Google Ads Integration Troubleshooting

Having issues with your Google Ads integration? This guide covers common problems and their solutions to get your Google Ads data syncing correctly.

Connection Problems

“No Google Ads accounts found”

Symptoms: Can’t select account during connection

Causes & Solutions:

1. Wrong Google Account

Solution:

1. Sign out of Google completely
2. In Alpha Insights, try connecting again
3. Sign in with the Google account that manages your ads (check Google Ads → Settings → Account access)

2. No Access to Any Ad Accounts

Solution:

• Go to ads.google.com
• Verify you can see at least one ad account
• If not, request access from account owner
• Need at least “Standard” access level

3. Recently Created Account

Issue: Brand new Google Ads accounts may take 24 hours to be API-accessible

Solution: Wait 24 hours after creating account, then try connecting

“Permission denied” or “Insufficient access”

Cause: Your account role is too limited

Solution:

1. Go to Google Ads → Tools → Account access
2. Find your email address in the list
3. • Admin – Full access, works perfectly
   • Standard – Can view data, works
   • Read-only – Cannot access API data
   • Email-only – Cannot access API data
4. If Read-only or Email-only, request upgrade from account owner
5. Wait 5 minutes after permission change
6. Try connecting again

“OAuth error” or “Authentication failed”

Common causes:

1. Popup Blocked

Solution:

• Look for popup blocker icon in browser address bar
• Allow popups from your site
• Try connecting again

2. Didn’t Complete All Permission Screens

Solution:

• Make sure you clicked “Allow” on all Google permission screens
• There may be 2-3 screens – complete all of them

3. Browser Privacy Settings

Solution:

• Try in incognito/private mode
• Or temporarily disable browser extensions (uBlock, Privacy Badger)
• Complete connection
• Can re-enable extensions after

“Connection expired” or “Token invalid”

Cause: Google API token expired (happens periodically)

Solution:

1. Go to Settings → Google Ads
2. Click Refresh Token
3. Re-authenticate with Google
4. Connection restored

Note: This is normal and happens to all users eventually. Just refresh when notified.

Technical Details: Refresh tokens are stored in wpd_ai_google_ads_api_refresh_token option and access tokens are refreshed automatically via the api_refresh_access_token() method using the Google OAuth 2.0 token endpoint.

Sync Issues

Data Not Syncing

Symptoms: Last sync time is old, no new data appearing

Diagnostic steps:

1. Go to Settings → Google Ads
2. Check connection status (should be green “Connected”)
3. Check last sync time
4. Click View Sync Logs for error messages

If Status Shows “Error” or “Disconnected”

Solution:

1. Click Refresh Token
2. Re-authenticate
3. Click Sync Now

If Status is “Connected” But Last Sync is Old

Check WordPress cron:

1. Go to Settings → Performance
2. Check if “WordPress Cron Disabled” warning appears
3. If so, contact your host to enable WP-Cron
4. Or manually trigger: click Sync Now

Technical Details: Syncing is managed by WordPress Action Scheduler. Check scheduled actions with as_next_scheduled_action('wpd_scheduled_google_ads_sync'). Sync frequency options: daily, 12-hrs, 6-hrs stored in settings.

If Sync Logs Show Errors

Common error messages:

“Rate limit exceeded”

• Reduce sync frequency to “Every 6 hours” or “Daily”
• Wait 1 hour for quota to reset
• Try again

“Invalid customer ID”

• Your ad account may have been closed or suspended
• Check Google Ads directly to verify account is active
• If account changed, disconnect and reconnect

“Report definition error”

• Temporary Google Ads API issue
• Wait 30 minutes and try again
• If persists, contact support

Only Some Campaigns Syncing

Symptoms: See some campaigns but others are missing

Causes & Solutions:

1. Campaign Type Filtering

Check: Settings → Google Ads → Campaign Types

1. Verify campaign types are selected (Search, Shopping, Display, etc.)
2. If missing type is unchecked, check it
3. Save and click Sync Now

2. Campaign Status Filtering

By default: Only active and paused campaigns sync

1. Go to Settings → Google Ads
2. Enable “Include ended campaigns” if you want historical data
3. Save and sync

3. Campaign Date Range

Issue: Campaign ran before your historical import range

Example: You imported “Last 30 days” but campaign ran 60 days ago

Solution:

1. Increase historical import range to “Last 90 days” or “Last year”
2. Click Re-import Historical Data
3. Wait for import to complete

4. Manager (MCC) Account Filtering

If using MCC account:

1. Go to Settings → Google Ads → Manage Accounts
2. Verify the client account is selected
3. If not, check it and save

Slow Syncing

Symptoms: Syncs take 5+ minutes or time out

Causes & Solutions:

1. Large Number of Campaigns

If you have 50+ campaigns:

• Syncing takes longer (normal)
• Consider archiving old ended campaigns in Google Ads
• Or filter to sync only active campaigns

2. Large Historical Import

Importing “All time” with years of data:

• Can take 30-90 minutes for initial import (normal)
• Let it complete in background
• Future syncs will be much faster

3. Shared Hosting Limitations

Low-resource hosting:

• Contact host about increasing PHP execution time
• Or reduce sync frequency to “Daily”
• Consider upgrading hosting if running large store

Data Accuracy Issues

Spend Doesn’t Match Google Ads

Common reasons:

1. Currency Mismatch

Check:

1. Settings → Google Ads → Currency
2. Should match your Google Ads account currency
3. If different, change it and re-sync

Technical Details: Currency is automatically detected from $this->customer_accounts[$this->customer_id]['currencyCode'] via Google Ads API

2. Time Zone Differences

Issue: Google Ads uses account timezone, Alpha Insights uses WordPress timezone

Result: Small discrepancies at day boundaries (1-5% difference)

Solution for exact matching:

1. Go to WordPress → Settings → General
2. Set timezone to match Google Ads account timezone
3. Re-sync data

3. Data Processing Delay

Issue: Google Ads finalizes spend numbers with 2-3 hour delay

Solution:

• Compare yesterday’s data, not today’s
• Today’s spend may not match until evening
• Check again tomorrow – should match once finalized

4. Campaign Filters

Check: You’re comparing same campaigns in both systems

• Alpha Insights: Verify which campaign types are included
• Google Ads: Make sure you’re viewing same campaign types

5. Date Range Calculation

Issue:“Last 30 days” means different dates depending on when checked

Solution: Use specific date ranges (“Jan 1 – Jan 31”) for comparisons

ROAS Doesn’t Match Google Ads

This is expected and normal!

Why they differ:

Result: Alpha Insights ROAS is typically 20-40% lower than Google’s reported ROAS

Which to trust? Alpha Insights – it shows actual profit based on real orders, not Google’s estimates

Missing Revenue / Orders

Symptoms: Campaign shows spend but no attributed revenue

Causes & Solutions:

1. Auto-Tagging Not Enabled

Solution:

1. Go to Google Ads → Settings → Account settings
2. Under “Tracking”, enable Auto-tagging
3. Click Save
4. Future clicks will be properly tagged with GCLID

This is the most common cause!

Technical Details: GCLID is captured and stored in _wpd_ai_landing_page order meta. The method get_gclid_from_landing_page() extracts GCLID from landing page URLs for attribution.

2. UTM Parameters Missing

If not using auto-tagging, you need UTM parameters:

	?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaignid}

Or better yet, use Alpha Insights’ recommended parameter:

	?google_cid={campaignid}

Add these to your destination URLs in Google Ads

Technical Details: The UTM tracking key google_cid is defined in the API class and used by set_order_campaign_id_via_query_param() to match orders to campaigns.

3. Attribution Window Too Short

Issue: Customers clicking ads but converting outside window

Solution:

1. Go to Settings → Google Ads → Attribution Window
2. Increase from 7 days to 14 or 28 days
3. Especially important for high-consideration products

4. Orders Before Connection

Issue: Can’t attribute orders that happened before integration was connected

This is expected: Attribution only works going forward from connection date

5. Traffic Source Not Detected

Possible reasons:

• Customer used different device/browser
• Cookies were blocked/cleared
• Used incognito mode
• Long time between click and purchase

This is normal: Some attribution loss (10-20%) is expected

Campaign Display Issues

Campaign Names Are Wrong or Garbled

Cause: Character encoding issue or sync glitch

Solution:

1. Click Sync Now to refresh campaign names
2. If still wrong, disconnect and reconnect integration

Duplicate Campaigns Showing

Cause: Campaign was reconnected or imported twice

Solution:

1. Go to Google Ads Campaigns list
2. Identify duplicate (check campaign IDs – duplicates have same ID)
3. Delete the duplicate entry

Technical Details: Campaign IDs are stored in post meta _wpd_campaign_id. Each campaign should have a unique ID from Google Ads API.

Deleted Campaign Still Appears

This is intentional! Historical data is preserved even if campaign deleted in Google Ads

To hide:

• Filter campaign list to show “Active only”
• Or manually archive the campaign in Alpha Insights

Manager (MCC) Account Issues

Can’t See Client Accounts

Solution:

1. Verify you connected with Manager account credentials
2. Check you have manager access in Google Ads MCC
3. Refresh connection and select Manager account specifically

Some Client Accounts Missing

Check:

1. Settings → Google Ads → Manage Accounts
2. Verify client accounts are selected
3. If not listed, may not have API access enabled
4. Enable API access in Google Ads MCC for that client

API and Technical Errors

“API Rate Limit Exceeded”

Cause: Too many API requests

Google Ads limits:15,000 operations per day per account

Solutions:

• Reduce sync frequency to “Daily”
• Reduce number of campaigns being synced
• If using multiple tools accessing Google Ads API, coordinate usage
• Wait 24 hours for quota to reset

“Internal Error” or “Unknown Error”

Cause: Temporary Google Ads API issue

Solution:

• Wait 30 minutes and try again
• Check Google Ads API blog for service issues
• If persists beyond 2 hours, contact support

Technical Details: Alpha Insights uses Google Ads API v20. API errors are logged in wpd_google_ads_api_error_log option for debugging.

“Customer not found” or “Invalid customer ID”

Causes:

• Google Ads account was closed or suspended
• Account ID changed (rare)
• Lost access to account

Solution:

1. Verify account still exists in Google Ads
2. Check account status is active
3. If account changed, disconnect and reconnect with new account

Getting Additional Help

Before Contacting Support

Collect this information:

• Screenshot of error message
• Connection status from Settings → Google Ads
• Recent sync log entries
• Google Ads customer ID (format: 123-456-7890)
• When issue started
• What you’ve tried already

Enable Debug Logging

1. Go to Settings → General → Advanced
2. Enable Debug Mode
3. Try the failing action again
4. Go to Settings → Logs
5. Copy relevant log entries

Check API Status

Verify Google Ads API is operational:

• Google Ads API Blog
• Google Cloud Status

Contact Support

Open a support ticket with:

• Description of issue
• Steps to reproduce
• Screenshots
• Debug logs
• Google Ads customer ID

We typically respond within 24 hours!

Prevention Tips

• Enable auto-tagging in Google Ads
• Keep WordPress and Alpha Insights updated
• Don’t change Google Ads account access frequently
• Monitor sync status weekly
• Refresh token proactively if you see “expires soon” warning

Technical Implementation Notes

For developers and advanced troubleshooting:

• API Class: WPD_Google_Ads_API located in includes/classes/WPD_Google_Ads_API.php
• API Version: Google Ads API v20
• Authentication: OAuth 2.0 with refresh tokens stored in wpd_ai_google_ads_api_refresh_token
• Campaign Storage: Custom post type google_ad_campaign with taxonomy ad_account
• Data Syncing: Managed by WordPress Action Scheduler
• API Queries: Uses Google Ads Query Language (GAQL) to fetch campaign metrics
• Error Logging: Errors stored in wpd_google_ads_api_error_log and wpd_google_ads_api_log options
• GCLID Capture: Landing pages stored in _wpd_ai_landing_page order meta
• Campaign Attribution: Methods set_order_campaign_id_via_query_param() and api_fetch_campaign_id_by_gclid()
• Conversion Actions: Can create profit and add-to-cart conversion actions via api_create_profit_conversion_action() and api_create_add_to_cart_conversion_action()