Why it happens
View-through conversions
View-through conversions
LinkedIn counts a conversion when a member saw an ad inside the view window and converted later, even with no click. On B2B accounts that is often a large share of the total, and GA4 sees none of it.
Long click windows
LinkedIn credits a click for weeks after it happens. A prospect who clicks in week one and books a demo weeks later through a Google search is a LinkedIn conversion in Campaign Manager and a Google conversion in GA4.
Missing UTMs
LinkedIn traffic without UTMs lands in GA4 as linkedin.com / referral or as direct, outside Paid Social. See UTM parameters stripped.
Members on other devices
People scroll LinkedIn on their phone and convert at their desk. LinkedIn ties both to one signed-in member; GA4 sees two visitors.
How to line them up, step by step
Split clicks from views in Campaign Manager
In Campaign Manager open the campaign table, choose Columns, Conversions and leads, and add post-click and view-through conversions as separate columns.
Tag every LinkedIn ad
Add utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign to each ad destination URL, or set them once with the URL parameters option at the campaign level.
Compare post-click only
In GA4 open Reports, Acquisition, Traffic acquisition, filter to your LinkedIn source and medium, and compare that key event count with LinkedIn post-click conversions for the same 30 days.
Check the conversion windows
In Campaign Manager go to Analyze, Conversion tracking, open the conversion and read its click and view windows. Shorten them for a fairer comparison if your cycle allows.
Steps checked against LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help: LinkedIn conversion window; LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help: Conversion tracking reporting; Google Analytics Help: Traffic-source dimensions, manual tagging, and auto-tagging.
Sprites diagnoses this
Sprites diagnoses it
Sprites lines up your GA4 and LinkedIn numbers and shows where they split.
What Sprites does
- Pulls LinkedIn conversions and leads per campaign, with cost per conversion, for any date range.
- Breaks GA4 conversions down by source, medium and campaign for the same dates, so you see what GA4 actually credits to LinkedIn.
- Reads your GA4 key events, so a conversion GA4 never counted is named, not guessed.
What it doesn't do
- It does not change LinkedIn conversion windows or your Insight Tag.
- It does not prove which channel caused a deal. For that you need a holdout or a lift test.
Questions
What attribution window does LinkedIn use?
By default 30 days after a click and 7 days after a view, last touch. You can set each to 1, 7, 30 or 90 days per conversion.
Are LinkedIn view-through conversions real?
Some are. Some of those people would have converted anyway. Treat them as a signal of reach, and judge spend on post-click conversions and pipeline.
Why does LinkedIn traffic show as referral in GA4?
The ad has no UTMs, so GA4 reads the linkedin.com referrer and files it as referral, not Paid Social. Add utm_medium set to a paid value on every ad.
Which number should I report to leadership?
Neither on its own. Report pipeline from your CRM by original source, and keep LinkedIn and GA4 numbers for optimizing inside each tool.
See where it breaks
Connect your accounts. Sprites reads them side by side and shows you exactly where the numbers split.