5 Hidden Leaks Every Retailer Should Check
Introduction
Google Ads can look profitable on paper – but if the numbers don’t reconcile with your ecommerce platform, every optimisation afterwards is built on weak data.
Clean, consistent reporting is the foundation of profitable growth. Without it, trust breaks down – and founders can’t make confident decisions about how much to invest.
Here are the five biggest foundation leaks we uncover in audits – and the questions every retailer should be asking.
1. Sales Don’t Reconcile
Do Google Ads sales reconcile with Shopify (or your ecommerce platform) at SKU level? If not, trust in the numbers is already broken.
2. Conversions Must Mean Purchases
Is purchase set as the primary conversion? If soft actions like form fills or shop visits are included, results will be inflated and misleading.
3. No Basket-Level Visibility
Do we know what people actually bought, not just that they bought? Without this, spend can drift into categories that look busy but aren’t profitable.
4. Brand vs Non-Brand Blurred
Do we separate brand from non-brand performance? If not, strong brand demand may hide wasted non-brand spend.
5. No Single Source of Truth
Do finance, Shopify, and Ads reports all align to the same profit measure? If not, decision-making becomes guesswork.
Case in Point: When Shopify and Google Ads Didn’t Add Up
In one audit, Google Ads reported more than 40 full-price conversions in a single day.
Shopify told a different story. That day, the retailer logged around 150 total orders:
- ~50 were full-price sales
- ~100 were discounted sales
Yet Google Ads claimed credit for 40 full-price orders but only 2–3 discounted ones.
As the founder put it:
“It’s just illogical that we would have sold the units it’s claiming… two-thirds of the business is selling at sale at the moment and that’s not reflecting what’s coming through on Google.”
The fix required detailed reconciliation – matching Google Ads data to Shopify at SKU level, identifying gaps, implementing changes, and checking future sales to confirm the numbers aligned.
The Founder’s Checklist: Data Foundations
- Do Google Ads sales reconcile with Shopify at SKU level?
- Is purchase set as the primary conversion we optimise for?
- Do we track basket-level data to see what was bought?
- Is brand vs non-brand performance reported separately?
- Do all reports roll up to one agreed “source of truth” for profit?
Closing Note
Foundations aren’t glamorous, but they make or break profit.
When sales reconcile, conversions are clean, and reports align, you can finally make decisions with confidence. Get this wrong, and every click afterwards risks draining margin.
