Google Ads showed 660 conversions. The shop had 26 sales.

In a small wine shop in Austria, Google Ads showed 660 conversions. The shop had 26 orders in the same time. The ads were counting page views and add-to-cart as if they were sales.

ad spend since December

€5,519

“conversions” in Google Ads

660

real orders

26

Why it matters

Google Ads learns from what you call a conversion. If a page view counts, Google gets very good at finding people who look at a page. Those clicks are cheap. They just don't buy.

Google Ads is a good tool. Nobody did anything strange here either: the Shopify app adds these actions, and one setting decides which ones count. Here, the wrong ones did.

What I'd check first

In Google Ads: Goals → Conversions → Summary. Look at the column that says which actions are included in conversions. For an online shop, purchase should be the main one. Page view, add to cart and begin checkout can stay, as secondary actions, so you still see them without Google chasing them.

Google Ads and Shopify will never match exactly (ad blockers, the click and the order on different days). But 660 vs. 26 is not a small gap. If your ad numbers look much better than your sales, it's worth a look.

This kind of check is part of my work on websites and ad pages.