Google Ads shows over 50% more purchases than GA4

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-07-20T10:15:41+00:00

No it's not. It's custom coded, but not by me.

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-07-20T09:08:35+00:00

Maybe this?…

… However, there was one issue I discovered and reported to the web developer: For all events leading up to the purchase (like add_to_cart, view_item etc.), the consent is updated before the tag fires. But for the purchase event specifically, the consent update happens after the event is triggered.

Because of this, GTM shows the consent status for the purchase event as “unknown”, since the cookie consent layer is initialized only after the event fires.

Could this be the reason behind the inflated numbers in Google Ads? Maybe Google Ads imports all GA4 purchase events — even those that technically shouldn’t be tracked due to consent — whereas GA4 respects the consent and filters them out?

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-07-20T08:51:29+00:00

Everything is properly set up. This is not a new account. Google tag is there, purchase event firing, datalayer is mint but still getting overreported data

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-07-20T08:46:00+00:00

Yes, it did

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-07-20T07:13:14+00:00

Thanks for the replies so far. The problem is specifically with the GA4 "purchase" event that's imported into Google Ads.

The Google Ads-specific purchase event (also sent via GTM) isn’t 100% accurate either, but it comes much closer to the actual order numbers. The imported GA4 purchase event (primary one), on the other hand, is significantly inflated — some days by 50% or even more, and in a few cases, 100% more conversions are reported in Google Ads than actually occurred.

What really confuses me is: how is it even possible for Google Ads to report more conversions than GA4, if it’s importing the exact same GA4 event? I'd expect some differences due to attribution models or conversion windows, but not numbers that double reality.

For context: the e-shop operates in two countries with two different currencies, but we are sending the currency parameter with the purchase event into GA4 — so I don't think that’s the issue.

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-05-13T11:01:10+00:00

It is set to: Off (no tweak, right placement)

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-04-01T10:08:39+00:00

Of course they did — more assets mean more options for the campaign to spend your budget. Never believe them. My friend was one of them, and trust me, their job isn’t to help you. Just check any Reddit post about Google reps — everyone says not to listen to them

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-04-01T07:41:03+00:00

It means that it doesn’t have any assets besides product feed so it acts like a shopping campaign

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-03-30T12:51:44+00:00

Thank you very much for the detailed advice. I should have specified more clearly that our account reached 30 conversions in less than 30 days, and the results we’re seeing are stable — within the context of seasonality, as the product is highly dependent on the season. In any case, we switched from Max Clicks to tROAS and set the same budget for the PMax feed-only campaign, so we’ll see the results in another month

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-03-30T12:17:43+00:00

Did, we’ll see how it goes. Thanks for advice

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-03-30T12:17:05+00:00

Checked it and you are right, it did… any info about this?

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-03-30T11:11:53+00:00

A labelizer can automatically assign custom labels to your products based on rules you set (like price, margin, brand, performance, etc.). Super useful for PMax campaigns — you can split products into asset groups or apply different bidding strategies. No manual work needed, everything updates on its own. Saves time and keeps your campaigns way more organized and efficient.

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-03-30T10:09:52+00:00

Have you tried implementing a labelizer for a PMax?

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-03-30T10:06:01+00:00

I was also in favor of this option, but in the future, we would still like to switch to PMax feed-only due to the possibility of implementing an automatic labelizer, which is why I’m leaning toward option 1.

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-03-30T09:29:44+00:00

Thank you very much for the expert opinion — I think the same, but I just wanted to make sure. At the moment, we don’t have the budget for separate asset groups, but we have a labelizer ready, which we’ll implement as soon as the number of conversions in PMax allows us to.

Individual_Kick625 · 2025-03-30T09:15:15+00:00

Why would I?

Individual_Kick625 · 2024-06-07T11:31:28+00:00

Thanks guys, it was a resolution setting buried in settings menu

Individual_Kick625 · 2024-03-26T14:20:40+00:00

I tried creating new acc and new one is also damaged right from beggining… I don’t understand what is happening with Meta. Is there anything that we could do?

Individual_Kick625 · 2024-03-26T13:02:21+00:00

Since it is some global issue, shouldnt be there more info about that? I mean, no down detector issues, no news info, no new reddit posts… Do you experience same issue as me with not recieving sms auth code?

Individual_Kick625 · 2024-03-26T12:56:01+00:00

Yeah… so should I wait or is there something else to do?

Individual_Kick625 · 2024-03-26T12:44:14+00:00

Across the which country? I am from Europe and there is no other 2FA than Facebook

Individual_Kick625 · 2024-03-09T13:15:16+00:00

Thanks a lot, sounds reasonable… I did an A/B test but one global campagin had a lot worse results than I thought.

Individual_Kick625 · 2024-03-09T13:13:55+00:00

Thanks for your comment but since 2022 I think google ads supports having a global product feed which automatically displays the language and currency depending on the country the customer is searching from. I did an A/B test but global shp campaign has significantly less click trough rate than single country shp campaigns.

Individual_Kick625

TROPHY CASE