Accuracy is the ‘bee-all’ and end-all of marketing and can be the difference between a successful campaign and a dud. In step enhanced conversions in Google Ads, which help you track conversions incredibly effectively, thanks to the use of hashed first-party customer data.
This gives you a crystal-clear view of what’s working and what isn’t, which is what dreams are made of for marketers.
In this guide, we’ll explain what Google’s enhanced conversions are, why they matter, and how to set them up. We’ll also look at how to connect them with PPC and SEO and answer some frequently asked questions about them.
But first, a quick overview:
Skip to:
- What are enhanced conversions?
- Why do they matter?
- What benefits do they bring?
- How to set them up in Google Tag Manager
- Server-side vs client-side tracking
- Enhanced conversions and PPC bid management
- The link between Demand Gen, SEO, and PPC
- Conclusion
What are enhanced conversions?
Enhanced conversions is a Google Ads feature that improves the accuracy of conversion tracking. It does this by supplementing existing conversion tags with hashed first-party customer data that visitors provide on your site, such as email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses. For those who aren’t aware, hashed data is the data we’ve listed above, just converted into a random series of numbers and letters. This removes any privacy concerns, and means it can be is securely sent to Google and matched against Google accounts to verify whether a conversion has taken place.
With a helping hand from this secure, privacy-friendly information you already have, instead of cookies or tags that might not paint the full picture, they help you measure results incredibly accurately.
And no, they don’t replace website visitor tracking entirely; they just make it more reliable and act as a safety net for missed conversions.
Why do they matter?
Privacy online is changing, and rules around cookies and compliance are tightening up. Because of this, tracking is changing, too, and traditional methods may not give you the info you need. The result could be conversions going under-reported, campaigns undervalued, and PPC budgets allocated incorrectly.
Fortunately for you and your business, enhanced conversions can change all of this and make sure your ad spend is working as hard as it needs to and that your campaigns are doing the business.
What are the benefits of enhanced conversions?
Better bidding
Google’s automated bidding strategies require data, which needs to be as accurate as possible for the best results. Enhanced conversions are incredibly accurate and plug the hole of poor data.
More accurate reporting
Cookie restrictions often mean that conversions aren’t counted properly. Enhanced conversions in Google Ads reduce these errors so you can create better reports.
Improved device tracking
With people browsing on various devices, from mobile to desktop and tablets, it can be difficult to get a clear review of which one is converting. Enhanced conversions simplify this and help you track devices more effectively.
Enhanced insights
Your audience is crucial to your marketing efforts, and now you can understand which campaigns are doing the business in terms of driving leads and sales. This gives you better ROI calculations and helps you plan for the future.
More remarketing potential
Enhanced conversions capture more people and data, so your audience pools for follow-up campaigns are fuller and better qualified.
For a law firm, for example, this might mean reconnecting with people who filled out enquiry forms but didn’t complete a booking. For e-commerce companies, it could mean capturing missed checkouts to ensure abandoned basket campaigns hit a larger, more precise audience. For SaaS providers, it can make it easier to track users from free trial to paid subscription and improve lifetime value targeting.
There are countless other examples, but the underlying thread is that enhanced conversions reduce the blind spots in your data and help you make better decisions.
How to set up enhanced conversions in Google Tag Manager
Setting up Google Tag Manager (GTM) is the most popular way to implement enhanced conversions. Here’s how you do it:
Step 1: Enable enhanced conversions in Google Ads
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- Go to “Tools & Settings – Conversions”
- Click the conversion you want to improve
- Click “Turn on enhanced conversions”.
Step 2: Prepare your site
Make sure any forms you have set up collect the customer data you want for your campaigns.
Step 3: Update GTM tags
- Open Google Tag Manager
- Pick your Google Ads conversion tag
- Add the required data variables to the tag, such as email address, phone, and physical address
- Configure the tag to send the above hashed data.
Step 4: Testing
To make sure data is correctly set up, use GTM’s preview mode. You can also check the status of enhanced conversions in Google Ads to make sure they’re actually active.
Server-side vs client-side tracking: which is most suited to enhanced conversions?
They work well with client and server-side setups, although they do have different approaches:
- With client-side tracking, data is collected via the user’s browser, such as through a GTM running on the page. This is easier to set up, but browser restrictions might limit its capabilities.
- With server-side tracking, data is sent from your server directly to Google Ads. This makes it more secure and less likely to be held back by browsers. However, the setup is more technical.
In terms of industries, e-commerce retailers often prefer server-side setups to safeguard abandoned basket tracking and reduce browser restrictions. SaaS businesses might also opt for server-side because compliance and data protection are so important to subscription models. Professional services firms, like HR consultants or accountants, may start with client-side at first, due to how easy it is to set up with existing forms.
As a general rule of thumb, client-side is the simplest for most businesses, but as your business grows, server-side can be more reliable and fit for purpose in the future.
Enhanced conversions and PPC bid management
Data precision is crucial to the performance of Google’s paid search because its algorithms need the correct data in terms of tracking conversions.
Enhanced conversions give PPC bidding models better input, which in turn leads to better campaign decisions. This helps professional firms reduce wasted expenditure on irrelevant clicks, online stores identify which products or audiences lead to more sales, and SaaS businesses align campaigns with subscription sign-ups instead of weak leads. This, ultimately, makes PPC bid management more effective.
You can also improve Maximise Conversion Value bidding as Google knows which sales bring in the highest profit margins. With more accurate transaction tracking, enhanced conversions give the bidding algorithm better signals about which products or categories to prioritise. This means instead of simply chasing volume, you can optimise campaigns for high-value sales that improve return on ad spend, making conversions more efficient.
In short, for any business, enhanced conversions can make every pound spent work that bit harder.
The link between enhanced conversions, Demand Gen, SEO, and PPC
Enhanced conversions fit into the wider marketing ecosystem in various ways.
Firstly, traditional tracking gives a lot of weight to the last click it received, which ignores the role of SEO or Demand Gen campaigns and the various funnel stages you’re working with. Enhanced conversions provide a more accurate customer journey, so you can identify each stage and understand which campaigns and channels are driving growth.
This form of attribution modelling helps you build more reliable remarketing campaigns because you understand your audiences better.
You can also utilise enhanced conversions in tandem with SEO and PPC efforts, combining paid accuracy and organic insights to understand customer journeys. This makes conversion measurement more reliable and enables you to better optimise campaigns. You can also maximise budgets much more efficiently as you have more data to play with.
Get started with Google enhanced conversions today
Combining all or any of the above techniques gives you a much clearer view of your marketing impact at a more granular level, which means greater confidence in scaling campaigns and delivering better ones in the future. It really is an invaluable tool – for small business owners and marketers alike.
To start your journey to enhanced conversions mastery, check out our paid search and lead generation services, or get in touch with the hive at beefound.agency.
