diff --git a/flow/connectors/bigquery/bigquery.go b/flow/connectors/bigquery/bigquery.go
index 4d642f402f..7d40c0617e 100644
--- a/flow/connectors/bigquery/bigquery.go
+++ b/flow/connectors/bigquery/bigquery.go
@@ -930,16 +930,6 @@ func (c *BigQueryConnector) SetupNormalizedTables(
 ) (*protos.SetupNormalizedTableBatchOutput, error) {
 	tableExistsMapping := make(map[string]bool)
 	for tableIdentifier, tableSchema := range req.TableNameSchemaMapping {
-		table := c.client.Dataset(c.datasetID).Table(tableIdentifier)
-
-		// check if the table exists
-		_, err := table.Metadata(c.ctx)
-		if err == nil {
-			// table exists, go to next table
-			tableExistsMapping[tableIdentifier] = true
-			continue
-		}
-
 		// convert the column names and types to bigquery types
 		columns := make([]*bigquery.FieldSchema, len(tableSchema.Columns))
 		idx := 0
@@ -952,8 +942,24 @@ func (c *BigQueryConnector) SetupNormalizedTables(
 			idx++
 		}
 
-		// create the table using the columns
+		table := c.client.Dataset(c.datasetID).Table(tableIdentifier)
 		schema := bigquery.Schema(columns)
+		// check if the table exists
+		metadata, err := table.Metadata(c.ctx)
+		if err == nil { // it exists.
+			// check if the structure of the table is as needed
+			existingSchema := metadata.Schema
+			for i, existingField := range existingSchema {
+				desiredField := schema[i]
+				if existingField.Name != desiredField.Name || existingField.Type != desiredField.Type {
+					return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to setup normalized table due to incompatible columns")
+				}
+			}
+			// table exists, go to next table
+			tableExistsMapping[tableIdentifier] = true
+			continue
+		}
+
 		err = table.Create(c.ctx, &bigquery.TableMetadata{Schema: schema})
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create table %s: %w", tableIdentifier, err)