How to reconcile Google Ads and GA4, step by step

You usually cannot make Google Ads and GA4 match, but you can account for most of the gap. Compare one closed week in one time zone, switch Google Ads to conversion-time columns and keep one primary purchase action. Then read GA4's credit rules. What is left is usually credit for buyers who also used other channels.

Step by step

1. Pick one closed week and one time zone. GA4 reports in the property time zone, Google Ads in the account time zone. A mismatch moves sales across midnight. Google also says to allow 24 to 48 hours for data to sync before you compare. Path in GA4: Admin, then under Property, Property details, then Reporting time zone.
2. List every action that counts as a purchase. In Google Ads, click the Goals icon, open the Conversions drop-down and select Summary. Only primary actions feed the Conversions column; secondary ones report in All conversions. For each purchase action, note its source, whether it is primary, its count setting and its windows, and keep the list.
3. Keep one primary purchase action. If a Google Ads tag and a GA4 import both record purchases as primary, one sale can count twice. Make one of them secondary. Google suggests Every for sales and One for leads, so check the count setting while you are there. Path: Goals, Conversions, Summary, the action, then Edit settings.
4. Line up the windows. A new conversion's click-through window defaults to 30 days and can run to 90 days. GA4's default lookback for purchases is 90 days. Say a buyer purchases 40 days after the click: GA4 can still credit that click, while a 30-day Google Ads window ignores it. Path: Edit settings, then Click-through conversion window.
5. Switch Google Ads to conversion time. In Google Ads, click the Campaigns icon, then Campaigns. Click the Columns icon, select Modify columns, and add Conversions (by conv. time) or All conv. (by conv. time). These date each sale to when it happened, as GA4 does, instead of to the click.
6. Keep view-throughs out of it. View-through conversions are not in the Conversions column, only in View-through conversions and All conversions. If you compare an All conversions column with GA4, split it by action first. Path: in Campaigns, select Segment, then Conversion action under Conversions.
7. Find Google's traffic in GA4. In GA4, select Reports, then Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. Read Paid Search and Cross-network together, because GA4 files Performance Max and Demand Gen traffic under Cross-network. To check one source, switch to Session source / medium and search for google / cpc.
8. Read GA4's credit rules and paths. In GA4 Admin, select Events under Data display, then Attribution settings. Note the model and the channels that can receive credit. Then open Advertising, then Key event attribution paths, and count how often Paid Search opens a path that another channel closes.

A worked example

For illustration, one closed week with round, made-up numbers.

For illustration, step 3 strips out the 30 add-to-cart conversions, which were never sales. For illustration, step 5 moves the remaining 120 purchases to their purchase dates, and 110 fall inside the week. For illustration, that leaves 110 against GA4's 80, a gap of 30. Leave out Cross-network and GA4's side shrinks, so the gap looks wider than it is. Suppose step 8 finds 25 paths that Paid Search opened and Email or Organic Search closed. For illustration, last click hands those 25 to the closer, which leaves 5 for modeled conversions and blocked tracking.

Notice the order. Settings came first, then dates, then credit. If you start with credit, you end up arguing about attribution models while a stray add-to-cart action quietly does the damage. In a real account the leftover will be messier, but the order of the checks holds.

Now one store's real export, for the timing piece. On the Journeys sheet, a journey of two or three touches takes 12.5 days to buy. That is long enough to put a late-month click and its sale in different months. It is why step 5 comes before any argument about credit.

The credit piece shows up on the Channels sheet, where the touched view adds up to 110.4%. A journey that touched two channels counts in both. Google Ads reads its own clicks the same way: any journey with a Google ad in it can count in full. GA4's last click gives each sale to one channel only. The export holds no Google Ads figures and no spend, so it shows the mechanism, not that store's gap.

What to check when the report looks wrong

Google Ads shows sales, GA4 shows no google / cpc. Auto-tagging adds a GCLID to your ad URLs. When GA4 cannot use it, paid clicks can show up with (organic) labels. Check that auto-tagging is on and the accounts are linked.

GA4 shows more than Google Ads. It happens. Site analytics can record clicks that Google Ads later deems invalid and removes. A purchase after your conversion window closes also drops out of Google Ads, while GA4's lookback can still credit the click.

The gap jumped overnight. Someone changed a primary action, a count setting or a window. Window changes apply only from the day you make them, so old weeks keep the old rules. GA4 keeps a change history of its conversion settings, so read it before you blame the model.

Recent days keep moving. Google says conversion data can take up to 7 days to fully appear after big changes or account linking. GA4's data-driven model can also reattribute conversions for up to 7 days.

Conversion value looks too high. Look for a page view or add-to-cart action set as primary with a value. Google's fix is to make it secondary or remove its value.

Google Ads shows decimals. That is fractional credit: data-driven attribution splits each conversion across several clicks. GA4 does the same in its own reports. Compare weekly sums, not single days, and the decimals stop mattering.

What to do this week

1. Make the comparison a weekly habit. Every Monday, log Google Ads Conversions (by conv. time), GA4's Paid Search and Cross-network purchases, and Shopify orders. Pass: the gap holds steady. Fail: it jumps, so check that week's setting changes first.
2. Confirm auto-tagging reaches GA4. In GA4's traffic acquisition report, switch to Session campaign and search for one of your campaign names. Pass: your Google Ads campaigns appear by name. Fail: you see (organic) or (not set), so fix auto-tagging or the account link.
3. Read one month of paths. In GA4, open Advertising, then Key event attribution paths. Pass: Paid Search mostly closes its own paths, so the gap is settings and timing. Fail: it often opens paths another channel closes, so the gap is credit, and only a holdout test settles who earned it.

Check the homework. Your GA4 Attribution paths export already holds the evidence. Causality Engine reads that one file and shows what each channel caused next to what last-click gave it, in 1 to 2 minutes, for €99 once (excluding VAT), refundable within 30 days. Check the homework

Sources, 1 October 2026: Select attribution settings (Google Analytics Help). Edit or delete accounts, properties and data streams (Google Analytics Help). Data discrepancies: Factors and troubleshooting (Google Ads Help). About conversion windows (Google Ads Help). Understand your conversion tracking data (Google Ads Help). Add or remove columns in your statistics table (Google Ads Help). About "All conversions" (Google Ads Help). About conversion goals (Google Ads Help). Traffic acquisition report (Google Analytics Help). Default channel group (Google Analytics Help). Key events attribution paths report (Google Analytics Help). About traffic-source dimensions (Google Analytics Help). Get started with attribution (Google Analytics Help).

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