About conversion measurement

Conversions provide insights into your campaign performance. You choose what you identify as valuable, like a purchase, sign-up, or phone call, and Google Ads will then help you get the most out of your campaigns. For setup instructions, review Set up your conversions.

On this page

• Why use conversion measurement
• Requirements for conversion import from Google Analytics
• How conversions work
• Enable Google signals and data sharing in Google Analytics
• Security and privacy standards

Why use conversion measurement

• Learn which keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns are best at driving valuable customer activity.
• Understand your return on investment (ROI) and make better informed decisions about your ad spend.
• Use Smart Bidding strategies (such as Maximize Conversions, target CPA, and target ROAS) that automatically optimize your campaigns according to your business goals.
• Find out how many customers may be interacting with your ads on one device or browser and converting on another. You can view cross-device, cross-browser, and other conversion data in your “All conversions” reporting column.

Requirements for conversion import from Google Analytics

Ensure the following criteria are met before attempting to import conversions:

• Permissions: You must have Admin access in Google Ads and Edit access in the linked Google Analytics property.
• Key events: Only events marked as key events in Google Analytics are eligible for import.
• Linked accounts: Verify that the correct Google Analytics property is actively linked to your Google Ads account.

How conversions work

1. Choose data sources to measure conversions

First, tell us about your business and where your conversions happen.

• Website conversions: Website conversion measurement analyzes specific actions that users take on your website after interacting with your Google Ads. Learn more about setting up web conversions.
  • Categories: Purchases, sign-ups, and other actions that customers complete on your website. Learn more about how Google Ads tracks website conversions.
• App conversions: For businesses with mobile apps, in-app conversions are essential to measure the true impact of Google Ads. Learn more about setting up app conversions
  • Categories: App installs and in-app actions. Installs of your Android or iOS mobile apps, and purchases or other activity within those apps. Learn more About mobile app conversion tracking.
  • If you have both a website and a mobile app, you can set up app conversion tracking using App Connect to provide a seamless web-to-app experience for your customers.
• Phone call conversions: By connecting call data to your campaigns, you can identify which ads are driving valuable phone leads. Learn more about setting up phone call conversions
  • Categories: Calls directly from your ads, calls to a phone number on your website, and clicks on a phone number on your mobile website. Learn more about phone call conversion tracking.
• Offline conversions: You can review your offline conversions to help determine how your ads are impacting your sales in physical stores. Learn more about setting up offline conversions
  • Categories: Offline conversion imports works a little differently depending on whether you’re tracking conversions that start with an ad click or call from your ad. Learn more About offline conversion imports.

After making your selections, add a data source for the conversion locations you’ve selected. A data source is the origin of your customer data, like your CRM system, a data file (like a CSV), or another platform. Connecting your data sources to Google Ads is important because it enables more accurate conversion measurement, provides deeper insights for optimizing campaigns, and powers features like enhanced audience targeting. You can choose between or select both Google Analytics and the Google tag:

• Google Analytics: If you’re already using Google Analytics, this is the most efficient choice for advertisers who want to reuse existing website event tracking.
• Google tag: If you want a dedicated tracking signal optimized specifically for Google Ads bidding. This is recommended if you do not use Google Analytics or if you require advanced Ads-specific features like enhanced conversions.

We’ll save your data source preferences for the next time you come back to this conversion set up workflow.

2. Group your conversions

When you move to the next step, you’ll be able to create conversion actions from any of the data sources you’ve added.

A conversion action is a specific customer activity that is valuable to your business. This action will be measured and the measurements can be used to refine your campaign so that you can best meet your advertising objectives. Learn more about the Different ways to track conversions.

3. Finish setup

After you’ve created your conversions, you can review the next steps to ensure your conversions can be measured correctly. For setup instructions, review Set up your conversions

The conversion measurement process works a little differently for each conversion source, but for each type besides offline conversions, it tends to fall into one of these categories:

• You add a Google tag, or code snippet, to your website or mobile app code. When a customer clicks on your ad from Google Search or selected Google Display Network sites, or when they view your video ad, a temporary cookie is placed on their computer or mobile device. When they complete the action you defined, our system recognizes the cookie (through the code snippet you added), and we record a conversion.
• Some kinds of conversion measurement don’t require a tag. For example, to track phone calls from call assets or call-only ads, you use a Google forwarding number to track when the call came from one of your ads, and to track details like call duration, call start and end time, and caller area code. Also, app downloads and in-app purchases from Google Play, and local actions will automatically be recorded as conversions, and no tracking code is needed.

After you’ve set up conversion measurement, you can view data on conversions for your campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords. Viewing this data in your reports can help you understand how your advertising helps you achieve important goals for your business. Learn more about fixing common issues with conversion measurement.

There are several factors to check if your conversion tracking is set up but you're not getting conversions, or the numbers are lower than expected:

• Ensure your conversion tracking tags are correctly implemented. You can use Google Tag Assistant for verification.
• If your conversion action isn’t showing as “Active”, troubleshoot your conversion tracking status.
  • Note: An "Unverified" or "Inactive" status is normal for new tags. The status will update to "Active" only after Google Ads records its first conversion or a successful test event. For advertisers in the European Economic Area (EEA), ensure Consent Mode is correctly configured to maintain data accuracy and prevent tracking gaps.
• If you’re using Google Tag Manager, confirm that the Conversion Linker tag is set up correctly. Learn how to troubleshoot issues in your tag configuration.
• View-through conversions measure instances where a customer saw your ad but did not click it. They are excluded from the main "Conversions" column to ensure Smart Bidding optimizes for active interactions rather than passive impressions. Learn more About view-through conversions.