Follow these steps to troubleshoot SmartConnectors™ and know when to contact support. These steps assume you have found a potential discrepancy between two data sources, or you believe there is an error.
Navigate to Drilldowns Page
Check Settings on Drilldowns Page
Verify Source File Location
Check File Name and Details
Check Unique Fields
Check if Discrepancy Relates to a Field With Rate or Calculated Percentage
Reach Out to Support
While these issues are often identified when evaluating reports, we recommend you start troubleshooting at the Drilldowns page and not the dashboard, report, or SmartConnector™ Overview page. The Drilldowns page will be the most accurate source of information.
| Note: This guide is for SmartConnectors™, not Instant On Connectors. Please refer to the appropriate article for assistance with Instant On Connectors. |
Navigate to Drilldowns Page
1] Log in to TapClicks and, on the Data menu, click Drilldowns.
Check Settings on Drilldowns Page
To ensure you are looking at the most accurate data, check the following settings.
Verify the date ranges match
Check the date range set in your source data — this could be a file or a hosted location. Then check the date range set in TapClicks.
2] Either scroll through the list of drilldowns or enter the SmartConnector™ name into the search box in the upper left to locate the SmartConnector™ to drilldown.
3] Click the SmartConnector™ and look in the upper-right corner for the date range.
4] Verify it is in the same range as the source data. If it is not, set the range in TapClicks to match the source data.
Verify the clients match
Check to see that the same client and filters are being viewed in both TapClicks and the source data.
5] In the upper-right corner of the Drilldowns page, click the filter icon.
6] Check that the correct client is selected.
Check error messages
If you have notifications set up for this SmartConnector™, a good place to identify errors is to check those first. If you don't have notifications set up, use the next steps as an alternative.
7] On the Data menu, click SmartConnectors.
8] Either scroll through the list or enter the name in the search box in the upper left to locate the SmartConnector™ experiencing the issue.
9] Click the SmartConnector™.
10] Check to see if an error message appears on the SmartConnector™ page. These typically appear briefly in the upper-right corner of the page.
11] If you encounter an error and it seems fixable on your end, address it. If it's something more complex, copy the error message and send it to support.
| Tip: If you have resolved the error message and it still appears, refresh the page and the error should disappear. |
| Note: This step has verified the Data Source Overview page matches the source file details. If the issue is not resolved, proceed to the next step. |
Verify Source File Location
After checking the Data Source Overview page, if your issue is unresolved, you'll need to troubleshoot whether the source file is being recognized by TapClicks.
Verify the file is in the defined location
12] Navigate to the configuration page of the SmartConnector™ experiencing the issue (steps 8–10 above).
| Note: Even if there are no error messages, it is still possible that the SmartConnector™ cannot find the data file. |
13] In the Connection Settings section, look at the delivery type you have selected.
14] Navigate to that delivery location (Google Drive, FTP, etc.) specified in the Connection Settings and find the folder where you're hosting the file.
15] Verify that the file exists at that location. If it does, it should upload.
Verify there is data in the file
16] Open the file at the source location.
17] Verify there is data in the file and that the file is not missing expected data.
18] Check the data in the file against the data in TapClicks.
| Note: This step has verified there is a file in the expected location and there is data in the file. If the issue is not resolved, proceed to the next step. |
Check File Name and Details
Verify the Sort by setting
19] Navigate to the configuration page of the SmartConnector™ experiencing the issue (steps 8–10 above).
20] Select the SmartConnector™ experiencing the issue.
21] In the Hosted File Settings section, make sure the Sort by dropdown matches your requirements — either Date or Last Modified.
- Sort by Date — TapClicks sorts the files by the date in the file name.
- Last Modified — TapClicks sorts the files according to the most recently modified file rather than the most recently added file.
Verify the date format in the file name is correct
22] Verify the file in your delivery type location is using the correct naming convention so the system can identify it. If the date format in the file name does not match the selected date format, the file will not be discoverable.
23] If you encounter this issue, change the date format in the file name to match the SmartConnector™ date format found in the Hosted File Settings section.
Example: The date format in the SmartConnector™ is dd-mm-yyyy but the format in the file name is mm-dd-yy. To resolve this, change the date format in the file name to match dd-mm-yyyy.
Check file column headers
If the date format in the file name is correct and the file location is being identified, the next step is to open the file and check the column headers. These should match the mapped field headings in the SmartConnector™. Check for the correct naming convention and spelling in column headers.
24] Open the source file and make a note of the column header names.
25] Scroll down to the Data Fields section of the SmartConnector™ and look at the column names there.
26] Compare the column names in the source file with the column names in the Column Name list. Verify:
- Spelling is the same.
- Syntax and spaces are the same.
- Correct pluralization (e.g., impression vs. impressions).
27] If the column names don't match, the data will not be read by TapClicks. Make changes to either the column headers in the source file or the Column Name in TapClicks to ensure they all match.
Check the date format of the data
If the column headers are correct, check to see if the date format in the source file is readable and correct.
28] Open the source file and locate the data that is in date format.
29] Verify the date format in the data matches the date format for the SmartConnector™ setting (step 22 above).
30] Check that the date format is consistent throughout the entire column.
31] If previously successful uploads have occurred, check to see if there are any differences in the date format in those files.
Check Unique Fields
To distinguish between rows of data correctly, the SmartConnector™ relies on you to define what should be considered unique values. The most common condition here relates to over-reporting or under-reporting compared to what is expected — that is, the file is discoverable by TapClicks and data is flowing in, but the data is not complete or is over-reporting. This likely relates to the configuration of the Unique Fields.
Find out more about unique fields here: Understanding Unique Fields.
Unique fields help the system understand whether a row should be considered its own row or if it should be considered part of the same data as another row. This depends on the system that is feeding the data. Unique fields are a distinguishing feature of the data.
If you see what appears to be under-reporting in TapClicks, this often indicates not enough unique identifiers are set. If you see what appears to be over-reporting in TapClicks, then too many unique identifiers are set, or the source file was edited after it was processed into the system.
Verify unique field configuration is actually unique
Have both your source file and the TapClicks SmartConnector™ edit page open.
32] On the SmartConnector™ edit page, scroll down to the Data Fields section and locate the Unique Fields field.
33] Make a note of which fields have been added to represent unique fields.
34] Now look at the source file using the unique fields and check to see if the unique fields will actually generate a unique result each time. Common unique field errors include the following:
- Account ID (or similar) appears in more than one row.
- A combination of unique fields can be found in more than one row.
How to resolve uniqueness issues
Consider changing your unique fields criteria so they will truly deliver a unique value. Often this means using a combination of the following:
- Ad ID
- Campaign ID
- Account ID
- Fields that are numeric or system-generated
| Tip: Try not to use manually added names because of the potential for typos. |
| Note: This step has verified the uniqueness criteria in the SmartConnector™ correctly delivers a unique value. If the issue is not resolved, proceed to the next step. |
Check if the Discrepancy Relates to a Field With Rate or Calculated Percentage
Because TapClicks aggregates data based on dates, calculated fields from the source data may get added together or averaged. For example, there may be a decimal value for "Click Through Rate" in your data. TapClicks may add these fields together, resulting in an erroneous value compared to what is expected. Verify whether the observed discrepancy relates to a field like this. If so, it is recommended that these fields not be included in the SmartConnector™ fetch, but rather calculated in TapClicks.
Check if data is a rate or percentage field
35] On the SmartConnector™ edit page, scroll down to the Data Fields section and look at the data field mappings.
36] Determine if any field mappings are rate fields. Common rate fields are CTR, Conversion Rate, and Impression Share.
37] If you discover these as data fields, remove them and recreate them in TapClicks using the Calculations feature. Learn how to create calculations.
| Note: This step has verified that rate fields have been identified, removed, and replaced with calculations in TapClicks. If the issue is not resolved, proceed to the next step. |
Reach Out to Support
38] Open the SmartConnector™ edit page and take a screenshot of the entire page.
39] Submit a support ticket. Include the above screenshot and attach a file of the data that is not uploading correctly.
40] Tell the support team you followed these troubleshooting steps and include the link to this article as a reference.