How to Set up Conversion Tracking For Google Ads Using Google Tag Manager

To accurately assess the performance of your Google Ads campaigns, proper tracking is truly the only way in which you can measure your campaign performance. As a default, Google does track certain metrics such as clicks, impressions, cost-per-click, etc; however, if you don’t tell Google specifically what you want to track, it simply won’t know. The only way we can tell Google what to track and what to optimize for is by setting up conversions. Conversions can be anything from purchases, form submissions, phone calls, emails, and whatever your business deems as an important interaction. Once you have figured out what user actions want to measure, you then need to be able to track those to measure your campaign’s effectiveness. 

There are several ways in which you can set up conversion tracking, however, utilizing Google Tag Manager (GTM) is by far the best way to do it. Google Tag Manager (GTM) allows you to set up conversion tracking using “tags” in one centralized location without the need for a development team to set this up for you. We will walk you through how to properly set up conversion tracking of your Google ads using GTM as well as explain the benefits of using GTM for conversion tracking.

The Benefits of Utilizing GTM for Conversion Tracking

Google Tag Manager is essentially a tag management system that allows marketers and/or business owners to set up various marketing and analytics tags without the need to change or alter a website’s code directly. Even though you do need to implement code directly on your website to utilize GTM, it is two small pieces of code and once this code is implemented all changes can then be made within GTM.

Here are a few benefits of utilizing GTM to set up conversion tracking:

1. Centralized Management System: All of your tracking and tags can be set up and modified from this single interface without the need to change any code on the backend of your website. Once implemented, you never have to worry about your website crashing due to the constant need to add or modify your website’s coding.
2. Simple Testing: Changes can be easily tested using Google Tag Assistant and be easily modified as needed.
3. Enhanced Security: Google Tag Manager has built-in security features and malware-scanning 

Initial Setup

Before you can set up conversion tracking through GTM, you want to make sure you have certain accounts set up and have proper access credentials: 

1. Google Ads Account: Make sure that you have a Google Ads account set up, or ensure that you have access to an existing one. 
2. Google Tag Manager Account: Create a new Google Tag Manager account or have access to an existing one.
3. Access To Your Website’s Back End: For GTM to work, you will need the ability to put a piece of code on your website. Google will provide this code but you will need to place it there manually. Note: Some plugins are available like  Google Site Kit that will take care of this step for you, but this varies depending on the website platform you are using.

Next, you want to identify the types of conversions that you want to track: Some examples include:

1. Form Submissions
2. Purchases
3. Form Fills
4. File Downloads
5. Phone Number Clicks
6. Chat Initiations

Also, it’s important to note that depending on how your website is built and what platforms you use, some conversions may not be trackable. 

For example, we have a PPC Google Ads client who owns an online service business that utilizes a 3rd party system for collecting lead data. This 3rd party system does not have the ability to integrate with Google Ads and therefore once a user clicks “See Pricing”, they are taken to this 3rd party platform. Although they are able to track leads on their end, it is difficult to decipher which leads come from organic traffic and paid traffic. This is why it is important to set up your website in a way that actions on your website can be easily tracked whenever it is possible to do so. 

Create Google Ads Conversion Actions

Once you ensure you have all of the necessary accounts set up and/or have proper access, you can begin implementing conversion tracking. The first step is to create conversion actions in your Google Ads account. 

To create a new conversion action in Google Ads:

1. Under the Goals Tab click “+Create Conversion Action”
2. Sign in to your Google Ads account
3. On the left side menu, click on “Conversions” then “Goals” then “Summary”

When you set up these conversion actions, be sure to follow the steps carefully as you want to ensure your conversion tracking is as accurate as possible. 

1. Name Your Conversion Actions Appropriately: 

• Make It clear and simple to avoid confusion with other conversions.
• Be sure to include where the conversion is originating from (e.g., website, phone, app)
• Be sure to specify the action type (e.g., purchase, signup, newsletter signup, phone call clicks)

2. Configure Appropriate Conversion Settings:

• Click the drop-down menu and choose the category that makes sense for this conversion
• Decide between using the same value for all conversions or variable values
• Determine whether to count every conversion or just one per ad click
• Conversion Window: Set the appropriate time frame for attribution
• View-Through Conversion Window: Configure if you want to track view-through conversions
• Be sure to mark this conversion as a “Primary” or “Secondary” conversion. Primary conversions will show up in the “Conversions” column in your campaign’s data table, while secondary conversions will show up in the “All Conversions” column. Primary conversions should be the conversions that are the most valuable to your business (e.g. purchases, confirmed appointments) while secondary conversions are good to know but less valuable to your business (e.g. video views, newsletter signups).

For added accuracy, we recommend turning on enhanced conversions. Enhanced conversions is a feature that allows you to send first-party consumer data such as email addresses and phone numbers over to Google ads. This allows for more accurate conversion data by matching that data to Google’s vast data pool. While setting up your conversion action in Google ads, you can enable Enhanced Conversions by simply checking the box at the bottom, then clicking “Agree and continue”.

Implementing the Google Tag Manager Container

After you create your conversion actions in your Google Ads account, the next step is implementing the GTM container on your website. Google will provide you with two pieces of code that you will need to place manually on your website. As mentioned, there are plugins available that will take care of this step for you depending on your website platform and your website setup. 

In order to get your GTM container code:

1. Sign in to GTM via https://tagmanager.google.com
2. Click on the container ID (GTM-XXXXXX)
3. Click “Install Google Tag Manager”
4. Copy both the provided code snippets

To implement the code to your website:

1. Put the main GTM container snippet in the <head> section of your website, as high as possible
2. Place the noscript iframe immediately after the opening <body> tag
3. Verify the implementation using GTM’s Preview mode
4. Test the implementation across different browsers and devices

Create Your Tags for Conversion Tracking

The conversion tags that you set up will send the data over to Google Ads in order to track your conversion. 

To create these tags:

1. In GTM, click “New”
2. Name your tag appropriately
3. Choose “Google Ads”, then “Google Ads Conversion Tracking” as the tag type

Open up Google Ads and navigate to the conversion action that you set up previously. Click on the conversion action then go to the “Tag setup” section. Click on “Use Google Tag Manager”, then copy the Conversion ID and Conversion Label. Go back to GTM:

1. Paste the Conversion ID and the Conversion Label in their respective fields.
2. Add the Conversion Value and Transaction ID (if applicable)
3. Add any advanced settings you wish to have on your tag

Currency code, especially for e-commerce businesses, is an important parameter that identifies what currency your purchases and revenue data are going to be tracked in Google ads (e.g.USD, EUR). Be sure to use the correct currency in order to accurately track revenue.

Configuring Triggers in Google Tag Manager

Next, it’s time to create the trigger for your tag. Triggers are arguably the most important pieces in GTM as they tell your tag what action needs to be taken on your website in order for your tag to fire.

There are many types of triggers and ways to set these triggers. Here is the general process of setting up a trigger:

1. While configuring your tag, go to the section “Triggering”
2. If you have a pre-built trigger, choose that trigger or to create a new one click the “+” on the top right of the screen.
3. Name your trigger
4. Choose your trigger type
5. Configure your trigger 

Note: If there is no built-in trigger that matches the action required for your tag to fire, you can create a custom trigger. To do so, click “Preview” and use the Tag Assistant to find identifying information on the element needed for your trigger. Take the action you want your users to take when the trigger should fire, then click on the most recent action shown in the left-hand sidebar within Tag Assistant, and use the Variables tab there to find the identifying information needed for your trigger (e.g. click class, form ID, etc.). More information on using the Preview feature is explained below. 

Testing and Troubleshooting

The final step is to test to see if your tag is firing properly. Before you publish this tag follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the “Preview” button 
2. This will open up Tag Assistant and type in your website’s URL
3. Test the conversion event action based on the trigger you set for this tag
4. Go back to Tag Assistant and look to see if your conversion tag fires. If not, further modification to the trigger is most likely needed

Publishing Your New Conversion Tag

Once your tag has been created and you’ve tested that the tag is firing properly, you can publish your work. In Google Tag Manager, simply click the “Submit” button in the top right corner to publish your new tags. You can name this new version of GTM so that you can revert back to a previous version if needed, or you can skip naming it. 

Monitoring and Maintaining Your Conversion Tracking Setup

Once you have your conversion tracking set up, it’s important to monitor your conversion tracking to ensure it stays intact. There are several factors that can “break” conversion tracking, not least of which are major changes to your website. Any time that you make changes to your website, always go back and test your tracking and ensure that tracking is working properly. 

Additionally, watch out for sudden drops in conversions, particularly if you see one conversion type drop dramatically. This may be a sign that your tag may be broken and modifications to your trigger may be required.

Conversion Tracking Is Worth The Effort

Implementing conversion tracking can be a complex and tedious process, but this process will provide invaluable insight into your Google ads campaign performance. Not only will you be able to tell how well your Google Ads are performing, but you’ll be able to continue to optimize them to increase their conversion rate.

Remember to regularly test your conversion tracking tags and take immediate action if you see an issue as this can create a devastating lapse in data. 

By following these steps, you can create a powerful conversion tracking setup that provides accurate data for optimizing your campaign’s success and ultimately improving your return on investment. 

Frequently Asked Questions