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Can I trust the reports my marketing agency sends me?

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When Google says I got 20 conversions, did I really?

Google Ads says you got 20 conversions yesterday. Your Stripe dashboard shows 14 payments. That's 6 phantom conversions you almost made budget decisions on. Here's where the gap comes from and how to measure it.

7 min read

The short answer

Probably not all 20.Google Ads counts conversions based on its own attribution model, which includes repeat conversions, view-through events, and conversion actions you may have set up too broadly. The only way to know the real number is to compare Google's count against actual transactions in your payment processor or accounting software.

Why Google Ads conversion counts rarely match real orders

You check Google Ads on Monday morning. It says your campaigns drove 20 conversions over the weekend, worth $4,800. You feel good. But then you open Stripe and count actual completed payments: 14. Six of those “conversions” never resulted in money entering your bank account.

This is not unusual. Studies from various marketing analytics firms consistently find that Google Ads overcounts conversions by 15-40% depending on industry, conversion setup, and attribution window. For some businesses, the gap is even wider.

The danger is not that Google is malicious. The danger is that you are calculating cost per acquisition, ROAS, and budget allocation based on a number that does not reflect reality. If your real CPA is 40% higher than Google says, you might be scaling a campaign that is actually losing money.

Four reasons Google Ads overcounts your conversions

Counting “every” instead of “one.” By default, Google can count multiple conversions per click. If a customer buys, then returns and buys again (or triggers the conversion pixel twice), Google counts two conversions from one click. To check: go to Google Ads → Goals → Conversions → Summary, click any conversion action, and look at the “Count” setting. If it says “Every,” switch it to “One” for purchase-type conversions.
Long attribution windows.Google's default click-through attribution window is 30 days. Someone could click your ad on April 1, forget about you, then come back and buy on April 28 through an organic search. Google still claims that conversion. To check: in the same conversion action settings, look at “Click-through conversion window.” Consider shortening it to 7 or 14 days if your sales cycle is short.
Engaged-view conversions.For YouTube and Display campaigns, Google counts “engaged-view conversions” where someone watched 10 seconds of a video ad and then converted within 3 days. They never clicked. To check: in your campaign reporting, add the Engaged-view conv. column. This number is included in your total conversion count by default.
Misconfigured conversion actions.Many accounts have multiple conversion actions firing on the same event, or count “Add to Cart” alongside “Purchase” as primary conversions. To check: go to Goals → Conversions → Summaryand verify that only actual purchase events are marked as “Primary.”

How to compare Google Ads conversions against actual sales (step by step)

1
Pull conversion count and value from Google Ads
Go to Google Ads → Campaigns. Ensure your columns include Conversions and Conv. value. Set the date range to last month. Note the totals.
2
Count actual transactions in Stripe
In your Stripe dashboard, go to Payments → All payments. Filter to the same date range and “Succeeded” status. Export or count the total number of successful payments and sum the amounts.
3
Cross-check against your accounting software
In QuickBooks, run a Sales by Customer Summary report for the same period. In Xero, go to Accounting → Reports → Profit and Loss. This gives you the final verified revenue number.
4
Calculate the conversion gap
Google says 340 conversions. Stripe shows 280 successful payments. That is a 21% overcount. Google says $82K in conversion value. Your books show $64K. That is a 28% revenue inflation.
5
Audit your conversion settings to close the gap
Go to Google Ads → Goals → Conversions → Summary. For each conversion action, check: Is the count set to “Every” or “One”? Is the attribution window reasonable? Are there duplicate or non-purchase actions marked as primary? Fix the obvious issues and re-measure next month.

How much time conversion verification takes each month

The initial audit of your conversion settings takes about an hour. After that, the monthly comparison between Google Ads data, Stripe payments, and your accounting software takes 20 to 30 minutes.

Total time: 20-30 minutes per month after initial setup. You need data from Google Ads, your payment processor, and your accounting software. Few businesses do this consistently, which means most are flying blind on their true cost per acquisition.

Or let Bottomline verify every conversion automatically

Bottomline connects to your Google Ads account, your payment processor, and your accounting software. Every month, it compares claimed conversions against actual transactions and shows you exactly how many were real.

Conversion verification

Google Ads claimed340 conversions

Stripe confirmed280 payments

Phantom conversions60 (18%)

Your real CPA is $50, not the $41 Google reports. Budget decisions based on the Google number would overestimate profitability by 22%.

From a real Bottomline report. Claimed conversions verified against actual payments in your connected accounts.

You see the real conversion count, the real CPA, and the real ROAS for every campaign, calculated from money that actually entered your bank account. No phantom conversions. No inflated math.