The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is essential for understanding the performance of your Google Ads campaigns. From tracking online purchases to offline sales, phone calls, and even handling privacy limitations, knowing how to properly set up and manage conversion actions can dramatically improve your ad performance and ROI. This guide covers all seven key techniques for conversion tracking, including enhanced conversions, consent mode, and conversion adjustments.

1. Setting Up Conversion Tracking with Revenue Value

Tracking conversion revenue dynamically is crucial for accurate reporting. Each conversion can have a different value based on the purchase amount. For example:

User	Purchase Value
User A	$50
User B	$100

Key considerations when setting up conversions:

• Static vs. Dynamic Value: You can assign a specific value (e.g., SQL worth $200) or use the average order value if no value is reported.

• Every Conversion vs. One Conversion:

  • Track every purchase to capture all revenue.

  • For lead generation forms, track only one conversion per user to avoid overcounting.

• Conversion Windows:

  • Click-through: Typically 30 days (up to 90 days for longer sales cycles).

  • Engaged-view: For YouTube or demand gen campaigns, 3 days.

  • View-through: For users who saw the ad but did not click, 7 days is standard for YouTube.

• Attribution: Choose an attribution model that aligns with your business goals.

2. Custom Goals and Multiple Conversion Actions

You can create custom goals to optimize campaigns for multiple conversion actions:

• Example: Optimize for Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout, and Purchases simultaneously to provide the system with more data.

• Secondary conversion actions allow you to track actions without optimizing for them, such as phone calls in addition to form fills.

Custom goals help feed the machine learning algorithms with better data to target high-value users more efficiently.

3. Phone Call Tracking

Tracking phone calls is critical for lead generation campaigns:

Type of Call	Method	Notes
Calls from Ads	Call Extensions / GMB Listing	Track only calls longer than 90s to filter spam
Calls from Website	Dynamic numbers via Call Tracking Software	Use software like CallRail or WhatConverts; integrates with Google Ads

Key points:

• Only track qualified calls to improve data accuracy.

• Sync CRM or call tracking software with Google Ads to assign conversion values.

• For e-commerce, phone calls may be secondary unless sales primarily happen offline.

4. Offline Conversion Tracking

Offline conversions occur when leads or sales are completed outside your website. Using Google Click ID (GCLID), you can link offline conversions back to the originating ad click.

Steps to track offline conversions:

1. Capture the GCLID in a hidden form field or cookies.

2. Store it in your CRM alongside lead information.

3. Once the conversion occurs offline, timestamp and assign a value.

4. Upload the data to Google Ads via a spreadsheet or automated Zapier integration.

Template for offline conversion tracking:

Google Click ID	Conversion Name	Conversion Time	Conversion Value	Conversion Currency
Example GCLID	Form Lead	2025-08-20 10:00	$200	USD

5. Enhanced Conversions

Enhanced conversions improve tracking accuracy using hashed customer data (emails, phone numbers). This works even with privacy restrictions or ad blockers.

For web:

• Collect hashed data for users who consent to tracking.

• Include details such as purchase amount, items bought, and timestamp.

• Google matches hashed data with their user database to report conversions.

For leads:

• No need to modify forms for GCLID.

• Use existing customer information (email, phone) to measure conversions.

• Upload hashed lead data after offline conversion occurs.

Example:

Lead Name	Email (hashed)	Conversion Name	Conversion Value	Conversion Time
John Doe	[hashed]	Property Purchase	$500,000	2025-08-15

6. Consent Mode and Conversion Modeling

With increased privacy restrictions, users may not consent to cookies. Consent Mode allows Google to respect these preferences while using conversion modeling to estimate conversions for unconsented users.

Example:

Metric	Observed	Modeled	Total
Ad Clicks	500	500	1000
Conversions	50	9	59
Conversion Rate	10%	1.8%	5.9%

Conversion uplift:

• Without consent mode: 50 conversions (5%)

• With consent mode: 59 conversions (5.9%)

• Uplift: 18%

Conversion modeling helps fill measurement gaps while maintaining privacy compliance.

7. Conversion Adjustments for Returns or Cancellations

Conversions can be adjusted for returns, partial returns, or cancellations to provide more accurate data to the system.

Column	Description
Conversion Name	Name of the original conversion
Adjustment Type	Return / Partial Return / Cancellation
GCLID or Order ID	Identifier for the original conversion
Adjustment Time	Timestamp of adjustment
Adjustment Value	Value change due to adjustment

This ensures that metrics like CPA and ROAS reflect true revenue and optimizes targeting for high-value users.

Conclusion

Proper conversion tracking is a critical component of any Google Ads strategy. From capturing online purchases to modeling unconsented conversions, phone call tracking, offline conversions, and enhanced conversions, these techniques provide the data needed to optimize campaigns effectively. Implementing advanced tracking methods like enhanced conversions, consent mode, and conversion adjustments ensures accurate reporting, better optimization, and more efficient ad spend.