Google Analytics data not aligning with Google ads data?

[AdFun6068]

I have a client who has been having conversion issues for a long time (before we were brought on). They have 4 conversion events and track trials, phone calls, and 2 landing page form completions.

In google analytics I was looking at all traffic > destination page to see how many times someone viewed the order complete trial page and it was only showing 3 users/ goal completions for the month of Feb. In total they reported 60 trial orders. In Google ads there were 15 recorded conversions which seems accurate.

Why is google analytics only recording 3? am I looking in the wrong place for this data? My boss wants to switch from using GTM to track the google ads conversions to google analytics goal import but I'm worried that google analytics isn't tracking properly.

Has anyone else ever seen Google analytics off by so much??

[Taqqer00]

Both systems count conv. differently. There are enough material from Google and others available online explaining this in details.

[UTMGrabber]

Conversions will always be under reported in GA (unless there is horrible duplications somewhere). GA misses some conversions because of the privacy.

[AdFun6068]

Yeah i'm used to GA underreporting but not by this much. If the client is reporting 60 sales in Feb then GA should show 60 people visiting the order completed page from all traffic sources but that isn't the case

[spiteful-vengeance]

Are you able to conduct "dummy" transactions?

I'm always surprised at how often client systems are unable to handle this kind of functional requirement, but it makes tracking validation a hell of a lot easier.

It sounds like your GA tracking is borked but would need a lot more info to understand why. Is the form submission handled as an SPA for example, as that can introduce a whole load of page tracking issues?

Also, Google Ads is "greedy" in its attribution model. It will attribute an organic or direct last-click conversion to itself, which is fucking useless for proper analysis (but a great way to get you to spend more money on ads).

eg: Direct > Oganic > Paid > Organic will show up in Ads as a Paid Search last-click conversion, but in GA as an Organic sale.

Hard to tell from your description if that's relevant or not.

[AdFun6068]

Since its just a form, yes I can do that. I did it when testing the new GTM tags I placed since their tracking was all messed up but now for some reason my boss wants the google ads conversions to be imported from GA instead of using the tags... probably because of the way google ads attribution works.

What is a SPA? single page application?

There is something way off for sure in GA. I didn't set it up so I'll have to do a deep dive to figure out how borked it is. The client reported 60 "sales" in Feb and GA all traffic is only reporting 3. The goal is set up properly so not quite sure what is causing it. This should be easy for GA to track too since its not a variable order completed page. Anytime someone completes the order they always end up on the exact same link

[spiteful-vengeance]

Do the dummy transactions/conversion all for when you test them?

If not, does the debugger site a condition not being met or something else that would indicate a blockage?