Enhanced conversions – what are they, why are they useful, and how to set them up?

Configuring enhanced conversions in Google Ads is a crucial step for advertisers striving for more effective online advertising campaigns.

By tracking more complex user actions both online and offline, advertisers can better understand their campaign performance and make more informed decisions about their advertising strategies.

Keep in mind that setting up enhanced conversions may require time and effort, but following the correct steps can bring significant benefits in the form of improved ad performance. Regularly monitoring conversion data and optimizing your advertising strategy accordingly are essential for achieving success in digital advertising.

Enhanced conversions

Definition

Enhanced conversions are an advanced tracking and analysis tool for measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns across various online platforms. In the context of Google Ads, enhanced conversions allow for more accurate tracking of user actions after clicking an ad, covering both online and offline conversions. The definition of enhanced conversions can be described as a collection of user actions taken after interacting with an ad that are important for the advertiser’s goals.

Enhanced conversions take into account more complex user behaviors, such as in-store visits after seeing an online ad, making a phone call to a business after clicking an ad, or downloading a mobile application.

Benefits

Enhanced conversions offer several key benefits, making them an invaluable tool for advertisers. Here are some of the main advantages:

1. More accurate campaign analysis: Enhanced conversions enable tracking of more complex user actions, providing a more precise evaluation of ad effectiveness. This allows advertisers to better understand how their campaigns influence user behavior and make more informed strategic decisions.
2. Optimized bidding strategies: By collecting data on different types of conversions, advertisers can better tailor offers and ad strategies to their target audience, maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS) and increasing campaign profitability.
3. Tracking both online and offline actions: Enhanced conversions allow for tracking user activities both online and offline. This provides a comprehensive understanding of the conversion path, even when users switch between communication channels, leading to a more holistic approach to campaign performance analysis.
4. Improved quality score metrics: Tracking various conversion types helps advertisers better understand the value of their ads from the user perspective. This can contribute to better quality scores, which are crucial for ad effectiveness in Google Ads.
5. Personalization and better ad targeting: With more detailed user behavior data, advertisers can better personalize their ads and tailor them to the needs of their target audience, leading to higher engagement and improved campaign performance.

Enhanced vs. standard conversions

Scope of actions:

• Standard conversions track basic metrics, such as product purchases or form submissions.
• Enhanced conversions cover a broader range of user actions, such as in-store visits, phone calls, or mobile app downloads.

Online and offline integration:

• Standard conversions are usually limited to online user actions.
• Enhanced conversions track both online and offline activities, providing a more comprehensive understanding of user behavior.

Data availability:

• Standard conversions provide basic insights into campaign effectiveness.
• Enhanced conversions offer more detailed data on user behavior, allowing for better campaign analysis and optimization.

Bidding strategy optimization:

• Standard conversions can be used for bidding optimization, but their limited scope may hinder accurate ad strategy adjustments.
• Enhanced conversions enable more precise bid adjustments and campaign targeting, increasing overall campaign effectiveness.

Setting up enhanced conversions

Before setup

1. Log into your account: Sign in to your Google Ads account. Navigate to “Tools and Settings“, then “Measurement“, and “Conversions“.
2. Select a conversion action: Choose the conversions for which you want to enable enhanced conversions.
3. Configure details: Click “Details” to open the “Enhanced Conversions” form and select “Google Tag Manager” as the tag type.

Automatic setup

Sign into GTM: Log into Google Tag Manager and create a new tag by selecting “Google Ads conversion tracking tag“.
Enter data: Fill in necessary details such as tag name, trigger, etc.
Enable data checkbox: Check the box for “Include user-provided data from your website“.
Create a variable: Go to the “User Data” section and create a new variable by selecting “Automatic data collection“.

Manual setup

Check the data layer: Ensure that the data layer includes variables passing user information (e.g., name, email, phone).
Sign into GTM: Log into Google Tag Manager and create a new tag by selecting “Google Ads conversion tracking tag“.
Enter data: Fill in necessary details such as tag name, trigger, etc.
Enable data checkbox: Check the box for “Include user-provided data from your website“.
Create variables: Choose “Manual data collection” in Google Tag Manager. Create a variable based on the data layer to pass user email or phone information.
Save: Save the variables and the newly created tag.

When collecting user data, remember to comply with privacy regulations. An essential solution for this is Consent Mode v2. Read more in our article:

Last chance to implement Consent Mode v2. Is Your WordPress ready for the new regulations?

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Summary

Setting up enhanced conversions in Google Ads is a key step for advertisers aiming to optimize their online ad campaigns. By tracking more complex user actions both online and offline, advertisers can better understand campaign performance and make more informed decisions about their advertising strategies.

Keep in mind that configuring enhanced conversions may require time and effort, but following the correct setup steps can lead to significant improvements in ad performance. Regularly monitoring conversion data and optimizing ad strategies accordingly is essential for achieving long-term success in digital advertising.