In my last newsletter, I walked through setting up conversions via Google Tag Manager. Admittedly, it’s my favorite (and most-used) method of conversion tracking. However, I realized that not everyone has access to their client’s tag manager. With that in mind, this newsletter is all about setting up Google Ads conversions without GTM.
Ready? Let’s go!
Step 1: Check to see if the Google tag is on your site
Even though we’re not using Google Tag Manager, we still need the Google tag on the website. To check if it’s on the site, you can either download the Google Tag Assistant chrome extension, use it on your client’s site, and you should see which tags are on the page.
If you don’t want to download Tag Assistant, then you can go into Google Ads > Goals > Summary > Create new conversion > Website Action:
Then you’ll see a prompt to input your client’s website. From there, select scan, and it will tell you if you can create a conversion (it’s looking for the Google Tag or a GA-4 connection).
It will also give you suggestions for conversions to create.
If there isn’t a Google Tag, you will need to request that your client install it on their site. To do this, go to Tools > Data Manager, and you should see the Google Tag. Click ‘Manage’ and there are installation details that you can send to your client.
Step 2: Create form submission conversion action in GA-4
One thing to note about this method: you can only create events based on existing ones in GA-4. So while Google Tag Manager can be a little more confusing, it does offer more options when it comes to tracking specific events.
There are also some things to keep in mind when creating an event in GA-4:
Event names have to start with a letter
Event names can only include letters, numbers, and underscores (no spaces)
Event names are case sensitive. For example, “event_test,” “Event_Test,” and “Event_test” would all be different events.
With all that out of the way, let’s create an event:
Go to Admin > Data Display > Events
^ I’m not sure why that is the world’s largest screenshot?
Then choose ‘Create event’, select a data stream, and then you’ll arrive at the configuration page:
In this example, I’m doing a page view event (again, this is already a pre-populated event in GA-4) for a thank you page.
If you have form_submission as an event that’s in your GA-4 property, and you want to track form submissions on a certain page, you would have event_name equals form_submission, and then page_location could be the URL where the form you want to track is located.
Here is also Google Analytics documentation that might help as well.
Step 3: Connect Google Ads & GA-4 Accounts
This is super easy. Go back to Google Ads > Tools > Data Manager, and this time choose Connect Product. Ignore my pink box and choose the big blue one.
From there, you’ll see GA-4 listed if it’s not already connected. All you have to do is follow the prompts to connect the two.
Once GA-4 and Google Ads are connected, you can go to Goals > Summary > Create conversion action within Google Ads (you’ll remember this from step 1). This time, select Import.
Choose Google Analytics 4 properties > Web:
Then you can see all the GA-4 events that you can choose for a conversion action:
Choose the one you want, select import, and continue.
From there, you’re all set!
If you’re curious about whether you set it up correctly, I wrote a quick LinkedIn post with steps on how to check.
Still need help and wanna meet 1:1? Check out my coaching link below!
This is part 2 of an ongoing conversion tracking series. Have a specific topic that you’re stumped on? Let me know!
Thank you for reading!
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