Difference between conversions reported in Overview, Tools and Settings and API.

[john wedderburn]

Hi all.

I'm using the BigQuery data transfer to pull Google Search Ads data. I'm then using SQL to create reporting tables which includes conversion data.

My challenge is that I cannot get a match to the conversions number, reported for the same account and date range, shown in the Overview of the Google Search Ads front end.
It's not completely off, but I expectation is that I should be able to get an exact match. I note that I am much closer to the figure reported in the tools and settings  > conversions report.

In the API I got almost a perfect match after I selected only conversions from Interactions rather than Impressions. 

On a daily level I get a perfect match on some days, whereas other days fail. I suspected that this might be something to do with cross device tracking, but could not see any relationship there.

So, questions:

1. What is the reason for the difference in conversions number between the front end Overview report and the tools and settings > conversions report? Is this an attribution issue?

2. Has anyone got any ideas on the filters or otherwise code I should be using to get a match between the API output and the overview data?

When I run it through Supermetrics I get a match between the conversions data and the overview - so I figure the answer must be in how the conversion metric needs to be filtered from the API to recreate whatever default the overview has.

Many thanks in advance!

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi John,

Thanks for reaching out to the Google Ads API team. I hope you are doing well today.

With regards to your concern, to better check this issue, could you please provide a full screenshot of the Google Ads UI of the data that you claim is not matching? I ask this information to further investigate this issue and to provide accurate specific recommendation on this.
 

Regards,

Darwin Google Ads API Team

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[john wedderburn]

Hi there,

Thanks for the speedy answer. Much appreciated.

Images attached, same date range, same account.

Overview (set to purchases/sales):


Tools and settings > conversions



Could this be an attribution issue? 

With regard to my 2nd question, I've observed that when I import data via Stitch I get a 100% match with the overview reporting from the Ads front end. When I use BigQuery data connector I do not. Could this be because the Stitch data requires me to enter an attribution window, with the default as 30 days. When I leave it to default it matches, which makes me think that the difference is in attribution and that I need to code an attribution window in the data from BigQuery.

thanks,
John.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi John,

Thank you for getting back to us. I hope that you are doing well today.

Moving forward to your concerns:

1. What is the reason for the difference in conversions number between the front end Overview report and the tools and settings > conversions report? Is this an attribution issue? 

• Please note that this is a product related concern however, you may check this document as it describes here what the overview page is. For more information you may reach out to the Google Ads product support team via this link as they are more equipped to answer your concern since this is a product related.

2. Has anyone got any ideas on the filters or otherwise code I should be using to get a match between the API output and the overview data? 

• For the Overview data, you may use the Campaign report and for the conversions, you may use the conversion action report.

With regard to your concern with Big Query data connector, please note that Google Ads API only support Google Ads API related concerns and we cannot comment on any Big Query related concerns as it is out of our scope. With this, what we can do is to advise you to reach out to the Big Query support team via this link.

Kind regards,

Sherwin Vincent Google Ads API Team

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