Google Ads and Google Analytics (often GA4) sometimes show different numbers because they measure different things, use different attribution rules, and can lose or model data differently on the way from ad click to tracked visit or conversion.
First, the basics: Google Ads is built around ad interactions and ad attribution, so it reports clicks, cost, and conversions tied to your ad account settings. GA4 is built around on-site behavior, so it reports sessions, users, events, and conversions only after your site loads and tracking fires. That gap alone creates mismatches, especially for local Orlando businesses where calls, form fills, and repeat visits happen fast.
Common reasons the numbers don’t match
- Clicks vs. sessions: One person can click twice (two clicks) but create one session, or a click can fail to become a session if the page never fully loads.
- Time zone and day cutoffs: Your Ads account and GA4 property can be set to different time zones, so “yesterday” is not the same 24-hour window in both tools.
- Attribution differences: Ads can credit conversions to ad clicks using its own model and lookback window, while GA4 may credit that same conversion to a different channel (organic, direct, referral) depending on your attribution settings.
- Tracking loss on the way in: Missing auto-tagging (GCLID), broken redirects, stripped UTMs, cross-domain issues, or checkout and booking systems on a different domain can cause GA4 to mislabel traffic or drop it.
- Privacy, consent, and blockers: Cookie consent choices, iOS/Safari limits, ad blockers, and browser tracking protections can reduce what GA4 records, while Ads may still report the click.
- Different conversion definitions: Ads conversions are “conversion actions” with their own counting rules (one vs. every, call rules, windows). GA4 conversions are events you mark as conversions, which might not match the Ads definition.
- Processing delays and adjustments: GA4 data can take time to finalize, and Ads can filter invalid clicks or apply conversion modeling, which shifts totals after the fact.
A quick mismatch cheat sheet
| What you notice | Most likely cause | Where to look first |
|---|---|---|
| Ads clicks higher than GA sessions | Page did not load, consent blocked GA, tagging stripped, redirects | Landing page load speed, redirect chain, auto-tagging (GCLID), GA4 real-time |
| GA users higher than Ads clicks | GA includes all channels, not only ads | GA4 acquisition report and channel grouping |
| Ads conversions higher than GA conversions | Different attribution window or model, call conversions, imported offline conversions | Ads conversion actions settings and conversion window |
| GA conversions higher than Ads conversions | GA event marked as conversion but not imported to Ads, or Ads action not set up | GA4 conversion event list and Google Ads conversion import |
| Daily totals don’t line up but monthly totals are close | Time zone mismatch or processing delay | Time zone settings in both platforms and date range comparisons |
What we do to reconcile numbers in a real account
- Compare apples to apples: Match the same date range, same time zone, and the same conversion definition before judging performance.
- Confirm linking and tagging: Link Ads to GA4, keep auto-tagging on, and verify that your landing pages preserve GCLID and UTMs through any redirects.
- Audit the conversion setup: Decide what counts as a lead (form submit, booked appointment, phone call over X seconds) and set that up consistently in Ads and GA4.
- Validate the path: Use GA4 real-time and DebugView to test one click-to-lead path end to end, including thank-you pages, call tracking, and third-party schedulers.
- Pick one “source of truth” per decision: For bidding and cost per lead, Ads conversion actions usually drive the best day-to-day optimization. For on-site behavior and landing page fixes, GA4 is the better view.
If you want these two systems to tell the same story as closely as possible, our PPC management process starts with clean tagging, consistent conversion rules, and testing the full click-to-lead flow so you can trust what you’re seeing.
When the mismatch is driven by site issues like slow loads, messy redirects, or tracking breaking on booking pages, we typically pair Ads cleanup with web design fixes so the tracking fires reliably on every device.
If you’re trying to decide which numbers to use in reports, our FAQ on Google Analytics and other tracking tools helps you pick the right dashboard for the question you’re answering, and our guide on which metrics to track explains what to watch without getting buried in noise.
