Google Ads is one of the most popular advertising platforms on the market. This is not surprising given the omnipresence of the search engine and its derivatives on the web. If you want to be profitable on this platform, you will need to choose the right keywords, ad texts, and visuals, but above all, it is necessary to set up conversion tracking. Through these conversions, Google’s algorithm will optimize to get you the most sales, subscriptions, or completed forms.
In this article, we will see how to install Google Ads conversions through two methods:
- Client-Side: the classic method via a script.
- Server-Side: the advanced process allowing more data collection via a tracking server.
I – Create a conversion in Google Ads.
You can also watch this video to follow the installation process:
To create a conversion, go to the “Tools and settings” section, then to Conversions. Then select “+ New conversion action.”
To track the activity on your website, choose “Website.”
Then, you must enter the domain you want to track for this conversion. Then, click on “Add conversion action manually.” This method will give you more flexibility, including integrating your conversion through Google Tag Manager (client-side or server-side).
In the new window, you must characterize your conversion by adding a category, a name, a value, a number, and an attribution window. Note that in the case of this example, we want to track form submissions. In the case of e-commerce, you will need to choose to use different values for each conversion and to follow all conversions to avoid ignoring a potential second purchase by a user.
Now that your conversion is created in Google Ads, all you have to do is install it. Select Google Tag Manager as the implementation method and keep the conversion ID and conversion label handy. These two parameters are essential for the configuration.
II – Installing a Google Ads conversion in client-side
Create a “Google Ads conversion tracking” tag for your Google Tag Manager container.
This is where you will enter your Conversion ID and Conversion Label. If you have many Google Ads tags to install, you can enter your Conversion ID in a “Constant” variable, as this code will be the same for all your conversions.
If you are on an e-commerce site and need to add the value, transaction number, and currency code, insert data layer variables into the dedicated spaces.
Next, add a new trigger that corresponds to the event. We want the tag to run when the “generate_lead” event occurs, meaning when a user submits a form.
To comply with GDPR, you must trigger this tag only when the user permits you.
To do this, add the “Axeptio authorized vendors” variable to your space and condition the tag when this variable contains “Google_Ads.”
You must test your tag is triggering correctly before publishing your Google Tag Manager container.
III – Installing a Google Ads conversion on server-side
If you have set up server-side tracking on your site, installing your Google Ads tag within the dedicated container is in your best interest.
However, be careful not to duplicate your tracking; you must choose between client-side or server-side implementation!
You can also watch this video to follow the installation process:
To start this configuration, go to your client-side Google Tag Manager container and configure a GA4 configuration tag if it has not already been done. Check “Send to server-side container” by indicating your server-side URL. This tag will then transfer between the client-side and server-side containers. To comply with GDPR, you must include the user’s consent choice. We will create an “x-vendors-consent” parameter and add the “Axeptio Authorized Vendors” variable as its value to do this. If you want to learn more about server-side consent management, please read our dedicated article.
Now configure a GA4 tag for your conversion event. In our case, we will create a “generate_lead” event that triggers the generate_lead dataLayer event.
Now let’s go to our server-side Google Tag Manager container. To receive requests from Google Analytics, you must activate the GA4 client in the dedicated section.
Now it’s time to create our Google Ads conversion tag without forgetting to add a Conversion Linker tag.
The server-side Google Ads tag is very similar to the client-side one. Here, you must enter your conversion ID, your conversion label, and, if necessary, your conversion value and currency code.
Trigger this tag when the client is equal to GA4, the event corresponds to the one configured on the client-side GA4 tag (in our case, generate_lead), and when the user gives consent for Google Ads.
To track this last parameter, you must create an “Event Data” variable like this:
Before testing and publishing your container, don’t forget to configure a Conversion Linker on all viewed pages, as shown below:
Configuring conversions is essential if you invest your marketing budget in Google’s advertising platform. Whether you choose to implement this on the server or client side, these conversions will optimize the advertising algorithm and track the results of your spending.
