How to Set Up Conversion Tracking for Google Ads: A Quick Guide

Google Ads conversion tracking involves adding a snippet of code to your website, which reports each conversion action. But first, you need to define your conversions and choose an attribution model. This guide walks you through each step.

Conversion tracking helps you see which clicks led to conversions — and the journey a customer took to achieve that action.

If you’re new to conversion tracking, it can feel a little intimidating. There’s code to install, tags to manage, and goals to optimize for. This guide to conversion tracking in Google Ads will help.

Below, we’ll explain how to set up conversion tracking for your account, look at which conversions you can monitor, and how to troubleshoot any issues — all with expert guidance and advice from our HawkSEM team.

What is conversion tracking in Google Ads?

Conversion tracking is how advertisers track and quantify people’s actions on their websites after clicking on their Google Ads.

Let’s break this down.

A conversion is any action a user takes that you want to measure. You might think of it like a goal, such as:

• Completing a purchase
• Signing up for your newsletter
• Calling your business
• Submitting a form
• Downloading your app

For example, we have a form on our website that prospective clients can complete to request a consultation. When they hit the Let’s Go! button, that’s a conversion.

With conversion tracking, we can see:

• How many times people visit our site before requesting a consultation
• How many pages people visit on our site before requesting a consultation
• Which other marketing channels people interact with before requesting a consultation

This helps us understand our potential customers better and see which marketing channels they respond best to.

You can benchmark the conversions you receive by determining the conversion rate. You calculate this by dividing the number of conversions by the number of clicks received.

Why should you use conversion tracking?

“Conversion tracking informs Google Ads what actions, for example, leads or product purchases, are the most important for your business,” says Elliott Thrussel, a search engine marketing manager at HawkSEM.

“As a result, you can see where your marketing dollars are going, and identify what you can do to optimize and improve your performance.”

Conversion tracking insights also help you see which aspects of your Google Ads campaign work well.

Let’s say you have a campaign with multiple ads. While you’re happy with your overall conversion rate, you want to dig deeper and see which ads are doing the heavy lifting.

Conversion tracking for Google Ads lets you see:

• Which ads lead to the most website conversions
• The keywords and website placements that generate the best results
• Which campaigns have high click-through rates but aren’t converting

In addition, the data you collect from conversion tracking in ads can impact your other marketing campaigns.

For example, you can use conversion tracking data in your remarketing campaigns, which may increase your return on investment (ROI) by targeting previous visitors who’ve shown interest in your products.

How to set up Google Ads conversion tracking

To use Google Ads conversion tracking, you need to add a code snippet to your website. This code snippet is called a Google Tag (previously called a “global site tag” or “gtag”).

This Google Tag acts as a “trigger” telling Google Ads that a customer has completed a conversion.

Set up Google Tag

• Log into your Google Ads account
• Navigate to the trophy icon (Goals) on the left-hand side of the screen
• Expand Conversions and click Summary
• Click the blue New conversion action button

• Choose which conversion you want to track: Website, App, or Phone calls. Choose Import if you want to import a Google Analytics goal, offline conversion, or import a conversion from a CRM like Salesforce

We’ll walk through the Website option since that’s the most common. You’ll use this to measure conversions, such as form submissions, newsletter sign-ups, and adds to cart.

• Enter your website domain and click Scan
• Scroll down past Create conversion actions from Web and App events to Create conversion actions manually using code
• Click on Add a conversion action manually

Goal and action optimization

Enter the goal category under goal and action optimization. This can be one of the following:

• Purchase
• Add to cart
• Begin checkout
• Subscribe
• Contact
• Submit lead form
• Book appointment
• Sign-up
• Request quote
• Get directions
• Outbound click
• Page view
• Other

Conversion name

Name your conversion — make it something memorable.

Value

Assigning a conversion value helps Google decide how important your conversion is.

Let’s say you know that every time a form submission is completed on one of your landing pages, it leads to a $1,000 job, which is higher than your average job value.

To account for this ad’s extra profit, you can assign the conversion action (completing a form on that specific landing page) the value of $1,000.

This will help you create a bidding strategy that delivers a higher ROI by bidding more on ads that lead to higher-value conversions.

You can choose Don’t use a value for this conversion action if all your conversions are equal in value.

Count

Select how often a conversion should be counted — every time or just once. Keep in mind that lead generation-related goals should generally only be counted once.

Update the rest of the settings as needed.

Click Done when you’ve completed the setup.

Install your Google Tag to your site

When your conversion action is ready, you need to add the code to your website. You can do this by manually installing the tag to your website code or with Google Tag Manager.

How to paste a Google Tag into your website code

After copying your gtag.js script, paste the tag into your website code:

1. Open your website’s HTML file or through your CMS like WordPress or Shopify
2. Locate the <head> section of the site’s HTML
3. Paste the Google Tag before the closing </head> tag
4. Replace G-XXXXXXXXXX with your actual Google Tag ID
5. Save and publish

How to install a Google Tag with Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager (GTM) lets you add functionality to your website even if you don’t have developer knowledge.

“(GTM) helps consolidate multiple conversion tracking codes into one simple tool,” says Sam Yadegar, CEO and Founder of HawkSEM. “This means you can manage your website code and Google Tags without constantly amending the backend of your website.”

If you use WordPress, the Google Site Kit plugin lets you manage GTM directly on your website.

You need the conversion ID and conversion label to set your conversion up on GTM.

You can find these after setting up your conversion action in Google Ads by clicking on Use Google Tag Manager.

How to set up conversion tracking with Google Analytics

Alternatively, you can set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics and import your conversions into Google Ads.

The benefit of this is that you can see your Google Ads conversion data alongside your direct, organic, and referral traffic stats.

Plus, if you already have Google Analytics code on your website, you don’t need to set and install additional code.

To do this, you need to set up a conversion in Google Analytics. To do this, go to Property Settings and Events. You then mark this event as a Key Event.

Once you’ve done this, follow the directions above and choose Import.

Next, choose Google Analytics 4 properties and Web and connect your Google Analytics account to Google Ads if you haven’t already.

You can then import your conversions across.

How to verify your tracking setup

Once your tracking is set up, it’s important to ensure your Google Tag is firing properly so your conversion action will be reported.

You can do this inside Google Ads or with the Tag Assistant Chrome extension.

Inside Google Ads

1. Login to your account click the Goals icon
2. Click the Conversions drop down > Summary
3. Find the conversion action you want to verify in the “Name” column of the conversion actions table
4. Look at the Status column to verify the tracking is set up correctly

The Status column tells you how your conversion actions are currently performing. After setup, your conversion status should be “recording conversions,” indicating Google installed the tag successfully.

The Tag Assistant Chrome extension

If you just set up your conversion actions or they haven’t been recording data for a few days, you can verify your tracking setup in Google Ads.

Do this by using the Tag Assistant Chrome extension, an online tool to debug the conversions you set up on your domain.

Here’s how:

1. Navigate to tagassistant.google.com
2. Log in with your Google account
3. Select the domain you’d like to debug
4. Simulate the conversion action you’d like to test on the website
5. The Tag Assistant debugger allows you to see in real time how your conversion actions are working

What types of conversions can you track with Google Ads?

Once you know how to set up conversions, you need to understand the various conversion tracking options that Google Ads offers.

Google Ads offers main conversion actions for you to track:

• Website conversion actions: Website actions are the most basic and widely used type of Google Ads conversions. These conversions include purchases, form completions, and button clicks.
• Phone calls: As you may guess from the name, a phone call conversion action tracks a call to your business phone number from your Google Ad.
• App installs and in-app conversions: If you have an iOS or Android mobile app, this conversion action tracks app downloads from a Google Ad, as well as in-app actions like purchases.
• Offline conversions: These conversions take place offline but can be traced back to your ad. For example, an over-the-phone sale or in-person purchase.
• Local conversions: If your business has a brick-and-mortar location, you can use location conversion to track when someone completes an action related to that location after interacting with an ad. For example, getting directions on Google Maps or viewing a menu.
• Custom conversions: Conversion actions you define as valuable to your business.
• Video conversions: Conversions that pertain to a brand’s videos.

Conversion categories in Google Ads

When setting up conversion tracking in Google Ads, you’ll need to select a conversion category for each conversion action.

This will streamline your pay-per-click (PPC) reporting by allowing you to segment and analyze your data more effectively based on the type of conversions you’re tracking.

Google Ads offers a range of conversion categories grouped into three main types:

1. Sales
2. Leads
3. Further categories

Sales categories

These categories are crucial for ecommerce and retail-focused campaigns, as they track direct sales-related actions taken by users. Actions in this category include:

• Making a purchase
• Adding an item to a shopping cart
• Initiating a checkout process
• Subscribing to a recurring service

Lead categories

Lead categories are for service-oriented businesses and local businesses that rely on generating qualified leads. Conversions in this category include:

• Submitting a lead form
• Booking an appointment
• Signing up for an account
• Requesting a quote
• Calling your business directly from an ad
• Getting directions to a local store

Further categories

For more specialized tracking needs, Google Ads provides additional categories that allow for the customization of conversion actions based on specific business requirements. These include:

• Page views
• Engagement metrics like time spent on a site
• Downloads or other specific user interactions

Selecting the right conversion category for each conversion action enables more precise reporting, giving you clearer insights into how different aspects of your campaigns contribute to your overall marketing objectives.

How can you optimize your Google Ads conversion tracking?

Setting up and managing conversions in Google Ads will help you improve your PPC marketing strategy.

However, there are some additional things you can do to take your conversion tracking in Google Ads to the next level. Here are four tips to get you started.

1. Set up A/B testing
2. Explore your return on ad spend (ROAS)
3. Understand your attribution model
4. Check your metrics

Set up A/B testing

With A/B testing, you run two versions of an ad and give them equal splits of your traffic.

This can help you determine which combinations of ad copy, design, and targeting lead to the highest levels of customer engagement and where you should focus your ad spend.

Once you have your results, you can replicate your ads’ successful combinations and continue making new versions to refine your ads further.

Explore your return on ad spend (ROAS)

ROAS is an important metric that shows how much revenue you generate for every dollar you spend on your ads.

When conversion tracking in Google Ads, you can monitor the ROAS of each ad to see which generates the most revenue for your business.

You can also examine parameters like location, device type, and language, building separate campaigns that will maximize your profits.

Understand your attribution model

An attribution model gives varying credit to different touchpoints that lead to a conversion or sale.

It’s rare that someone will see your ad, click on it, and convert immediately. It’s more likely that a customer will click on multiple ads or view multiple marketing channels before making a purchase.

An attribution model helps you understand how your target audience interacts with your business and which ads do the most work.

While there used to be several attribution models in Google Ads, there are now only two:

• Last-click, which gives all the credit to the last touchpoint the customer clicked on
• Data-driven attribution, which uses your previous data to assign credit

Check your metrics

Google Ads offers a variety of reports where you can view and analyze your conversion data.

Campaign reports

The Campaigns tab within Google Ads contains a detailed table listing both active and inactive campaigns.

One of the essential columns in this table is Conversions. This column reflects the conversions triggered by your ads, as reported by the conversion tags in Google Tag Manager or directly via Google Ads.

Each time a conversion tag fires, indicating a visitor clicked one of your ads and completed a desired action, the details are sent to this column.

Customizing reports for conversion values

If you’re tracking conversion values alongside conversion counts (e.g., the monetary value of a purchase), you will need to customize your report to include this data. To do this:

• Go to the Columns dropdown in your campaign report
• Select Modify Columns
• Choose Conv. Value to add this to your report setup

Once added, an additional column will appear in your campaign dashboard, showing the value that each ad or campaign brings to your business.

Common tracking issues and how to fix them

You’re now well-versed in the importance of conversion tracking in Google Ads — but what happens when you hit a roadblock?

First, ride it out. Once you’ve set up or amended your conversion tracking it might take up to 24 hours for your conversions to become “verified.”

This delay allows Google Ads to process and confirm that your website and Google Ads account are “talking” to each other.

If you’re experiencing problems after this though, it might be time to do some investigating.

Here are some common reasons why you might hit conversion tracking issues:

• Your conversions are set up incorrectly
• Your triggers aren’t firing properly
• You’re getting different figures in Google Ads and Google Analytics

Your conversions are set up incorrectly

“One of the biggest problems we often see with clients is that they set the click-through conversion window incorrectly,” says HawkSEM Analytics Manager Peter Damicone.

“Set the window too long and you risk inaccurate conversions. Set it too short, and you could miss out on conversions entirely.”

If you think your conversions are set up wrong, the best thing to do is to go back and review all the settings one by one. Sometimes one small change can make a big difference.

If you have the time, Google Ads offers free Google Ads Measurement Certification that shows you how to accurately track and measure conversions.

Your triggers aren’t firing properly

If your triggers aren’t set up correctly, conversions may fire when they shouldn’t, or fire multiple times when they should only fire once.

If you encounter any issues with your conversion tracking tag, Google has a help center you can reach out to.

Alternatively, if you use Google Tag Manager, Tag Assistant can verify that all your tags work correctly. It scans your website for Google tags and provides feedback on tags that aren’t firing.

You’re getting different figures in Google Ads and Google Analytics

If your conversion numbers vary slightly in Google Ads and Google Analytics, this isn’t a major cause for concern.

Both platforms report on metrics in different ways. While Google Ads shows conversion data based on ad click data, Google Analytics reports on the conversion date.

Stick to reporting on one platform to ensure consistency.

The takeaway

Before you can set up your conversion tracking, understand exactly what actions matter to your campaign and business. The setup process is meticulous and verifying that your triggers fire correctly is an important step after setup.

Of course, if conversion tracking still sounds like a lot to think about, we can help. Our PPC experts will plan, structure, and manage your Google Ads campaigns, helping you see which ads bring in the clicks and conversions.

Get in touch today for your free PPC consultation — you’ll be on the right track with us in your corner.

This article has been updated and was originally published in May 2023.