Your ad platform tells you someone clicked. Google Analytics tells you what they did next. On their own, each one lets you argue. Together they settle it.
To ask questions you need GA4 connected to your workspace. To change settings in it you also need editing rights.
Clicks are up and sales are not
This is the argument this article exists for. The ad platform says the campaign is healthy. The website team says the page is fine. Both are looking at half the picture.
"Which landing pages am I sending budget to, and which ones actually convert?"
You get ad spend and what happened on the page in the same view. Usually one page is quietly taking most of the traffic and doing nothing with it.
Then the question that matters:
"Is this a broken page, the wrong people, or the wrong promise in the ad?"
Three different answers, three different people who need to fix it.
Checking a launch in real time
You turned a campaign on twenty minutes ago and the normal reports will not catch up until tomorrow.
"Show me the last half hour of traffic. Is anything arriving from the new campaign?"
This is the one thing that answers about right now instead of yesterday.
The conversion nobody set up
Your site gets a new checkout step, nothing counts it, and the ad platforms never learn it exists. Months later someone notices.
"Which conversions are set up, and which ones feed into Google Ads?"
If the new one is missing, ask the assistant to add it. You see what it is adding before it does.
A new page nobody is tracking
Marketing launches a landing page on a different subdomain. Three weeks later you realise none of its traffic has ever appeared in Analytics.
Ask which parts of your site are being tracked, then have the assistant add the new one and match its settings to the main site. Check the last half hour an hour later rather than waiting a day.
Reporting the way your business thinks
If your team talks about subscription tiers, or store regions, and Analytics has never heard of either, every report ends in a spreadsheet.
Ask what custom fields exist, then add one for the thing you actually care about. Analytics limits how many you can have, so ask it to clear out the ones nobody has looked at in a year.
⚠️ Clearing one out frees the slot but does not bring back the history behind it.
Leaving notes on the chart
A spike in March. Six months later nobody remembers whether it was a campaign, a news mention or a tracking bug.
"Add a note: site was down for six hours on the 14th, payment provider."
You can also add notes for things that have not happened yet, which is how a planned launch stops looking like a mystery to whoever reads the chart next quarter.
What it will not do
It does not report today's Analytics numbers, except the live last-half-hour view.
It does not change your Analytics settings if you only have view access.
It does not bring back the history behind a field you cleared out.
It does not check whether your tracking actually fires on the site. Use Analytics' own debug view for that.
When something looks wrong
What you see | Why | What to do |
It says a metric does not exist | That name is not one your account uses | Ask it to list what is available, then rephrase |
Analytics and Google Ads disagree on sales | Usually different attribution settings, a reporting delay, or a conversion that is not being sent across | Ask it to check the attribution setting and which conversions feed Google Ads |
A new page has no traffic in Analytics | Nothing is tracking that part of the site | Ask it to add tracking for it |
It cannot add a custom field | You are at the Analytics limit | Ask it to clear out an unused one first |
Common questions
Can it show me today's Analytics data?
Only the last half hour. Everything else runs to yesterday.
Can it build an audience from website behaviour?
Yes, and then send it to Meta and TikTok. Only the size of the audience is shown, never individual people.
Will it change my attribution settings?
No. It reads them so you can see what is being counted.
Can it test whether my tracking works?
No. Use Analytics' own debug view.
Still need help?
Message us in the app or write to support@orphex.co. Never share your password or an access key with anyone, including us.