Google Ads

Papercrane

Google Ads says 130 conversions. Your store says 100.

Neither number is a lie; they count different things, and no ad platform will explain the gap. Papercrane joins Google Ads with GA4, Shopify, Stripe, and your books, then answers from the money that actually moved.

See why the numbers disagree

Connect in about a minute. Free to connect and ask. Paid plans start when you publish a dashboard. See pricing

Even Google disagrees with Google

Google sells you the ads and the analytics, and their two numbers still don't match, because each tool answers a different question. Papercrane pulls all three, shows you exactly why they disagree, and builds your dashboards from the one that cleared the bank.

The same month, counted three ways

Example month

Google Ads

132

conversions

Clicks in my window that led to a sale, counted on the click date, by my attribution rules

Google Analytics 4

117

conversions

Sessions I could observe that ended in a purchase, counted on the purchase date, by different rules

Your store and processor

104

orders

Orders that exist and money that settled

click date vs order date

attribution windows

consent banners and ad blockers

cross device journeys

view through counting

Nobody can tell you which ad really made the sale. We can show you, order by order, why your tools disagree about it, and report your spend against the ledger.

Where Google Ads reporting stalls

The box you can see into but not steer

Performance Max now shows channel reports and search terms, but when Display eats half the budget for a fifth of the conversions there is still no lever. You can at least watch what it spends next to what your ledger got back.

Running client accounts: the Monday assembly line

Cross account reporting means the 50 account connector cap, cost columns that read $0 when clients bill in different currencies, and a refresh that ran once yesterday. You ship the report anyway.

The workaround bill

One tool to move the data, one to chart it, one to promise the real ROAS: $29 to $800 a month, mostly on annual contracts, and none of it answers a question you didn't build a report for.

Ask what you stopped asking

What did I spend on Google last month, and what actually hit the bank?

joins Stripe

Show spend by campaign against settled store revenue, week by week.

joins Shopify

Which search terms grew spend fastest this month, and did orders follow?

joins your store

Total spend, clicks, and conversions across every account I manage, by client, every Monday at 8am.

What is my cost per new customer, counting only first orders?

joins Shopify

Google claims 30% more conversions than my store records. Walk me through why.

joins your store

Ledger questions come back as live dashboards. Attribution questions come back as an investigation with the evidence shown, never as a made up number.

1. Connect Google Ads with read access you approve on Google's consent screen

2. Ask a question

3. Papercrane's AI agent plans the queries, joins the sources, and builds a hosted dashboard

4. It stays live, and errors route back to the agent

Reporting only. Papercrane doesn't manage campaigns, change bids, or touch budgets.

Three ways to report on Google Ads

The job	Google Ads UI + Looker Studio	Dedicated reporting tools	Google Ads + Papercrane
Every account in one view	Account by account; connector caps at 50 and shows $0 across currencies	Yes, from $29 to $800+ a month, usually annual	Connect each account, address them by name, one dashboard joins every account
Spend next to store revenue and fees	No; the connector can't blend outside Google	Moves the data; you still assemble the joins in a BI tool	The agent joins Google Ads with Shopify, Stripe, and your books joins your store and books
Answer a question no saved report covers	Build another report	Build another report, in another tool	Ask it; the answer comes back as a chart
When the numbers disagree	Each tool defends its own	A modeled “true” number you can't audit	The disagreement explained, sources shown
When it breaks	You notice on Monday	You file a ticket	Errors route back to the agent, which repairs the dashboard

What people build first

The month end sanity check

An owner spending $7K a month puts one chart in front of the arguments: Google Ads spend by week against settled Shopify revenue and Stripe payouts. It is now the first thing opened at month end.

The Monday report, automated

A freelancer with nine client accounts gets one table by 8am: spend, clicks, conversions by client, each account addressed by name. The two clients who shared their store data see revenue in the same view.

The 30% investigation

A merchant asks why Google claims a third more conversions than the store records. The agent pulls both sides, matches orders inside the window, and shows which orders were claimed twice and which never existed in the ledger: an answer with the evidence shown, not a number to take on faith.

When you don't need us

If your week is bids, budgets, search terms, and negatives, Optmyzr is built for managing Google Ads and we are not; Papercrane never touches a campaign. If you want one modeled number per ad and creative to steer daily spend, Northbeam built its whole product around that model and we deliberately refuse to print that number. Papercrane earns its place when the question spans Google Ads and the systems where your money actually lands, and when the answer needs to live on a dashboard your team or your clients can watch.