When your data shows up after connecting
You have connected an ad account, maybe installed the monitoring script, and the app still looks quiet. Tapper does not promise first data within a set time: how fast the pages fill depends on how many clicks your ads get. What it does state is how often each part refreshes.
The short version
| What | First arrives | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Campaigns, ad sets and ad groups | Synced when the account connects | Every 6 hours, or when you press Refresh campaigns |
| Clicks on the Clicks page | After the monitoring script fires on a landing page an ad sent a visitor to | Continuously |
| Spend, conversions and other ad platform metrics | Pulled every hour | Microsoft Ads needs about 3 hours before an hour's numbers are final; TikTok spend syncs about every 5 hours |
| Dashboard numbers | Refresh every 4 hours | Every 4 hours |
| Lift recommendations, Google Ads, Lift only workspace | First sweep about 45 minutes after connecting | Daily, by 08:00 UTC |
| Lift recommendations, Google Ads, Block + Lift workspace | The next daily sweep, by 08:00 UTC | Daily, by 08:00 UTC |
| Lift recommendations, Meta Ads | The first daily sweep after Tapper has read the account's history, usually the day after you connect | Daily, by about 08:00 UTC |
| Lift recommendations, TikTok Ads | The daily sweep after Lift's first read of the account | Daily, after 12:00 UTC |
| Mobile app events through your MMP | Within minutes | Continuously |
Campaigns: at connect, every 6 hours, or on demand
Campaign structure is synced when the account connects and then every 6 hours for Google, Meta, TikTok and Microsoft. To pull in a campaign you created a minute ago, refresh it yourself from the entity page:
- Google and Microsoft: open the protection tab, then Manage campaigns, then Refresh campaigns.
- Meta: Manage ad sets, then Refresh ad sets.
- TikTok: Manage ad groups, then Refresh ad groups.
On Google Ads, a campaign a sync finds for the first time is queued for Tapper's exclusions once blocking is on. On Meta and TikTok nothing is protected automatically: switch Protection on, or press Protect all. See Protect Meta ad sets: Protect all or one at a time.
Clicks: once the monitoring script fires
With Block, a click is recorded when a visitor who came from an ad lands on a page that carries your monitoring script and the script loads. Two things matter:
- The monitoring script is installed on your ad landing pages. It is on the entity's Website monitoring tab. See The monitoring script: what it does and where to find it.
- Tapper can tie the click to your ad. For Google Ads, Tapper sets the account-level tracking template when you connect, so there is nothing to paste. For Meta, add the
ad_idparameter to your ads so each click is tied to the ad that produced it. See Add the ad_id parameter to your Meta ads.
The Protected chip on the entity header checks the setup, not the traffic. To confirm clicks are coming in, open Clicks in the sidebar and pick the platform. On the dashboard, the Clicks & Failed Script Load % card under Overview shows whether the script loaded on the clicks Google sent you. If the list stays empty after your ads have had clicks, go through Check that the monitoring script is working on your site.
A Lift only workspace has no monitoring script and no Clicks page: the Lift section below applies.
Dashboard numbers: hourly pulls, refreshed every 4 hours
Tapper pulls spend, conversions and the other campaign metrics from each platform every hour. The numbers behind the dashboard then refresh every 4 hours, so a tile can lag by a few hours; Microsoft and TikTok lag a little more, as the table says. For what each tile means, see How the dashboard metrics are calculated.
Lift: a few hours, then every day
Lift reads Google Ads, Meta Ads and TikTok Ads accounts, and it starts once Tapper has set your workspace up.
- Lift only workspace: after you connect Google Ads, the first recommendations appear within a few hours. Tapper backfills the account's metrics and runs the first sweep 45 minutes after connecting.
- Block + Lift workspace: the next daily sweep picks up the new account.
The daily sweep runs once the day's data is in: by 08:00 UTC for Google Ads, by about 08:00 UTC for Meta Ads and after 12:00 UTC for TikTok Ads. Until a sweep has run, the Lift page shows No open opportunities with Nothing needs your attention right now. On an entity whose only Lift account is on TikTok Ads it shows TikTok recommendations are on their way instead. If that message is still there a day after connecting, see No Lift recommendations yet.
A Microsoft Ads account gives Tapper its spend: Lift does not check Microsoft Ads accounts.
Two things that look like missing data
Nothing is blocked
The notice Monitoring only with Tapper records invalid clicks on this workspace but doesn't block them. stays on every page, and the dashboard tiles change their words: Total Blocks reads Total Invalid, IP Blocks reads Invalid IPs, and Saved Spend reads Wasted Spend. What changes when blocking starts is in Monitoring-only mode: why nothing is blocked yet and what changes when blocking starts.
Numbers that never change
The dashboard has a Live / Demo switch. Demo shows sample data that ignores the date range. If the figures look too tidy, flip the switch to Live. See Live and Demo mode on the dashboard.
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