Google Ads Conversions integration: identity-resolved conversions, sent server-side

What Google Ads Conversions is

Google Ads covers search, shopping, YouTube and Performance Max, the channels where intent is highest and where attribution is hardest to hold onto.

Enhanced Conversions is Google’s mechanism for matching conversions using hashed first-party data. It only works as well as the identifiers you send, which is why server-side capture and Enhanced Conversions are effectively the same project.

How Google Ads Conversions works

Google Ads attributes a conversion by tying it back to a click, historically through the gclid parameter carried in the landing-page URL and stored by the conversion tag. When that identifier is missing or the tag never fires, the conversion is either modeled or lost. Enhanced Conversions is Google’s answer: the advertiser sends hashed first-party data (email, phone, name and address) alongside the conversion, and Google matches it against signed-in users. Offline Conversion Import handles the reverse case, uploading conversions that happened away from the site against the original click.

01

Send complete conversions

Purchases reach Google Ads through Google’s Data Manager API with the click ID and hashed customer data attached, and the browser tag can keep running beside them.

02

Optimize on the customer you want

Map New Customer Purchase or Subscription Initial Purchase to its own conversion action and point a campaign at it, or override the value to send profit instead of revenue.

03

One purchase action to bid on

Upstack creates its own conversion actions, so you choose exactly one Primary purchase action and each order is counted once.

Two paths, one Primary goal

The browser tag reports to the Purchase - UpstackData goal set by your Conversion ID and Label. Server-side delivery reports to the conversion actions linked in Event conversion mappings. Google doesn’t deduplicate between them, so keep exactly one purchase action Primary.

Events you can map

Purchase, New Customer Purchase, Subscription Initial Purchase, Subscription Recurring Purchase, Add To Cart and Initiate Checkout. Create & link all makes one conversion action per event, such as Purchase - Upstack (Server-side).

What each conversion carries

The gclid, gbraid or wbraid click ID, SHA-256 hashed email and phone, hashed first and last name with postal code and country, IP address and user agent, plus order ID, value, currency and line items. An event with no click ID, no customer data and no IP address is skipped.

Each order counted once

Upstack sends the Shopify order ID with every purchase, and Google counts each order ID once per conversion action. Upstack creates actions with Count set to One; set purchases to Every so repeat orders after one click are counted.

Customer data needs two account settings

Accept Google’s customer data terms and turn on enhanced conversions for leads under Goals, Conversions, Settings, even if you only send purchases. If Google rejects customer data, Upstack sends later conversions with the click ID and IP address only until support turns customer data back on.

Timing, and orders left out

Google Ads can take a few hours to show a new conversion, and up to 24 to 48 hours for a test order. Zero-value orders, draft orders, POS orders, exchanges and subscription renewals aren’t sent as purchases.

How to verify it’s working

• Upstack’s Destinations page shows Google Ads as Healthy.
• Goals, Conversions, Summary lists the linked actions, with Purchase - Upstack (Server-side) as the only Primary purchase action.
• A new action shows Inactive until data arrives, then Active. Place a test order and check that it is recorded.
• The Real-Time Events feed under System, Events Manager shows the test event delivered.

Common problems and fixes

Unhealthy, or no conversions from the browser tag.

The Conversion ID must start with AW- and match Google Ads, the label must be copied without spaces, and the conversion action must be enabled, not paused.

No server-side conversions arriving.

Rows are Not linked or weren’t saved. Link them, save, confirm Healthy and allow a few hours.

The ad account isn’t in the list.

Only active accounts the Google user can open directly are listed. Add that user to the ad account itself, then reopen the list.

“Google did not return a refresh token.”

Connect again and allow every permission, including offline access.

“The name already exists” when creating actions.

Google reserves conversion action names, including removed ones. Use the pencil icon to rename, for example by adding the store name.

Each order counted twice.

Two purchase actions are Primary, usually the browser and server actions. Keep only one Primary.