Follow these steps to troubleshoot Smart Connectors 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.
Here is the outline of the steps:
Check Settings on Drilldowns Page
Check if Discrepancy Relates to Field With Rate or Calculated Percentage
While these issues are often identified when evaluating reports, we recommend you start troubleshooting at the Drilldowns page and not the dashboard, report or Smart Connector Overview page. The Drilldowns page will be the most accurate source of information.
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NOTE: This guide is for Smart Connectors, not Instant On Connectors. Please refer to the appropriate article for assistance with Instant On Connectors. |
Navigate to Drilldowns Page
1] Login 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. To do so:
2] Either scroll through the list of drilldowns or enter the Smart Connector into the search box in the upper left to locate the Smart Connector to drilldown.
3] Click the Smart Connector 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, then set the range in TapClicks to be the same as 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 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 Smart Connector, then a good place to identify errors is to check those first. If you don’t have notifications set up, then use the next steps as an alternative.
7] On the Data menu click Smart Connectors.
8] Either scroll through the list or enter the name in the search box in the upper left to locate the Smart Connector experiencing the issue.
9] Click the Smart Connector.
10] Check to see if an error message appears on the Smart Connector 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 side, then address it. Otherwise, if it’s something more complex, then copy the error message and send it to support.
| TIP: If you have resolved the error message and it still pops up, refresh the page and you should see the error disappear. Refreshing the page will make resolved error messages go away. |
| NOTE: This step has verified the Data Source Overview page matches the source file details.
If the issue is not resolved, then proceed to the next step. |
Verify Source File Location
After checking the Data Source Overview page, what if your issue is unresolved? Now you’ll need to troubleshoot whether the source file is being recognized by the TapClicks system.
Verify file is in the defined location
12] Navigate to the configuration page of the Smart Connector experiencing the issue (steps 8 - 10 above).
| NOTE: Even if there are no error messages, it still may be that the Smart Connector can’t find the data file. |
13] In the Connections 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 then it should upload.
Verify if there is data in the files
16] Open the file at the source location.
17] Verify there is data in the file and the file is not missing expected data.
18] Check the data in the file against the data in the 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, then proceed to the next step. |
Check File Name and Details
Verify sort by setting
19] Navigate to the configuration page of the Smart Connector experiencing the issue (steps 8 - 10 above).
20] Select the Smart Connector 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 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 follow the selected date format, then it won’t be discoverable.
23] If you encounter this issue, simply change the date format in the file name to match the Smart Connector date format found in the Hosted File Settings section.
Example: Date format in Smart Connector 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 name is correct and the file location is being identified, then the next step is to open the file and check the column headers. These should be the same as the mapped field headings in the Smart Connector. You will have to 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 Smart Connector 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 (impression vs impressions)
27] If the column info doesn'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 all of them match.
Check date format of 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 Smart Connector 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 Smart Connector 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. What could be causing this inaccuracy? 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 has been processed into the system.
Verify unique field configuration is actually unique
Have both your source file and TapClicks Smart Connector edit page open.
32] On the Smart Connector edit page, scroll down to the Data Fields section and locate the Unique Fields textbox.
33] Make a note of which metrics 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) shows up 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 it will truly deliver a unique value. Often this means using a combination of the following:
- Use Ad ID
- Campaign ID
- Account ID
- Things 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 Smart Connector correctly delivers a unique value. If the issue is not resolved, then 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 advised that these fields not be included in the Smart Connector fetch, but rather calculated in TapClicks.
Check if data is a rate or percentage field
35] On the Smart Connector 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, and removed and replaced with calculations in TapClicks. If the issue is not resolved, then proceed to the next step. |
Reach out to Support
38] Open the Smart Connector edit page and take a screenshot of the entire page.
39] Submit a support ticket. Include the above screenshot. Attach a file of data that is not uploading correctly.
40] Tell the support team you followed these troubleshooting steps. Include the link to this article as reference.