An ad account can be kept in a different currency from the one you budget in. That is why gas converts spend into Czech crowns, so that it can be compared across networks, accounts and periods. This article describes where the exchange rate comes from, which day it is taken from, which values are converted and why the numbers in gas and in the ad platform interface never match down to the last crown.
Which currency gas shows spend in
Everywhere gas shows spend, it shows it in Czech crowns and labels it Kč. This applies to the Meta Ads, Google Ads, Sklik and Pinterest Ads sections, to the cards on the Overview page, to graphs, tables, campaign detail and to generated reports.
The currency of an ad account is set by the ad platform when the account is created. It is set on the platform side and cannot be changed in gas.
Where to find the currency of your ad account
- Open Settings → Connected services.
- Click the Meta accounts, Google accounts or Pinterest accounts tile, depending on which ads you mean.
- In the list, click the platform account the ad account is connected through.
- Switch to the Meta Ads, Google Ads or Pinterest Ads tab.
- In the table of ad accounts you will find the Currency column. On a phone, the currency is shown under the account name.
Sklik accounts are kept in crowns by Seznam, so they have no currency column and nothing is converted for them.
Where the exchange rate comes from and how often it is updated
The exchange rates come from the Czech National Bank (ČNB). The ČNB publishes the foreign exchange market rate every business day at around 2:30 p.m., and that rate applies to the given business day and to the following weekend or public holiday, until the next rate is published. gas downloads the new rates every business day in the morning.
Three things follow from this that are worth knowing:
- The rate for the day the spend occurred is used, not today's rate. Spend from last March is converted using the rate from last March. Older numbers therefore do not change retroactively, even if the crown has moved in the meantime.
- For weekends and public holidays, the last published rate applies, which is usually Friday's. Saturday and Sunday spend is converted at Friday's rate.
- Today's rate reaches gas only the next business day in the morning. Until then, today's spend is converted at the last known rate and the next day it is adjusted to the rate of the correct day. That is why the number for yesterday may look slightly different today from what you saw yesterday.
When the rate for a given currency is missing, for example after a longer outage on the ČNB side, gas does not convert the amount and leaves it in the original currency. As soon as the rate is added, the conversion corrects itself, usually within a day. You can tell this has happened because the spend suddenly looks implausibly low, as euros or dollars are being treated as crowns.
Which values are converted and which are not
Conversion does not apply to all numbers in the same way. This is the current situation:
Meta Ads. Spend is converted. The CPC, CPP and CPM columns, that is the metrics expressing cost per click, cost per action and cost per thousand impressions, stay in the currency of the ad account. On the ad detail, gas also shows them with the crown label, even when they are in euros or dollars. So do not compare spend and these three metrics with each other as if they were in the same currency.
Google Ads. On the Overview page, on the pages of individual metrics and in graphs, both Spend and Cost per conversion are converted. In the Campaigns table, both values stay in the currency of the ad account. The Ad groups table uses a single rate, today's, for the whole selected period, not the rate of each individual day.
Sklik. Accounts are kept in crowns, nothing is converted.
Pinterest Ads. Spend is not converted yet. It is shown in the currency of the ad account, even though it is labelled Kč.
Metrics that are not amounts (impressions, reach, reached users, clicks, conversions, click-through rate) are not affected by currency in any way. Those are always comparable.
If all your ad accounts are kept in crowns, none of the caveats above concern you and the numbers are comparable without any further thought. Check this in the Currency column using the steps at the beginning of this article.
Why the numbers never match to the last crown
A small difference between gas and the ad platform interface is normal even for an account kept in crowns. For an account in a foreign currency the difference is bigger and it changes over time. Several causes act at once:
- A different exchange rate. Meta and Google convert spend using their own provider's rate and at a different moment, while gas uses the ČNB rate for the day of the spend. Two different rates will never agree down to the last hundredth.
- The rate moves. The same spend in euros comes out slightly differently in crowns each day, so the size of the difference against the platform interface also fluctuates along with the rate.
- Platforms recalculate numbers retroactively. Meta adjusts results for several days after an ad has run, which is why gas repeatedly reloads the most recent weeks. Numbers differ between two loads.
- Rounding. Every conversion and every sum is rounded somewhere.
- An invoice is not the same thing as spend. Spend is the amount without VAT and without any other fees, and it covers the period you selected in the page header. An invoice includes fees and covers the platform's billing period.
For an ad account in a foreign currency, use gas mainly to watch trends and ratios: whether spend is going up or down, how it develops against reach and clicks, what share a given network has in total spend. The exact amount down to the crown is a matter for the invoice from the ad platform, not for an analytics tool.
Common problems
Spend in gas does not match the invoice
This is expected, not an error. The invoice covers the platform's billing period, it includes VAT and any fees and it uses the provider's exchange rate. Spend in gas is without VAT, for the period selected in the page header and converted at the ČNB rate. Use the invoice to reconcile payments, not gas.
Spend differs from the number in the Meta or Google Ads interface
For an account in crowns, the difference is usually only a matter of hundredths or single crowns, caused by rounding and by the fact that platforms keep recalculating numbers for several days. For an account in a foreign currency the difference is bigger, because each tool converts at a different rate. So compare the development over time, not the absolute amount on a single day.
The number for yesterday changed slightly today
The ČNB publishes the rate for a given day only in the afternoon, and gas downloads it the next business day in the morning. Until then, spend is calculated at the last known rate and then adjusted. The second reason is that the ad platforms themselves recalculate results for several days back.
Spend suddenly looks many times lower
Usually the exchange rate is missing and gas preferred to leave the amount in the original currency rather than convert it incorrectly. For a euro account you therefore see the original number instead of roughly twenty-five times that amount. Wait until the next day, when the rate is added and the value corrects itself. If the problem persists, write through the contact form.
CPC or CPM looks nonsensical for an account in a foreign currency
These metrics stay in the currency of the ad account, even though gas shows them with the crown label on the ad detail. For a euro account, a CPC value of 0.35 is therefore actually 0.35 euro, not 35 hundredths of a crown. The number is correct, only the currency label is wrong.
I have ad accounts in different currencies in one overview
On the Overview page and on the pages of individual metrics in the Meta Ads and Google Ads sections, each account is converted at its own rate according to its currency, so the total in crowns makes sense. In the Campaigns table for Google Ads and in the Pinterest Ads section, however, amounts in different currencies are added together. If you have accounts in several currencies, always select just one account in these tables using the ad account switch in the page header.
In the Campaigns table for Google Ads I see different spend from the Overview
On the Overview page and in graphs, spend is converted into crowns at the rate of each individual day, while in the Campaigns table it stays in the currency of the ad account. For an account in crowns the two numbers match, for an account in a foreign currency they do not. Take the value from the Overview as the basis.
Pinterest spend is labelled Kč, but my account is in euros
Pinterest Ads spend is not converted yet, the number shown is in the currency of the ad account and the Kč label does not apply to it. If you need the value in crowns, convert it yourself using the rate for the given period.
A campaign adds up spend from several networks and the total makes no sense
Campaign budget is entered in crowns and without VAT. The Spend total includes spend from all connected networks, but only spend from Meta Ads and Sklik is converted into crowns. Spend from Google Ads and Pinterest enters the total in the currency of the ad account. If those accounts are kept in a foreign currency, both the Spend total and the Remaining figure are distorted. For campaigns that combine several networks, therefore, check the currencies of all the ad accounts involved.
A goal on spend for an account in a foreign currency shows odd progress
When you create a goal on the Spend metric, gas shows the currency of the ad account next to the goal value field. However, for Meta Ads the ongoing progress is calculated from spend that has already been converted into crowns. For an account in a foreign currency the goal therefore comes out differently from what the label would lead you to expect. Enter the goal value in crowns and, for now, treat the currency next to the field as a label only. If you are not sure, write through the contact form.
I do not know whether conversion concerns me at all
Look at the Currency column using the steps at the beginning of this article. If all your ad accounts show CZK, no conversion takes place and all the numbers are in crowns exactly as you see them.