Enhanced Conversions: The Key to Identifying Converting Ads

When measuring your Google Ads campaigns, there are certain measurement gaps, browser restrictions, and consent choices to consider, which can make it difficult to see which points along the customer journey actually convert.

Using the enhanced conversions feature in Google Ads, you can improve conversion management and gain access to certain signals to optimize bidding. Together with customer list activation, this feature can help you attribute conversions to specific ads and determine how to continually engage your audiences, all while respecting users’ privacy.

In this blog, Logan Schiff, VP of Paid Search, will review the basics of enhanced conversions in Google Ads and how to set them up for your strategy.

What You’ll Learn

• What Are Enhanced Conversions?
• How to Set Up Enhanced Conversions for Web
• How to Set Up Enhanced Conversions for Leads
• Meet EC Assist: The Extension You Need for Enhanced Conversions

TL;DR: What Advertisers Need to Know

• Google Ads enhanced conversions can improve conversion tracking by matching first-party data to logged-in Google accounts.
• Enhanced conversions maintain user privacy with hashing that turns personal info into a secure code.
• Even if cookies fail or users switch devices, the Google Ads system can still assign credit for a lead or sale to the correct ad.
• Enhanced conversions in Google Ads allow for improved accuracy, cross-device tracking, smart bidding, and privacy policy compliance.

What Are Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads?

Enhanced conversions is a specific feature in Google Ads that matches first-party customer data on a website to signed-in Google accounts. This data could include names, emails, phone numbers, and home addresses that people provide via lead forms while keeping this data secure from Google via hashing.

Hashing is a process that Google uses to encrypt data and secure it, turning readable first-party information into a unique string of characters, and this process is irreversible once completed. Hashing ensures that Google doesn’t receive or store any personally identifiable information.

After hashing, Google matches the data with its database of logged-in Google users to connect them to an interaction with an ad.

With the help of this conversion data, advertisers can more easily see which conversion events actually contribute to revenue and optimize their bidding strategy based on value.

Google enhanced conversions measurement is different from customer list activation, in that measurement helps improve the accuracy of tracking both online and offline conversions via first-party data collected and hashed in browsers, while customer list activation uses first-party data for improved targeting, segmentation, and personalization in ad campaigns.

How Enhanced Conversions Work

The process works in five basic steps:

1. A user clicks an ad and completes a specific conversion action, such as filling out a form or completing a purchase on your website.
2. You collect the data, such as emails and phone numbers.
3. Hashing takes place to secure the data before sending it to Google or any other third party.
4. The hashed string goes to Google through the Google Tag, Google Tag Manager, or the Data Manager API.
5. Google then matches the hashed data to a signed-in Google account, allowing you to attribute the conversion to your ad.

Here’s an illustrative example of how this feature could work:

Someone might look for home remodeling services online via their phone, click on an ad, and submit their information in an estimate request form on the remodeler’s website.

The website tag then takes this data, hashes it to turn it into a secure, anonymous code, and then sends it to Google, which matches the data to the customer’s signed-in Google account, connecting the form submission to that first ad click. This works even if that user clicked on the ad on one device and completed the actual form on another, as long as they’re logged into their Google account on both.

Eventually, that lead becomes a CRM-recorded sale that counts toward the remodeler’s revenue..

Enhanced Conversions for Web vs. Leads

Before getting into how to set up Google Ads and GA4 enhanced conversions, you need to know about the difference between conversions for web and leads.

Web conversions would measure the initial touchpoint and online actions strictly, including form signups and ecommerce purchases, with that data going directly from the browser to Google for hashing and matching.

Now, why might an advertiser use enhanced conversions for leads? To match that web data to conversions in a more complex pipeline, you would want to track conversions for leads as well, as you can incorporate offline milestones like qualified leads and signed contracts, transferring data from your CRM to Google to connect the data to revenue, as it matches hashed user data from the CRM to the original ad click.

Lead generation businesses may want to measure both stages, starting with web conversion tracking that provides Smart Bidding with immediate, high-volume data to learn which keywords draw people to a site. The next stage would involve informing the algorithm which signups have a budget and convert into paying customers, which would help mitigate the risk of spam and low-quality leads.

While both web and leads conversions are activated under your conversion settings, they’re not automatically combined. You still need to configure each workflow independently, updating your site’s tagging infrastructure to scrape webpage data while setting up a CRM integration or data pipeline for leads to bring offline updates into Google.

My Expert Insight on Using Enhanced Conversions

Using Google’s enhanced conversions allows you to take full advantage of first-party data, especially as user privacy restrictions increase.

This feature can help you get the insights you need into conversions without compromising users’ privacy, keeping you compliant while helping you get the most from first-party data via Google.

Brands are finding enhanced web and lead conversions to be an invaluable asset for optimizing bidding and improving conversions through better measurement. According to Google, sports and apparel retailer Tennis Express expanded its URL tagging to more than 98% of its pages with Google Tag Manager, which ultimately led to an 89% increase in the percentage of conversions coming from first-party cookies, with a 114% year-over-year boost in conversions across Search campaigns.

Action Item: Improve the accuracy of conversion measurements in your Google Ads campaigns by setting up enhanced conversion in Google Ads for either web or leads. Doing so will ultimately help set your PPC campaigns up for long-term success using the first-party data you collect.

What You Need Before Google Ads Enhanced Conversions Setup

Prior to setting up enhanced or advanced conversions, complete this checklist:

• Define relevant conversion actions by mapping out your customer journey, which will help you determine what Google Ads should optimize against, including all micro- and macro-conversions.
• Confirm technical and data access by giving your team administrative permissions to extract data and modify any code, such as Google Tag Manager, and ensuring Google can access your web form codes with the proper data fields. In addition, make sure you can align your CRM data with your Google data without errors or duplicates.
• Review consent, privacy, and data eligibility, which will entail confirming that your website’s privacy policy states that you will collect first-party data and how you’ll use and share it, properly configuring Consent Mode to only fire tags when users accept tracking cookies, and verifying data eligibility by ensuring customer information you want to pass is exclusively first-party data collected directly through your website.
• Check existing tracking for duplicates by auditing your active tags to keep conversion metrics from inflating (e.g., Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) might track the same form submission and inflate conversions), clearly setting primary conversion actions for bidding and secondary ones for reporting, and counting “One” conversion per user for form submissions and “Every” conversion for transactions or sales.

How to Set Up Enhanced Conversions for Website Events

One way you can set up Google Ads enhanced conversions is the “web” type, which optimizes campaigns for first-party data collected from your website. For example, you can match data like email addresses entered on your website to Google hashed user data connected to Google Accounts for improved tracking.

This particular method is ideal for tracking website conversions through form submissions or other web-exclusive conversion events, where you might track later outcomes toward the bottom of the funnel with lead conversions through CRM integrations.

However, the accuracy here tends to be slightly lower than what you would get with enhanced conversions for leads because of its dependence on hashed first-party data to preserve user privacy.

The following are the three main ways you can set up enhanced conversion for the web in Google Ads:

1. Use Google Tag Manager

Using Google Tag Manager, you can set up enhanced conversions by taking the following steps:

1. In your Google Ads account, click on the Goals icon.
2. Open the Conversions dropdown menu and select Conversion settings.
3. Choose “Enhanced conversions” and toggle “Turn on enhanced conversions.”
4. Select Google Tag Manager as your method for setting up and managing data.
5. Click on Go to Google Tag Manager to start setting up conversions with this method.

From here, you can set up enhanced conversions in Google Ads using three specific methods:

• Automatic Collection: This option enables Google Tag Manager to automatically identify and collect user data from the web page. While this method is convenient, you may get better results by specifying Javascript variables or CSS selectors or adding a specific code snippet to your site.
• Code: This method entails adding a code snipped to a site for more accurate matching of hashed customer data through proper data formatting.
• Manual Configuration: This step involves specifying Javascript variables or CSS selectors on web pages that include critical first-party data, but it’s still not as accurate as adding code snippet to your site.

2. Use A Google Tag

If you would prefer to set up Google enhanced conversions using the Google Tag, you can do so by following steps 1 through 3 above for Google Tag Manager, along with the following additional steps:

1. Select “Google Tag” from the method dropdown.
2. Choose “Tag details,” which will help you determine how to use tags to collect user-provided data.

Here, you have a few different options:

• Automatically detect user-provided data: Like in Google Tag Manager, you can choose to have the Tag automatically detect relevant user-provided information, but this won’t be quite as accurate as including a site code snippet or specifying either Javascript variables or CSS selectors.
• Adding code snippets: Adding a code snippet to your site maximizes the accuracy of data collection and matching through proper data formatting.
• Specifying Javascript variables or CSS selectors: The third option involves specifying CSS selectors or Javascript variables on web pages containing first-party data.

Click on Save when you’ve chosen your options, and validate the implementation to confirm the proper setup.

3. Use Google Ads API

To use Google Ads API to set up Google Ads enhanced conversions, follow steps 1 through 3 for Google Tag or Tag Manager above, followed by these steps:

1. Choose “Google Ads API” from the Select an option dropdown.

   

2. Check to ensure your website has a conversion tracking tag and that you’re implementing the transaction ID function tag, which will enable Google to avoid duplicate results by matching API and tag conversions.
3. Use a secure HTTPS connection to set up an internal server that can send all relevant user data.
4. You can then use the Google Ads API to transfer conversion data into Google Ads using a standard format along with SHA-256 hashing. 

How to Set Up Enhanced Conversions for Leads

If you would rather focus on lead generation over website conversions, you also have the option of setting up enhanced conversions for leads. This option tends to be more accurate, leading to potentially more valuable insights into audience engagements for conversion rate optimization.

Here are the two main ways to set up enhanced conversions for leads in Google Ads:

1. Use Google Tag Manager

To set up enhanced conversions using Google Tag Manager, take these steps:

1. Choose the Goals icon in the Google Ads dashboard.
2. Go to All conversions in the Conversions dropdown.
3. Click on New conversion.
4. Select the specific data sources you want to import for lead tracking. Here, you can import data from a CRM or Google Ads API.
5. Once you’ve chosen your data sources, go back to the Conversions menu and select Conversion settings.
6. Click on the Enhanced conversions for leads dropdown on the settings screen.
7. From the “Select an option” dropdown, select Google Tag Manager.
8. Choose “Go to Google Tag Manager” and choose how to import offline data.

2. Use Google Tag

Setting up enhanced conversions using Google tag will entail steps 1 through 8 above. 

Then, choose “Google tag” from the dropdown. Click Save to continue.

Meet EC Assist: A Great Tool for Validation

To ensure your enhanced conversions are working properly, consider integrating Google’s optional tool: the EC Assist extension into your Chrome browser.

This tool makes it easy to validate and troubleshoot enhanced conversions in Google Ads.

It works by looking at your setup to determine if there are any issues present that might prevent proper implementation, with certain troubleshooting steps to guide you through resolving those issues.

How to Troubleshoot & Optimize Enhanced Conversions With EC Assist

To use EC Assist, take the following steps:

1. Add the EC Assist extension via the Chrome Web Store.
2. Enter your website’s domain to identify enhanced conversions.
3. Move on to the Perform conversion phase, which will entail monitoring for conversions to identify issues with EC implementation. 

   

4. You can then move on to the Troubleshoot phase to begin resolving EC issues based on the results of the conversion.

   

How to Connect Qualified Leads and Sales

You should also know how to connect your qualified leads and sales to help determine how your efforts generate revenue.

Take these steps to do so:

• Capture the inquiry and store consistent identifiers in your CRM. Check to see if your lead capture forms pull critical customer identifiers like phone numbers and email addresses into direct CRM entries or hidden fields, and capture Google Click ID (GCLID) or other tracking tokens when people land on your site after clicking an ad, adding these identifiers into your CRM.
• Define qualified-lead and converted-lead stages. Map out your sales funnel and choose the milestones that indicate high-intent value, like “Closed-Won Sale.” Each milestone should have its own corresponding conversion action in Google Ads to allow for down-funnel tracking. Additionally, make the ultimate revenue event a Primary bidding goal and any early-stage actions as Secondary to focus Smart Bidding on revenue-generating conversion events.
• Configure a supported connection and recurring imports. Platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot can connect directly to Google Ads, or you can use a third-party automation partner like Zapier or the Google Ads API/Cloud Storage if you’re using an incompatible CRM system. You should also develop a recurring upload schedule to keep your Google Ads data updated if any changes occur within your CRM.
• Map identifiers, event times, values, and deduplication fields. Map CRM fields to Google’s standard parameters, which will help hashed emails or GCLIDs pass and link offline data to ad clicks. Also, include a specific Event Time indicating precisely when leads convert, and attach the dynamic Monetary Value and currency code of the sale or contract to the upload, enabling Google Ads to calculate your ROAS. Lead or Transaction IDs can then function as deduplication tokens to keep duplicate CRM syncs or actions from incorrectly inflating your conversion metrics.

How to Check That Enhanced Conversions Are Working

Here are some ways to ensure your tracking works the way it should:

• Test the form or purchase journey with Tag Assistant. Open Google Tag Assistant and open a preview session for your website, and complete a live test transaction or form submission with data formed like an actual customer’s. You can then click on the conversion event in the summary panel and go to Enhanced or Advanced Conversions and confirm that all first-party fields accurately captured the data upon submission.
• Use EC Assist where supported. The EC Assist Chrome extension can scan your lead forms or checkout pages to determine whether your tag can access first-party data. If the tool detects any broken variables or loose selectors, follow any recommendations or prompts to fix them.
• Review Google Ads diagnostics and import results. In the Diagnostics tab under your Conversions goals, you can see the health of your data stream. Look for any errors like “Incorrect format” or “Missing customer data,” and audit your Upload History tab to ensure automated CRM imports work without any rejections or errors.
• Confirm that the expected conversion action receives data. Make sure the Status column next to the conversion action is Recording, and check conversion volume for a few days to make sure recording is actually active. The enhanced data should also go directly into your designated Primary conversion action to allow automated bidding strategies to optimize based on match data.

Common Problems and How to Fix Them

There are some issues you might experience with Google enhanced conversions, including:

• Missing fields or tags firing too early. If tags fire before users submit their information, this could lead to empty fields and missing variables, which you can address by switching triggers from “DOM Ready” or “Page View” to “Form Submission” or “Custom Event.”
• Incorrect normalization, hashing, or consent configuration. First-party data might not pass through compliance filters or fail Google’s validation due to incorrect hashing prior to submission, or it could be entirely unhashed if the system requires manual hashing.
• CRM import errors and inconsistent identifiers. In some cases, uploads from a CRM could fail to match if customer data changes between platforms, such as a user submitting a personal email while the CRM contains a work email, or hashing mismatches might lead to inconsistent identifiers. Fix these issues by normalizing data prior to hashing with no whitespace or capital letters, and check the Google Ads Offline Data Diagnostics to identify any formatting or upload errors.
• Duplicate actions or the wrong bidding goal. Another issue could apply to duplicate actions, like having a GTM tag fire on a pageview and custom event simultaneously, causing inflated numbers, e.g., Google Ads shows 300 conversions while your CRM reports 175 leads. The wrong bidding goal could also cause problems, as Smart Bidding might optimize toward low-value top-of-funnel conversion events instead of closed sales or actual conversions due to offline conversion matching failure or labeling secondary micro-conversions as primary. Fix these problems by auditing GTM triggers to avoid overlapping triggers, and toggle “Yes” for primary business goals in “Include in Conversions” while choosing “No” for secondary events.

How to Measure the Impact

To gauge the effectiveness of Google Ads enhanced conversions, take the following actions:

Allow Time for Data Processing and Reporting

Google has a 30-day training period in place to feed reports after setup, so you’ll need to wait a little before you can see a meaningful report. Additionally, check the Google Ads status column for Recording to ensure data integration is active.

While waiting for reports to populate and develop, try to avoid making any sudden changes to your budget or bidding.

Review Available Enhanced Conversion Impact Results

You can verify match rates and troubleshoot any tagging errors or formatting issues with the conversion diagnostics report. Also, monitor your coverage rate to allow for consistent first-party data capture. Once privacy-safe matching connects with logged-in Google accounts, you can look for a boost in observable conversions.

Compare Qualified Leads, Sales, and Acquisition Costs

With this feature, you can now move from measuring unverified form fills to tracking qualified leads and customers, and you can recalculate your cost per qualified lead and customer acquisition cost (CAC) with the new conversion data.

Separate Improved Attribution From Additional Revenue

Remember that the enhanced conversion feature works to better match ads to sales that likely would have happened regardless, rather than functioning to create new business. While you might benefit from increased tracking visibility, you should distinguish between this visibility and campaign performance improvements, adjusting budgets based on incremental value over higher conversion counts.

FAQs

1. Do enhanced conversions replace standard tracking?

No, this feature doesn’t replace standard tracking; it still needs a standard conversion tag to work, only adding hashed first-party data to optimize match accuracy, such as phone numbers and emails.

2. Can a business measure both web events and later lead outcomes?

Yes, you can track both web events and lead outcomes with enhanced conversions, specifically tracking immediate on-site actions with Enhanced Conversions for Web and later bottom-of-funnel events (like qualified leads or sales) through Enhanced Conversions for Leads.

3. Are enhanced conversions the same as Consent Mode?

Consent Mode determines whether tags can activate based on users’ consent to cookies, while the enhanced conversion feature processes and hashes first-party user data to match logged-in Google accounts once users consent to data collection. In short, advanced conversions works with Consent Mode to maintain a compliant tracking framework.

4. Do I need GTM or developer support for Google enhanced conversions?

To set up enhanced conversions in Google Ads, you can either use Google Tag Manager (GTM) with automatic form/field detection, or you can do so with the global Google tag. Just keep in mind that complex custom data layers or other non-standard form setups may need developer assistance to capture and pass different user data variables.

5. How long does reporting take for enhanced conversions?

Google Ads and GA4 enhanced conversions reports typically take about 48 to 72 hours to fully populate after setup. After around 30 days, you can see the real impact of this feature in reports.

6. Why are enhanced conversions not recording?

There are multiple reasons why you might not see these metrics in your reports:

• Unaccepted customer data terms within Google Ads
• Unhashed or incorrectly formatted user data fields
• JavaScript errors or broken triggers that block tags in GTM
• Low conversion volume leading to a zero match rate or insufficient data to fuel reports

Get The Most From Google Enhanced Conversions With Ignite Visibility

With the help of Google Ads enhanced conversions, you can harness the power of first-party data to more effectively optimize your PPC campaigns and target segmented audiences. In turn, you’ll be able to boost conversions with more optimized strategies that shorten the distance between the beginning and end of the customer journey.

Ignite Visibility can give you the help you need to set up and continually monitor enhanced conversions as part of a holistic PPC strategy. In addition, we can help with everything from search engine optimization to content marketing to optimize your business’s online performance.

With our experts by your side, you can:

• Properly set up enhanced conversions in Google Ads
• Measure your PPC efforts for continual optimization
• Develop compelling and highly targeted ad creative and copy
• Identify all target audiences for your ads to maximize reach and engagement

If you like this idea, connect with Ignite Visibility today and learn more about how our PPC services can help you get the most from Google Ads.