While the Search Ads 360 reporting data will come close to the engine data, there may not be an exact match for reasons that include the following:
Search Ads 360 isn't sync'd with the engine
If you add or remove keywords or other items in the engine but don't sync in the change, reports that summarize metrics in Search Ads 360 won't match the engine. For example, if you remove keywords from the engine without syncing, Search Ads 360 will still show metrics for the removed keywords, and ad group, campaign, and account-level reports in Search Ads 360 will include metrics from the removed keywords.
Search engines can make changes to their data for up to seven days
Most commonly, search engines may remove spam clicks or spam impressions. As the engines make these changes, it will take time for us to reflect the new data in Search Ads 360 reporting, as described in How fresh is the reporting data on Search Ads 360? The data on the engines and Search Ads 360 should be more stable after 10 days.
In social and engine track accounts, you import performance metrics directly from the engine or a PMD. (Search Ads 360 doesn't automatically request performance metrics). The metrics that you import should match the metrics in the engine.
Ad networks with bots can cause data discrepancies
Ad networks that run bots periodically crawl landing pages to determine landing page quality and detect any broken landing pages. If you have Floodlight tags on these landing pages, they will fire and be recorded as conversions (transactions or, more likely, actions).
Search Ads 360 attempts to filter these conversions, and we’re continually working to improve this filter. For example:
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We recently added a list of known bots and internet addresses to filter.
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We’ll soon be updating that list with a set of addresses we received from Google Ads.
In spite of upcoming improvements, Search Ads 360 will not be able to filter all of these conversions. For example, advertisers could be running their own bots.
Because there are a small number of these types of visits, the impact of these conversions on the performance of campaigns and bid strategies is usually minor. However, if you believe there are enough of these types of conversions to affect performance, click the Help link in the upper righthand corner of the UI, and then click Contact us.
Missing tracking templates or invalid clickserver URLs
Any items in an engine account that are not covered by a tracking template cannot be reported on by Search Ads 360. In addition, if the clickserver URL in the tracking template is invalid, Search Ads 360 cannot report on the items. To correct this problem, in Search Ads 360 make sure you create a URL template for the engine account. Then perform a manual sync and fix all trafficking errors.
Engines may not report multiple clicks on ads
When a visitor clicks the same landing page URL multiple times within a second or two (for example, a visitor double clicks an ad), Search Ads 360 counts this as multiple visits. Some engines may report these multiple clicks as a single click.
Microsoft Advertising cost data
In a Microsoft Advertising account, the cost data that Search Ads 360 displays is retrieved directly from the Bing Ads API. This includes the cost reported for individual keywords, ad groups, and campaigns, as well as the total cost that appears in the summary rows for all keywords, ad groups, and campaigns in the current scope.
In some cases, the cost data may be inconsistent by a few cents. That is, the total cost displayed on the Keywords tab may not match the cost displayed for the ad group. In other cases, the cost data that appears in the Microsoft Advertising UI and the data that is retrieved from the Bing Ads API is off by a few cents. This may be caused by Microsoft Advertising when rounding dollar amounts or converting currencies. However, Search Ads 360 accurately displays the data retrieved from Microsoft Advertising.
Baidu: Average position for keywords may not match Search Ads 360
Baidu and Search Ads 360 use different logic to calculate average position. In some cases, the average position reported in Baidu may not match the average position reported in Search Ads 360.
Differences in geographic metrics
Differences between reports that are segmented or grouped by geographic area and reports without these segments or groups are expected for a number of reasons. For example, some metrics may not be attributed to any geographic area, visits may not be included in small geographic areas, and spam filtering isn't available for reports segmented by geographic areas.
Learn more about expected differences in geographic metrics.
Differences in hourly reporting
When you're viewing data as detailed as hourly reporting, you may see inconsistencies between the hourly breakdown and daily, weekly, or longer time periods. This is expected due to differences in engine accounts, time zones, general accuracy of hourly data, and other reasons.
Learn more about expected differences in hourly reporting.