Dashboard numbers differ from Google Ads

Usually nothing is broken: Tapper and Google Ads count different things, cut the day at different hours and refresh on different clocks.

Why it happens

Total Clicks is what Tapper saw

Total Clicks on the Overview tab is Tapper's own count: clicks Tapper recorded through its tracking template on Google Ads and through the monitoring script on your pages for Meta and TikTok. Its sub-line reads "All on connected ad accounts", or splits the clicks into Connected, Unmatched and Acted on. Google Ads counts clicks on its side. Tapper's figure is usually lower. For Google Ads, the Clicks & failed script load % card under Script load shows the share of Google Ads clicks where the script did not load: "Failed load rate {x}% of Google Ads clicks".

Avg CPC ("Spend / {N} ad clicks" or "Spend / ad-platform clicks") and Conversions ("Ad-platform reported") come straight from the ad platform, so they match Google Ads. One difference is money: Tapper shows spend and cost per click in US dollars, converted at the monthly exchange rate (the closest month's rate when a currency has none for that month), while Google Ads shows them in the ad account's own currency. An account that bills in US dollars matches exactly; for another currency, compare after converting. Conversions by country on Overview says "Tracked by Tapper": it counts Tapper's conversion events, as do the device and OS conversion charts on Conversions.

Daily platform charts keep the ad account's day

Dashboard dates follow your workspace time zone, except daily charts built from the ad platform's own daily figures. Those keep the ad account's time zone, the only way they can agree with the platform, and carry an Ad account time zone chip. If the zones differ, a click can fall on one day in Tapper and the next in Google Ads. See Workspace time zone: which day your numbers count in.

Some cards ignore the date filter

These say so in their caption: Keyword-level invalid traffic on Invalid traffic ("Rolling window · ignores the date filter"), Traveling Users on Geography ("Seen in 2+ countries · rolling window, not the date filter") and Placement exclusions ("Date filter not applied"). A card that cannot apply a filter says "{Filter} filter not applied" or "partially applied".

The data is a few hours behind

Dashboard data updates every 4 hours, so Google Ads may show hours Tapper does not have yet. Microsoft Ads needs about 3 hours before an hour's figures are final.

Clicks Tapper never saw

Tapper sets its tracking template at account level when you connect Google Ads. A template on a campaign, ad group or ad overrides it, and those clicks never reach Tapper. The dashboard then shows Some ads skip Tapper's tracking.

Fix it

1. Compare Total Spend, Avg CPC and Conversions with Google Ads, with money in the same currency. Read Total Clicks as clicks that reached your site; it is not meant to match.
2. Use the same date range in both tools. On charts with the Ad account time zone chip, read dates in the ad account's zone. See Dashboard filters, date ranges and time zone.
3. Skip cards whose caption says rolling window or "filter not applied".
4. Wait 4 hours after the period ends, and about 3 hours for a Microsoft Ads hour.
5. If Some ads skip Tapper's tracking shows, click Fix tracking, then Fix all in Fix ad-level tracking. See Fix campaigns, ad groups or ads that override Tapper's tracking.

If it still happens

If Total Clicks stays far below the platform's clicks with no override banner, the script may not run on every landing page. This matters most for Meta and TikTok, whose clicks Tapper records only when the script loads. See Check that the monitoring script is working on your site. If a platform shows nothing while Google Ads shows traffic, see No clicks on the dashboard: what to check. What every tile measures: How the dashboard metrics are calculated.