What are enhanced conversions in Google Ads and why should you activate them as soon as possible?

If you do Google Ads campaignsYou've probably experienced this yourself: you look at your results and ask yourself "Why am I getting fewer conversions than I know I'm generating?". You see leads in your CRM, orders in your online shop... but on Google AdsThe figures do not add up.

How does this sound?

You're not alone. With privacy changes, disappearing cookies and increasingly restrictive browsers, it's not uncommon to lose visibility on what is working (and what is not).

Fortunately, Google has a solution for this: the improved conversions. A functionality that helps to recover conversions that would otherwise be lost. But not only that: it allows you to improve attribution, optimise campaigns faster and be more efficient with your budget.

In this article I explain what they are, how they work, why they are so important and how you can activate them step by step. Here we go.

What exactly are enhanced conversions?

In short: it is a form that has Google Ads from recognise who has converted on your website, even when cookies fail.

And how does it do that? By using data that you already have as an advertiser: the email address, telephone number or name of the person who has filled in a form or made a purchase.

This data is sent to Google in a secure way so that you can "match" the people who clicked on your ads.

Important: this data is not sent as is. It is "hashean"i.e., they are transformed into a encrypted code with an algorithm called SHA256.

A hashed datum is like a fingerprintunique, irreversible and safe. Google cannot decipher it to find out who that person is, but it can match it to the fingerprints of those who clicked on the ads.

Why are improved conversions important?

Because no data, no optimisation. Today, most of the Paid Media campaigns depend to a large extent on the artificial intelligence. The advertising platforms as Google Ads use algorithms that learn from user behaviour to automatically optimise bids, better target and find similar profiles to those who have already converted. 

That's why every piece of data counts: the more accurate and complete the data we provide, the better decisions the system can make in order to improving campaign performance.

The main benefits of improve the measurement with improved conversions are as follows:

• Recover conversions that were lost before

Because of the blockersSafari restrictions, cookie rejection... many conversions were not being recorded. By activating the improved conversionsYou can see some of these actions again in your reports.

• Improved attribution

You will know not only that someone has converted, but what they have converted into campaign, ad group o keyword clicked. And that changes everything when it comes to optimisation.

• Reduce CPA (cost per acquisition)

Better attribution = better decisions = more profitable campaigns. The system learns faster and allocates your budget better.

• You comply with privacy regulations

As long as the user has accepted consent, you are sending data securely, without sharing personal information directly.

And what does Consent Mode have to do with all this?

A lot. Because in order for all this to work legally and effectively, you need to manage the user consent.

The Google Consent Mode is a functionality that adapts how the measurement labels behave according to the user's choice in the cookie banner.

• If the user consents → all data are measured.
• If you don't → less information is measured, but you can still measure conversions anonymously.

This allows you, even if you do not have all the personal data, Google can still detect certain actions (e.g., someone saw a product), and then combine these with improved conversions if that user ends up converting.

⚠️Ojo: if you do not use Consent Mode and simply block all tags when someone rejects cookies, you are losing valuable data that you could legally recover.

How to set up enhanced conversions step by step

Before starting with the configuration of the enhanced conversionsThere are a couple of things to bear in mind.

What do you need to have before you start?

1. A active Google Ads accountwith a conversion action already created (e.g. a purchase conversion, lead, form...).
   
2. The Google Ads conversion tag already implemented in Google Tag Manager (GTM).
   
3. Your website should have a form o event where the user enters personal data (such as email, telephone...).

4. The Consent Mode v2 implemented correctly (yes, we know, it's the worst part).

How to enable and test enhanced conversions in Google Ads with Google Tag Manager

This guide is intended for those who have already set up a standard conversion in Google Ads and GTMand they want to go to the next level: enabling and set up Enhanced Conversions step-by-step.

Step 1: Enable account-level enhanced conversions in Google Ads

Before you can enable enhanced conversions on specific actions, it is imperative that you enable this functionality on a general account-wide basis.

To enable enhanced conversions at account levelyou must follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. In the top menu, go to:
   
   Tools and settings > Measurement > Conversions
   
3. On the left-hand side of the menu, click on "Settings".

4. Under settings you must do the following:
   1. Accept the terms on the use of customer data. This is a legal requirement that authorises Google to process, in encrypted and secure form, personal data sent from your website (such as email or telephone) for the purposes of advertising measurement.

2. Enable enhanced conversions and choose how you will implement them. This step is only performed once per account and enables the functionality across the board. 

Step 2: Enable enhanced conversions on a specific conversion action

Once activated at the account level, you must select in which conversion actions to be used. In other words, choose in which event you are going to capture the USER DATA (form, purchase, subscription...).

To triggering improved conversions on the concrete actionyou must follow the steps below:

1. In Google Ads, in the Conversions menu, select the conversion you have already created and want to improve (for example: "Lead - Contact" or "Purchase - Online Shop").
2. Click on Edit Settings.
3. Scroll down to the "Enhanced Conversions" section and activate them for this action.
4. Select again the deployment method: Google Tag Manager.
5. Save your changes.

Important: You must apply this setting for each individual conversion in which you wish to improving measurement. Only in those where you actually have user data (such as email or telephone).

Step 3: Create a user-supplied data variable in Google Tag Manager

With Google Ads now ready, it's time to configure Google Tag Manager to send the user data collected during the conversion.

To do this, we will first create the variable in charge of collecting the data we need: email, telephone, name or surname that the user enters in a form and sends it to Google Ads in encrypted form (hashed with SHA256).

To create the user-supplied data variableyou must follow the steps below:

1. In GTM, go to the "Variables" tab and click on "New".
2. Select type: User-supplied data.
3. Here, you can choose to configure it in two ways:
   1. Automatic configuration (the one we are going to explain). GTM will automatically detect typical form fields such as email, phone, name. It requires those fields to have standard names or attributes in the HTML (i.e. the form fields must have "easy to understand" names, like email, phone, name. If they have weird or generic names, GTM will not know what to pick up).

2. Manual configuration (recommended if you want full control). You can map dataLayer variables or use CSS selectors to capture exactly the data you want to send (e.g. only email and phone). Very useful if you use custom forms or want to ensure compatibility with Consent Mode.

Step 4: Adding the variable to the conversion tag in GTM

Now it's time to link the variable you just created to the Google Ads conversion tag.

To add the variable to the conversion where you want implementing improved conversionsyou must do the following:

1. In GTM, go to the "Tags" tab.
2. Locate and edit the Google Ads conversion tag you have already created (e.g. "Lead received").
3. Activate the option "Include data provided by users from your website".

4. In the field that appears, select the variable you created in the previous step.
5. Save and publish the changes.

This tag will be triggered when the conversion occurs (form submission, purchase, etc.) and, thanks to this variable, it will send the user's data securely to Google Ads so that you can attribute them correctly.

Step 5: Check that everything is working properly

It's not enough just to implement it: you have to make sure that everything works well and that you've correctly configured the enhanced conversion.

There are two ways to do this:

Method 1: Preview in Google Tag Manager (the one we recommend)

1. Log in to GTM and click on "Preview".
   
2. Enter your site URL and navigate to the conversion (e.g. submit a contact form).
   
3. Verify that the Google Ads tag has been triggered correctly.
   
4. Click on the triggered label:
   
   • You should see that the option "Include user-supplied data" is active.
     
   • If you have used the automatic option, you will see something like "automatic enhanced conversion" as the value in cssProvidedEnhancedConversionValue.

You won't see the exact data sent (for privacy), but if you see that variable and the tag is triggered, everything is in order.

Method 2: Diagnosis from Google Ads

1. Go to Tools and settings > Measurement > Conversions.
2. Enter the conversion you have upgraded.
3. Go to the tab "Diagnosis".
4. There you will see if:
   • Enhanced conversions are receiving data.
   • There are configuration errors.
   • Full or trial conversions have been recorded.

NoteIt can take up to 72 hours for the first information to appear in the Google Ads diagnostic (in our experience, it is more reliable to check it from the GTM preview).

Conclusion: if you run campaigns on Google Ads, you can't not have this activated.

Enhanced conversions are not an "extra". Today they are essential for measure well, optimise better and make smart decisions with your budget.

If you are already investing in campaigns, take advantage of the full potential of the system, feeding the algorithm with the right data. And if you do it legally and securely, all the better for you, your business and your users.

We know that both the Consent Mode v2as the improved conversions can be a headache. That is why, from DDigitalswe have a expert team that can help you with implementation of both.