GA4 only recording a third of actual traffic. It is a Shopify Website and accounts are linked
GA4 has only recorded approx 500 sessions for Google CPC in July, despite there being 1,300 actual PPC Clicks recorded in Google Ads. The website is a Shopify one, so just using the Google & Youtube App to link the accounts. They seem to be linked correctly using the correct code. This isn’t the first time I’ve had this issue with a Shopify Account. How can I get GA4 to record all PPC Clicks as it’s affecting Conversions and therefore account performance?
The short answer is:
The common discrepancy between Google Ads clicks and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) sessions on a Shopify store is primarily due to client-side tracking limitations (e.g., ad blockers, Intelligent Tracking Prevention, payment gateway redirects) which cause the GA4 JavaScript tag to fail to fire, losing the critical Google Click ID (gclid).
To solve this, you must implement a robust server-side tracking solution using Google Tag Manager (GTM) Server Container and Stape or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
This server-side environment captures the gclid and other data more reliably from the server, and uses the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol to send complete, server-validated event data directly to your GA4 property, bypassing most client-side blocks and ensuring a much higher rate of click-to-session matching, which is crucial for accurate attribution and bidding optimization in your Google Ads account.
The long answer is:
The fundamental issue you’re facing is a classic client-side data loss problem exacerbated by the way the default Shopify-to-GA4 integration (even via the Google & YouTube App) relies on browser-side JavaScript, which is highly susceptible to interference.
Your Google Ads reports clicks reliably because that count happens before the user lands on your site, but the GA4 session count, which requires a tag to successfully fire on the landing page and capture the gclid, is failing for approximately two-thirds of your traffic due to ad blockers, Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) in browsers like Safari, or users abandoning the page before the tag executes.
The link is correct, but the data transmission mechanism is fragile.
To achieve a near one-to-one match and fix your account performance, you need to transition to a server-side tracking architecture.
This involves setting up a Google Tag Manager Server Container which you would host on Stape (a cost-effective, specialized GTM server-side hosting solution) or on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
The Shopify front-end will be configured to send all raw event data (including the gclid captured from the URL) directly to your GTM server container.
This event data is a single, secure stream that is less likely to be blocked.
Inside the server container, you will use the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol to construct a server-to-server request and send the event data (session start, page view, and especially the gclid) directly to your GA4 property.
This is a crucial step because the Measurement Protocol allows you to send data to GA4 from any internet-connected environment, circumventing the browser-side restrictions.
By doing this, you ensure that the gclid is reliably associated with a session and a user, dramatically improving your attribution accuracy in GA4’s reporting and thus directly benefiting the Google Ads API’s performance which relies on accurate conversion data from GA4 for its automated bidding strategies.
The cost-effectiveness comes from Stape’s optimized hosting over maintaining a full GCP environment, and the problem-solving capability lies in replacing the unreliable client-side data stream with a robust, server-validated, first-party data collection method.
As a secondary, yet highly beneficial integration, you should also consider sending the raw, un-sampled data to BigQuery using the BigQuery API to run deep-dive, custom attribution analysis that can’t be achieved in the standard GA4 interface, further supporting your high-stakes PPC decisions.
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