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:

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
  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:

2. Didn't Complete All Permission Screens

Solution:

3. Browser Privacy Settings

Solution:

"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"

"Invalid customer ID"

"Report definition error"

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:

2. Large Historical Import

Importing "All time" with years of data:

3. Shared Hosting Limitations

Low-resource hosting:

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:

4. Campaign Filters

Check: You're comparing same campaigns in both systems

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:

Aspect Google Ads Alpha Insights
Conversions Includes view-through (saw ad, didn't click) Click-through only
Attribution 30-day click, 1-day view default 7-day click default
Revenue At time of conversion WooCommerce order total
Modeling Uses statistical modeling Actual orders only

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:

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:

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:

"Internal Error" or "Unknown Error"

Cause: Temporary Google Ads API issue

Solution:

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

"Customer not found" or "Invalid customer ID"

Causes:

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:

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:

Contact Support

Open a support ticket with:

We typically respond within 24 hours!

Prevention Tips

Technical Implementation Notes

For developers and advanced troubleshooting: