Google Ads Conversion Actions: Types and When to Use Each

### Website Conversions

The most common type. Track actions people take on your website after clicking an ad. Examples include form submissions (Lead), purchases (Purchase), add to cart (AddToCart), page views of key pages (ViewContent), phone number clicks, email link clicks, and file downloads.

Website conversions require either the Google Ads tag, Google Tag Manager, or imported events from GA4 to be installed on your site.

Phone Call Conversions

Track calls generated by your ads. Three sub-types exist.

Calls from ads: Tracks when someone taps a call extension or call-only ad on mobile. Google generates a forwarding number to measure the call.

Calls to a phone number on your website: Uses a dynamic number insertion snippet to track when someone calls the number displayed on your site after clicking an ad.

Call imports: Upload call data from your call tracking system or CRM.

For call conversions, you can set a minimum call duration (e.g., 60 seconds) to count as a conversion, filtering out short or accidental calls.

App Conversions

Track app installs and in-app actions. These require integration with Firebase (for Android) or the Google SDK (for iOS). App conversion types include first opens (installs), in-app purchases, in-app actions (sign-ups, level completions), and re-engagements.

Imported Conversions

Bring conversion data from external sources into Google Ads.

From GA4: Import key events from your linked GA4 property. Useful when you have complex event tracking already set up in GA4.

From CRM systems: Import offline conversion data from Salesforce, HubSpot, or other CRMs. This lets you tell Google Ads which leads became qualified opportunities or closed deals, enabling smart bidding to optimise for lead quality rather than just lead volume.

From other tools: Import conversion data from third-party attribution platforms, call tracking systems, or custom databases.

Offline Conversions

Upload conversion data that cannot be tracked digitally. Common use cases include in-store purchases linked to online ad clicks, phone sales closed by a sales team, signed contracts resulting from online leads, and offline events like store visits.

Offline conversions use a GCLID (Google Click Identifier) or enhanced conversions for leads (using hashed customer data) to match offline outcomes to specific ad clicks.

This distinction is critical for smart bidding.

Primary conversions are the actions you want Google's smart bidding algorithms to optimise toward. When you set a bidding strategy like Maximise Conversions or Target CPA, Google focuses on driving more Primary conversions. Examples: form submissions for a lead gen business, purchases for e-commerce.

Secondary conversions are tracked in your account for reporting and analysis but are not used by smart bidding. Examples: page views, scroll depth, add-to-cart events, or PDF downloads. These are useful for understanding user behaviour but should not be what Google optimises for.

How to set this: When creating or editing a conversion action, look for the "Primary/Secondary" toggle. By default, new conversions are set to Primary.

Common mistake: Setting too many Primary conversions. If both "form submission" and "page view of contact page" are Primary, Google may optimise for the easier, lower-value action (page view) rather than actual form submissions. Keep Primary conversions limited to your actual business goals.

One: Counts one conversion per click, regardless of how many times the user converts. Use for lead generation where a single user submitting the same form three times should only count once.

Every: Counts every conversion event, even from the same click. Use for e-commerce where each purchase is a separate transaction with separate value.

Click-through conversion window: How many days after a click a conversion can be attributed. Options range from 1 to 90 days. Default is 30 days. Extend for long sales cycles (B2B enterprise, real estate). Shorten for impulse purchases or short-term promotions.

View-through conversion window: How many days after an ad impression (without a click) a conversion can be attributed. Options are 1 day, 3 days, or no view-through tracking. Most relevant for Display and Video campaigns where users may see your ad but not click immediately.

Engaged-view conversion window: For video ads, counts conversions from users who watched at least 10 seconds of your video ad, then converted later without clicking. Default is 3 days.

Assigning monetary values to conversions is important for ROAS-based bidding and for understanding the true return of your campaigns.

Static value: Assign a fixed value to each conversion. Useful for lead generation where every lead has an estimated value based on your average close rate and deal size.

Dynamic value: Pass the actual transaction amount from your website. Essential for e-commerce where each purchase has a different value.

Rules-based value: Use value rules to adjust conversion values based on audience characteristics. For example, increase the value by 20% for conversions from users in a high-value geographic market.

Google's recommended attribution model distributes credit across all touchpoints in a user's conversion path using machine learning. If a user clicked a Search ad, then a Display ad, then converted through a Search ad, data-driven attribution distributes conversion credit across all three interactions based on their contribution to the conversion.

Data-driven attribution requires a minimum volume of data (approximately 300 conversions in the past 30 days) to function. If your account does not meet this threshold, Google defaults to last-click attribution.