens directly after the click within its own tracking.
• GA4 also applies data thresholds and privacy-safe modeling, which can impact the exact numbers you see, especially for smaller data sets.
  

6. Data Processing Latency

• While both systems are designed to be fast, there can be slight differences in how quickly data is processed and made available in reports, leading to temporary discrepancies. Sometimes delays happen so just make sure to check your data 24-48 hrs after.

Your Conversion Discrepancy Checklist

To get to the bottom of tracking differences, run through this quick checklist:

1. Compare attribution models
   Are GA4 and Google Ads using the same attribution approach? Aligning them, where possible, helps reduce confusion.
   
2. Check conversion window settings
   Look at the conversion window length in both platforms. A longer window in one may be picking up late conversions the other missed.
   
3. Ensure consistent event naming
   The conversion event name in GA4 must exactly match the one being imported into Google Ads. Watch out for typos or casing differences.
   
4. Confirm tags are firing correctly
   Use tools like Google Tag Assistant or DebugView in GA4 to check if conversion tags are firing as expected.
5. Look at cross-device and cross-platform behavior GA4 may capture users across devices using signals like Google accounts, while Google Ads relies more on cookies and click data.

When Technical Issues Are the Culprit

Sometimes, it's not about attribution or definitions. It's about something simply not working Here are common technical issues that can lead to discrepancies:

• Improper Tag Installation: If your GA4 or Google Ads tags are missing or misconfigured, conversions won’t be tracked correctly. Double-check that your tags are installed on every relevant page and firing at the right time.
  
• Duplicate Tags or Events: If both GA4 and Google Ads are firing the same event separately (e.g. via hardcoded scripts and Google Tag Manager), it could inflate or misattribute your conversion counts.
  
• Consent Mode Misconfiguration: For sites using Consent Mode in the EU or other regions, missing or incorrect implementation can result in incomplete data collection, particularly for Google Ads.
  
• Broken Cross-Domain Tracking: If your site spans multiple domains (like a main site and a checkout subdomain), and cross-domain tracking isn’t correctly set up, sessions and conversions may be broken or misattributed.
  
• Auto-Tagging Disabled: Without auto-tagging enabled in Google Ads, GA4 may not be able to identify the source of traffic accurately, which can severely distort attribution.

Note: Using browser-based debugging tools or GA4’s DebugView can help you isolate these technical issues quickly.

The Google Ads Metrics That Matter in GA4

When you're running paid campaigns, it's easy to get lost in a sea of data. But if you're using GA4 alongside Google Ads, there are specific metrics and dimensions that deserve your attention. These are the ones that directly reflect your ad performance and help you make smarter optimization decisions.

Key Google Ads Metrics to Track

Start with the core metrics that show how well your ads are performing:

• Conversions: The number of times users completed a defined action after interacting with an ad.
• Conversion Value: The total value of those conversions, helping you tie performance to revenue.
• Cost Per Conversion: Shows how efficiently your budget is driving results.

These give you a high-level view of whether your campaigns are delivering value.

GA4 Dimensions for Google Ads Analysis

GA4 automatically pulls in Google Ads data when the accounts are linked. Some key dimensions to explore include:

• Source / Medium: Look for "google / cpc" to isolate paid traffic from Google Ads.
• Campaign, Ad Group, and Keyword: These dimensions let you drill down into specific campaign elements and see what’s driving performance.
• Ad Click Type: Understand how users interacted with your ads (headline click, sitelink, etc.).

• GCLID (Google Click ID): This is essential for accurately matching ad clicks to conversions across platforms. We’ll be sharing a detailed guide soon, but in the meantime, you can check out this Help Center article to better understand how it works, and why it matters.

Wrapping Up: Final Thoughts

To get the most out of your Google Ads, you need a clear view of what happens after someone clicks. That clarity comes from connecting your ads directly to your GA4 data. When you properly link your accounts, import your key conversions, and share audiences, you're equipping your campaigns with the insights needed for smarter bidding and better decision-making. Taking a moment to avoid common setup mistakes and regularly checking your work turns your data from a field of question marks into a reliable roadmap for success. It’s how you ensure every ad dollar is invested wisely, driving the results you need.

FAQs

1. Why do my GA4 and Google Ads conversion numbers never match exactly?
Because they use different attribution models, conversion windows, and counting methods. Some variation is normal.

2. How often should I audit my GA4 and Google Ads integration?
At least once per quarter, or any time you launch new campaigns, update tags, or notice unusual data shifts.

3. Can I use the same tags for both GA4 and Google Ads?
No. GA4 and Google Ads require separate tags, but they can both be managed through Google Tag Manager.

4. What’s the easiest way to tell if my GA4 conversion is firing properly?
Use GA4’s DebugView or Google Tag Assistant to test events in real time and confirm the conversion triggers.

5. Do changes in attribution settings affect historical data?
No, attribution setting changes only apply going forward they don’t retroactively adjust past data.

6. What should I do if my imported conversions in Google Ads stop tracking?
Check if the GA4 and Google Ads accounts are still linked, and verify that the conversion event is active in GA4.

7. Is it better to use GA4 goals or Google Ads conversions for bidding?
Use the Google Ads conversions that are imported from GA4 and set up specifically for your bidding strategy.

8. How do I handle cross-domain tracking in GA4?
Enable cross-domain tracking in your GA4 tag settings and list all related domains to preserve session continuity.

9. What's the best way to train a team on interpreting GA4 vs. Google Ads data?
Start with hands-on dashboards that show side-by-side comparisons, then explain key differences in attribution and data models.

10. Can I create a custom report that compares GA4 and Google Ads performance side by side? Yes. Use Looker Studio to pull data from both platforms and visualize them in one dashboard for easy comparison.

Final Words

When your GA4 and Google Ads setup is clean, connected, and aligned, everything else you do in marketing becomes easier and more effective. From smarter budget allocation to clearer reporting and better strategic planning, accurate data is the fuel that powers growth.

Don’t let tracking issues or confusing discrepancies slow you down. Use the tips and tools we’ve covered here to take control of your data and build a reporting foundation you can trust. Whether you're managing one campaign or many, optimizing your setup is a high-impact move that pays off over time.

And if you're ready to dig deeper, stay tuned for the rest of this series we're just getting started.

Thank you for reading!

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