What data Vortex IQ reads from Google Ads
Vortex IQ connects to the Google Ads API (GAQL) and ingests the following data:Campaign performance
Campaign performance
- Spend, impressions, clicks, and conversions at account, campaign, ad group, and keyword level
- Conversion value (
conversions_value) for revenue attribution - Cost per click (CPC), cost per acquisition (CPA), and ROAS
- Click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate
- Campaign type, status, and bidding strategy
- Budget utilisation per campaign
Keywords and search terms
Keywords and search terms
- Keyword performance including Quality Score
- Search terms report (actual queries that triggered ads)
- Wasted spend on zero-conversion search terms
- Top keywords by spend and by conversions
Geography and device
Geography and device
- Conversions, spend, and ROAS by country and city
- Performance breakdown by device (desktop, mobile, tablet)
- Impression share by geography
Day and time performance
Day and time performance
- Spend, ROAS, and conversion rate by hour of day
- Spend and conversions by day of week
- Conversion lag (time from click to conversion)
Landing page performance
Landing page performance
- CPC, conversion rate, and revenue attributed per landing page URL
Vortex IQ uses the Google Ads API with GAQL (Google Ads Query Language). The connector requires a Google Ads account with at least one active campaign. For MCC (Manager Account) setups, you connect at the MCC level and Vortex IQ surfaces per-child-account alerts individually.
How to connect
Open Connected Sources
In your Vortex IQ workspace, go to Settings → Connected Sources. You need Admin role in the workspace to connect sources.
Find the Google Ads card
Locate the Google Ads connector card and click + Connect. The connector drawer opens showing the scopes Vortex IQ will request.
Authenticate with Google
Click Connect with Google. A new tab opens at Google’s authorisation screen. Sign in with the Google account that has access to your Google Ads account. Review the requested scope and click Allow.
Select your account or MCC
After authentication, Vortex IQ shows a list of Google Ads accounts accessible under your login. Select the account or MCC you want to connect.
The scope Vortex IQ requests is
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords (read-only access to Google Ads data). No campaign changes, bid adjustments, or budget modifications are made by Vortex IQ.Available KPI cards
Google Ads is the most instrumented ad platform in Vortex IQ with 75 Nerve Centre cards, including a unique set of Cross-Channel cards.Executive overview
ROAS - Return on ad spend (
conversions_value ÷ cost). Hero gauge card. The account-level efficiency number. Alerts at configurable thresholds.Total Spend - Account-level spend in the period.ROAS by Campaign - Per-campaign ROAS breakdown. Hero bar chart for identifying which campaigns are carrying vs dragging the account.Wasted Spend - Spend on zero-conversion keywords and search terms.Zero-Conversion Spend - Spend where no conversion occurred in the period. Hero alert card.Alert cards
ROAS Drop Alert - Fires when ROAS drops more than 25% vs the prior 7-day same-day-of-week baseline. The first alert when the ad team’s day is going to be difficult. Suppressed before 14:00 local to avoid incomplete-data false positives.Conversion-Tracking-Broken Alert - Fires when the click-to-conversion ratio collapses in a way that indicates a pixel or tag break rather than real performance. Hero alert card.CPC Spike Alert - Fires when CPC rises sharply above the same-DOW baseline.Disapproved-Ad Burst Alert - Fires when a cluster of ads receive disapprovals in a short window.Wasted-Spend Burst Alert - Fires when spend on zero-conversion terms rises sharply.Conversion Drop Alert - Fires when conversion volume drops sharply. Hero alert card.
Campaign performance
Campaign Comparison - Side-by-side table of spend, ROAS, CPC, CTR, and conversion rate per campaign.Top Performing Campaigns - Highest-ROAS campaigns in the period.Worst Performing Campaigns - Lowest-ROAS campaigns - pause or restructure candidates.Overspending Campaigns - Campaigns pacing above daily budget.Underspending Campaigns - Campaigns restricted by budget before end of day.Budget Utilisation - Spend vs budget gauge per campaign.
Keyword intelligence
Wasted Spend - Spend on keywords that generated zero conversions.Quality Score Distribution - Distribution of keyword Quality Scores across the account.Top Keywords by Conversions - Highest-converting keywords.Top Keywords by Spend - Highest-spend keywords.Search Terms Report - Actual queries triggering your ads, with spend and conversion data.CPA by Keyword - Cost per acquisition broken out per keyword.
Geography and device
Conversions by Country - Choropleth map of conversion volume by country.Spend by Country - Choropleth map of spend by country.Top Cities by Conversions - Highest-converting cities.CTR by Region - Click-through rate by geographic region.ROAS by Region - ROAS breakdown by region.Conversions by Device - Desktop vs mobile vs tablet conversion split (donut chart).ROAS by Device - ROAS per device type.
Day and time
ROAS by Day of Week - Best and worst days for return on ad spend.Spend by Hour - Intra-day spend distribution.Conversions by Hour - Heatmap of conversion volume by hour of day.CPC by Hour - CPC variation across hours for dayparting optimisation.Conversion Lag - Distribution of time from click to conversion.
Cross-Channel cards
Google Ads unlocks a set of Cross-Channel cards when paired with a commerce platform connector (Shopify, BigCommerce, or Adobe Commerce) and monitoring tools:| Card | Class | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Active Ads on Out-of-Stock SKUs | Cross-Channel Hero | Google Ads spend on product URLs where inventory is at zero - the exact keywords and campaigns wasting budget on unsellable products |
| Revenue at Risk from active incidents | Cross-Channel Hero | Live revenue-per-minute estimate while a monitoring incident (Datadog, New Relic) is open, attributed to the Google Ads traffic stream |
| Google Ads Revenue Share | Cross-Channel Hero | Google Ads-attributed revenue as a share of total commerce-platform revenue - the paid-search contribution to the business |
| Audience Overlap with Email Programme | Cross-Channel | Overlap between Google Ads audiences and your email list - identifies where paid and owned media are duplicating |
| Landing-Page LCP vs Conversion | Cross-Channel Hero | Correlation between landing page Largest Contentful Paint score and conversion rate - surface pages where performance is costing conversions |
Troubleshooting
Google authentication succeeds but no accounts are listed
Google authentication succeeds but no accounts are listed
The Google account you authenticated with does not have access to any Google Ads accounts. Sign in to Google Ads directly to confirm which accounts are accessible under that login. If you use an MCC (Manager Account), ensure you signed in with the MCC owner login or a user with account access granted at the MCC level.
ROAS Drop Alert fires every Monday morning
ROAS Drop Alert fires every Monday morning
Monday-after-a-promotion is a known false-positive pattern. The alert compares Monday-to-Monday, but if the prior Monday had a sale running and this Monday does not, the baseline is inflated. Document your promotional calendar and treat Monday alerts following a weekend sale as expected. You can raise the alert threshold from 25% to 35% in your workspace alert settings for high-volatility accounts.
Conversion-Tracking-Broken Alert fired - what do I do first?
Conversion-Tracking-Broken Alert fired - what do I do first?
Open the Clicks vs Conversions card. If clicks held normal volume but conversions dropped sharply, the cause is almost always a pixel or tag break. Run a test order on your store and use Google Tag Assistant to check whether the conversion tag fires on the order confirmation page. If the tag does not fire, your conversion tracking has been broken - likely by a recent change to the checkout page. Fix the tag and do not pause campaigns based on this alert alone.
Google Ads spend differs from what is in the Google Ads UI
Google Ads spend differs from what is in the Google Ads UI
Vortex IQ reads spend via the Google Ads API, which may have a 1 to 4 hour ingest lag relative to the Google Ads UI. For today’s figures, expect a small lag. For prior days (yesterday and earlier), figures should match the UI to within sub-percent rounding differences from currency handling.
Cross-Channel cards are empty even with Shopify connected
Cross-Channel cards are empty even with Shopify connected
Cross-Channel cards require both Google Ads and your commerce platform to be connected and synced. If either connector is still in its first-pull window (up to 4 hours for Shopify), the cross-channel join cannot run. Wait for both connectors to show a Connected and synced state, then refresh the Nerve Centre dashboard.