Data Discrepancies Between Google and the Destination

Issue

There are discrepancies between the data available in Google and the data in the destination.

Environment

Connector: Google Ads

Resolution

To start troubleshooting Google Ads data discrepancies, see the scenarios below.

A table or report is missing in the destination

If a metadata table, prebuilt report table, or custom report table is missing from your destination, do the following:

Go to the Schema tab in your connector details page and check that the applicable tables are included in your connector schema configuration.
Check that data represented by the applicable tables is available in the source.
Check whether a new user account has been added since the last sync.

NOTE: We don't support reports that don't contain a date field, such as the budget_performance_report or conversion_custom_variable reports.

A field is not available in the ERD

If a field is unavailable in the ERD, it may only be possible to sync it as part of a custom report.

See Google's Ads API documentation and identify the fields you want to include and their corresponding reports. You can add custom reports while setting up a new connector. For existing connectors, go to the Setup tab and click Edit connection details. Then, follow step 2 of our Google Ads setup guide to add a custom report.

NOTE: If we don't support the chosen field or report type, you can submit a feature request.

Discrepancy in conversions data

If you notice a difference only in conversions data, it may indicate that there is a difference in the conversion window configured by the connector and the conversion window configured in Google. To compare the two conversion windows, do the following:

Check the conversion window in Google Ads by following the instructions in Google's conversion documentation.
Check the conversion window in Fivetran:
- In the connector dashboard, go to the Setup tab.
- Click Edit connection details.
- Click Show Advanced Options.
- Note the Conversion Window Size.

If the conversion windows differ, update the conversion window in either Google or Fivetran to match, then re-sync any report tables that include conversion data.

If the conversion windows are the same, create the custom report in Google's report editor using the same fields you have congifured in the connector report, then compare the data to verify if and where the differences occur.

Discrepancy in metrics values

You may notice discrepancies in metrics values when comparing Google and Fivetran report tables if the selected fields for each don't match exactly.

To confirm a data discrepancy, build the report in the Google's report editor using the same fields you have configured in the connector report, then compare. If you notice a discrepancy, contact our support team with the following information:

IDs of the affected records.
The date range you are comparing.

Discrepancy in cost and impression counts

Your cost and impression values may differ if you compare your data between reports of different types or include segments in your reports. Use the same report configuration in both Google and Fivetran to compare accurately.

Discrepancy in impression counts between different prebuilt report tables

Google's methodology for providing impressions data may vary for each prebuilt report table. For example, the AD_GROUP_HOURLY_STATS table provides impressions data for each segment, meaning that tallying the number of impressions for each segment may result in an inflated overall total. However, the AD_GROUP_STATS table provides the total number of impressions irrespective of segments. Comparing the total number of impressions for the same ads in each table will result in different values.

To check for discrepancies, we recommend comparing your data in each Prebuilt Report table against the data in Google using the exact same report configuration.

Missing records

The Google Ads API returns rows with zero metric values only if the report does not contain segments. If the report contains segments, the rows with zero metric values are excluded.

In addition, if an account is unavailable for a period of the sync or added later, the sync may not capture some records. If the account absence correlates with the missing records, re-sync the affected tables.

Missing accounts or accounts can't be configured

If you are missing accounts in the connector configuration or your destination, the likely cause is there is no data within Google Ads for these accounts. Accounts with no data can't be configured in the connector and will not be synced.

Duplicate rows with matching field values

Google's implicit segmentation feature may produce report rows with similar segments and metric values.

Some field configurations may cause records to appear as duplicates. For example, if you create an ad_group report with the fields segments.date and metrics.impressions, Google Ads implicitly adds the ad_group.resource_name field to the report. This processing error adds multiple impression values to the same value of the date dimension. However, the field may not appear in your destination table if the connector is not configured to sync the ad_group.resource_name field.

You can use the _fivetran_id column to identify unique records. To view Google values that differ for the same rows, do the following:

Create a new report.
Configure the report to include *.id fields.

Ad names associated with Dynamic Search Ads are missing

We utilize the ad_group_ad.ad.name field from Google's API to identify the names of your ads. However, this field only supports the following ad types:

As a result, we don't sync ad name data for Dynamic Search Ads. See Google's ad_group_ad API documentation for more information.

The `asset_name` field returns `null` values for YouTube assets

Google's API may not return YouTube asset names through the asset.name field. To get YouTube asset names in your custom report, include the asset.youtube_video_asset.youtube_video_title attributed resource field in your custom report.