You want to know which clicks actually lead to sales, but conversion data can be messy, incomplete, or misleading. Shoppers might browse on one device and buy on another, or part of the journey might happen offline.
The better you understand where leads come from and the path they take to convert, the more effectively you can optimize campaigns and improve results.
Google Ads offers a free feature called enhanced conversions to help fill those data gaps. It uses privacy-safe first-party data from your website—or even offline touchpoints—to build a more complete picture of your business’s conversion path. Here’s how to improve your conversion measurement to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
What is enhanced conversions in Google Ads?
Enhanced conversions is a Google Ads feature that improves how accurately your ads are measured. It uses first-party customer data—information people enter directly on your website—to confirm when ad clicks actually lead to valuable actions, known as conversions. A conversion can be any goal you track in Google Ads, such as a purchase, form submission, or newsletter signup. The feature works alongside the small piece of code—called a conversion tag—that’s added to your website when you set up conversion tracking in Google Ads. This tag records when people take key actions on your site, helping fill in data gaps and show a more complete view of campaign performance.
When a customer completes a conversion on your site, select details—like an email address or phone number—are captured and converted into hashed data, meaning they’re turned into an anonymous string of characters. Google then uses this hashed data to match the conversion with the ad click that drove it. Because this process relies on first-party data collected directly from your site, no personally identifiable information is shared and you remain compliant with user privacy laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the US.
By layering this privacy-safe matching on top of your existing Google Ads tracking, enhanced conversions gives you a clearer, more complete picture of campaign performance than cookie-based measurement alone. It helps you recover “lost” conversions that might otherwise go unattributed, such as when someone clicks an ad on their phone but completes a purchase later on a laptop. The result is stronger bidding signals—data Google Ads uses to automatically adjust your bids based on how likely a click is to convert—and more reliable insights into which campaigns truly drive results.
While the enhanced conversions feature improves tracking accuracy, it won’t capture every conversion. Match rates—the percentage of conversions Google can successfully link to an ad—depend on proper data formatting and quality, and whether users are signed in to their Google accounts at the time of conversion. The feature also helps offset—but can’t fully overcome—privacy limits introduced by iOS updates, ad blockers, and the gradual phase-out of third-party cookies (known as cookie deprecation).
How does enhanced conversions in Google Ads work?
The enhanced conversions feature works in two ways, depending on where conversions take place. This distinction helps you measure results more accurately across both digital and in-person touchpoints.
Enhanced conversions for web measures actions that happen completely online, like a customer clicking a search ad and later completing a purchase from your ecommerce store. When someone interacts with your ad and then takes a tracked action on your website, your conversion tag captures key details—like their name or shipping information. The data is hashed, and Google uses that privacy-protected data to verify which ad interaction led to the sale and adds that conversion to your Google Ads performance reports.
Enhanced conversions for leads is designed for businesses where part of the customer journey happens offline. For example, someone might click an ad, visit your website, and sign up for your newsletter or loyalty program. Their contact information—like an email address or phone number—is hashed and sent to Google while also being saved in your customer relationship management (CRM) system. When that lead later becomes a customer through an offline interaction, such as an in-store purchase or phone order, you can upload the data from your CRM to Google Ads to close the loop and attribute that sale to the original ad.
The option you choose depends on your business model. Ecommerce businesses typically rely on enhanced conversions for web, because their sales and checkout activity happen entirely online, making it easier to track conversions directly through their website. Businesses that also operate brick-and-mortar stores or handle sales offline often benefit from using enhanced conversions for leads, which link online form submissions or quote requests to purchases made later in person or through a salesperson.
The enhanced conversions feature has become especially valuable as browser privacy updates and iOS 14.5+ tracking changes limit cookie-based measurement. Capturing more complete first-party data helps recover conversions that might otherwise go unattributed.
How to set up enhanced conversions for web
- Confirm your site setup
- Enable enhanced conversions
- Configure your conversion tag
- Create a user-provided data variable
- Test your setup
Setting up enhanced conversions for web takes just a few steps. Here’s how to start collecting richer conversion data:
1. Confirm your site setup
First, make sure your website already has its Google Tag installed and conversion tracking activated.
The Google Tag is a small piece of code that connects your site to Google Ads, allowing it to record actions like purchases or sign-ups. These are the building blocks that enhanced conversions relies on.
2. Enable enhanced conversions
In your Google Ads account, go to Goals > Conversions > Settings, expand the “Enhanced conversions” section, and select “Turn on enhanced conversions.”
Google recommends using Google Tag Manager as your preferred method for managing user-provided data. You can also configure this directly through your Google Tag code or in Google Ads, options best suited for developers or larger organizations managing data at scale.
3. Configure your conversion tag
In your Google Tag Manager account, go to “Tags” and choose the existing conversion tag you want to enable for enhanced conversions—or create a new one.
In the tag settings, check the “Include user-provided data from your website” box, and then choose “New variable” from the dropdown menu.
4. Create a user-provided data variable
You have a few options for collecting this data. Google recommends starting with “Automatic Collection,” which detects user-provided data (like email addresses) automatically.
For more control, choose “Manual Configuration” to specify where data is found on your site or “Code” to use your own JavaScript.
5. Test your setup
Finally, use “Preview mode” in Google Tag Manager to confirm everything works correctly. Since you just selected a conversion action, trigger that conversion action on your site, and then return to Tag Manager to verify that the conversion tag fired and sent the right user-provided data (e.g., emails and not phone numbers). If something looks off, try using Google Tag Assistant to troubleshoot.
Once everything checks out, publish your changes to start collecting enhanced conversion data.
How to set up enhanced conversions for leads
- Confirm your setup
- Enable enhanced conversions
- Configure your conversion tag
- Create a user-provided data variable
- Track and store GCLIDs in your CRM
- Import offline conversions into Google Ads
- Test your setup
Implementing enhanced conversions for leads follows a similar process as the one above, with a few extra steps to help you connect online lead activity with offline conversions tracked in your CRM system:
1. Confirm your setup
Before you start, make sure you have a CRM system that stores lead information and turn on auto-tagging in your Google Ads account.
Auto-tagging automatically adds a Google Click Identifier (GCLID) to each ad. This unique ID helps Google link later offline conversions back to the original ad that generated the lead.
2. Enable enhanced conversions
In your Google Ads account, go to Goals > Conversions > Settings and open the “Enhanced conversions” section. Toggle “Turn on enhanced conversions” to activate it.
Google Tag Manager is the easiest way of managing user-provided data, though you can also configure this through your Google Tag or in Google Ads.
3. Configure your conversion tag
In your Google Tag Manager account, go to “Tags” and select the conversion tag you want to use or, if needed, create a new one. Select “Include user-provided data from your website,” and then choose “New variable” from the dropdown list. This connects the tag to the form fields where customer data is entered.
4. Create a user-provided data variable
Select “Automatic Collection” to let Google Tag Manager automatically detect user-provided data on your website.
If you want more control, however, you can select either “Manual Configuration” or “Code.” “Manual Configuration” lets you specify where user data can be found on your page, and “Code” lets you use custom JavaScript.
5. Track and store GCLIDs in your CRM
Make sure your CRM platform captures both the GCLID and the user data, like name, email, phone number, and address, from each form submission. This connection lets you track the full customer journey, from ad click to in-person sale.
Make sure your lead-capture forms include a hidden field that records the GCLID from each ad-click URL and passes it into your CRM, along with the customer’s information.
6. Import conversion data back into Google Ads
Once a lead becomes a customer, export the relevant data from your CRM—such as the GCLID, email address, phone number, and purchase or sign-up details—and upload it to Google Ads. This allows Google to link the offline conversion back to the ad that generated the lead. You can do this manually by uploading a .csv file via Goals > Conversions > Uploads or automatically using Google Data Manager or the Google Ads API.
7. Test your setup
Unlike with enhanced conversions for web, Google Tag Manager can’t offer much insight into conversions that occur offline. Instead, confirm that your CRM is capturing GCLIDs correctly and that imported data appears in Google Ads.
You can also run a diagnostics report under Goals > Conversions, then select your specific conversion action and choose “Diagnostics” to check data quality. If the report shows “Excellent,” you’re all set. If any areas show “Needs attention,” address those.
When testing, use realistic sample data with properly formatted emails and phone numbers to confirm that fields are captured correctly. After setup, allow 24 to 48 hours for matched conversions to start appearing in Google Ads.
Enhanced conversions in Google Ads FAQ
What is enhanced conversions in Google Ads?
Enhanced conversions is a Google Ads feature that uses privacy-safe first-party customer data to provide more accurate conversion tracking and a clearer view of your campaign performance. Your site sends anonymized customer data to Google, where it’s matched against existing signals to measure conversions more precisely.
Should I turn on Google Enhanced Conversions?
Enhanced conversions for web and leads are both free tools available to anyone with a website and a Google Ads account. Turning them on helps improve the accuracy of your reporting, especially if your customers interact with your brand across multiple devices or channels. It can also significantly improve automated bidding strategies.
What are the requirements for enhanced conversions?
You need a Google Ads account with conversion tracking already set up using the Google Tag or Google Tag Manager. These tools allow your website to send anonymized conversion data back to Google Ads.
What are the benefits of enhanced conversion for leads?
Enhanced conversions for leads gives you greater visibility into your entire customer life cycle. If part of your audience converts offline, this feature lets you link Google Ads with your CRM platform to connect online lead submissions with in-person or phone-based sales, helping you understand which campaigns drive real-world results.
Why is user data hashed in enhanced conversions for Google Ads?
Hashing turns customer information, like emails and phone numbers, into anonymous strings of characters before it’s sent to Google. This ensures compliance with privacy laws while still letting Google match conversions accurately. You also need to comply with Google’s Customer Match terms and ensure your privacy policy clearly discloses data use.
