Why Naver Search Reports Disagree With GA4 on Assisted Conversions

When a Daegu retail client brought us six months of Naver Search Ads exports alongside their GA4 property, the assisted conversion column differed by 38% between the two sources. Neither was wrong — they were counting different things.

Naver attributes assists within its own click window using last-touch logic scoped to Naver inventory. GA4 applies its default channel grouping, which may classify Naver clicks under "Paid Search" but apply a 30-day lookback that includes cross-device sessions Naver cannot see.

The reconciliation step most teams skip is documenting the lookback window for each platform before comparing numbers in a leadership deck. We now include a "window comparison table" in every commission's methodology appendix — three columns showing platform name, attribution window, and credit model.

For teams running both Naver and Google Ads, the practical fix is not choosing one source as truth. It is defining which source governs which decision: Naver numbers for Naver budget allocation, GA4 numbers for site-wide channel mix, and a reconciled layer for board reporting.

If your assisted conversion figures vary by more than 15% between sources, start with export timestamps. A one-day timezone offset between Naver (KST) and a GA4 property set to UTC accounts for a surprising share of discrepancies we encounter in audit work.