This guide covers some common issues that you may experience with your Act-On and Google Ads connection. Read below for steps to troubleshoot and resolve these!

Troubleshooting

Why can't I connect to Google Ads?

If you're having trouble connecting Google Ads to Act-On, ensure there are no processes running that would interfere with the oAuth connection. For example:

• Disable the AdBlock browser extension in Chrome – you can re-enable it later once the connection is made
• Disable all browser extensions – you can re-enable them later once the connection is made
• Try using a different browser, in case there is a browser-level blocker enforced

If you still cannot connect to Google Ads, please contact your Google Ads administrator to check for user permission issues or contact Act-On support.

How does conversion attribution for Google Ads work?

A contact is tracked as a converted lead in the Google Ads report if 1. they have a web session where the first touch is paid search click from Google Ads 2. then, in the same session, they submit an Act-On hosted form.

Why is data missing from my Google Ads Report?

If some ad campaign data is already present, but you can't see any recent updates:

1. Go to Inbound > Google Ads Report in your Act-On account
2. Click Refresh to rebuild the report
3. Check the date range – is it the same as what your Google dashboard is showing?
4. Change the display option to Ads by ad group to align the report more closely with the Google Ads campaign dashboard

Please be aware that it can take up to 24 hours for Google to update their records if you are making changes to your campaigns. If you see updated campaign data in Google that is not present here, clicking Refresh will not immediately update data in Act-On. It will sync within 24 hours.

In general, we do not advise building your marketing plan around making frequent Google Ads changes in response to daily performance. The best use of the feature is for analyzing previous-week or previous-month performance and trends.

Check your Google Ads parameters

The data in your Google Ads report from Act-On is dependent on your ad's {creative}, {keyword}, and {matchtype} parameters, which you should provide to the Act-On connector and set in your ads.

You can check at a glance to see if your ads contain these fields in their URL in the Act-On Google Ads Report:

1. Go to Inbound > Google Ads Report > Ads By Ad Group 
2. Expand all collapsed categories until you get to the desired ad
3. View the destination URL of your ad to see parameters (you may need to hover over the URL to see the full address if it is too long to display)

Here, you'll see whether the {creative}, {keyword}, and {matchtype} ValueTrack components are present and properly embedded in the Ad's destination URL as a query-string.

Check your Beacon Tracking code

When Google Ads sends visitors to your Act-On Landing Page or external webpage, it must contain the Beacon Tracking code to identify your visitors. A website visitor coming from Google Ads will count as a lead in Act-On's reporting only if they're a known visitor. This happens when a site visitor submits your Act-On Form, converting them from anonymous to known. Act-On's Beacon Tracker remembers if a visitor first comes to your website via a URL containing your {creative} query string, as well as the gclid information Google provides. Once a visitor has submitted your form, we can match their information with their activity history and Google Ads behavior.

Visitors do need to submit your Act-On Form in the same browsing session to be counted as a known visitor. This means they need to complete a tracked form during their visit to your page after clicking an ad, rather than leaving your domain and doing it later.

Lastly, the website visitor's first visit to your website must be through Google Ads. If they've already made their first visit as an anonymous visitor through another source, we will not attribute them to Google Ads if they then complete a form to mark themselves known.