Google Ads offline conversion using server GTM

Google Ads offline conversion was initially designed to track actions that occur not on your website. It can be orders by phone, in-store orders, etc. Since the beginning, Google Ads offline conversions have been essential for companies with a significant percentage of offline sales. 

With the recent tracking restrictions, like iOS 14/15, using offline conversions to measure Google Ads campaign results might be the only way to accurately track actions after users see or click your Google Ad. 

Want to know how to set up Google Ads offline conversion tracking using server Google Tag Manager? Look no further! This blog post will show you how to use the sGTM container to send offline conversions to Google Ads. This will allow you to track and attribute sales to Adword campaigns.

Offline conversions are sales or leads that can be attributed to a Google Ads campaign, even though they occur offline (i.e., not on the website where the ad was clicked). For example, if you run a Google Ads campaign for your brick-and-mortar store and someone sees your ad, then comes into your store and makes a purchase, that would be an offline conversion. 

Another example of an offline conversion would be if you run a Google Ads campaign for your law firm, and someone sees your ad, then calls your office to schedule a consultation. In this case, the lead would be attributed to your Google Ads campaign even though the actual conversion (scheduling the consultation) occurred offline. 

Google has been relying more heavily on machine learning and modeling in recent years. For example, with the release of Google Analytics 4 last year, they introduced GA4 integration with Signals, which helps with cross-device user tracking based on data of people who logged in to their Google accounts. In GA4, you can also enable data modeling that will help track users who do not allow using cookies or opt-out of tracking.

Google’s data modeling relies on machine learning. When a user agrees to use cookies or allows apps to track them, Google is allowed to observe and report user actions on the site. They call it observed data. When Google cannot track people, it uses the information they learn from observed data to build Modeled data.

Since modeled data uses machine learning, there is a list of criteria that your GA4 property has to meet to be eligible for enabling modeling. The main reason is that machine learning is valid when it observed significant amounts of data. The principal criteria are:

• Consent mode must be enabled.
• At least 1,000 events/day with analytics_storage='denied' during the last 7 days.
• At least 1,000 users/day have analytics_storage='granted' for at least 7 of the previous 28 days.

Since tracking restrictions have been rising during the last several years, some research shows that you can miss more than 30% of data in your analytics tool or advertising platforms. 

Saying all that, Google Ads offline conversion might not only be the way to track users who converted offline but also an accurate way to track online conversion without relying on machine learning algorithms.

• Allows tracking and attribution of events that happened offline (e.g., in-store or over the phone).
• Reports more accurate ROI
• Allows feeding 1st party data to Google and attribute conversions of those users who either opted out of tracking or used adBlockers
• Allows seeing behavior conversion tracking without event modeling data.

 Stape provides the following ways to set up Google Ads Offline Conversion Tracking:

Stape has developed apps for CRM that automatically send offline conversion data from your CRM to Google Ads, creating Customer Match Lists in your Google Ads account.

Explore the setup guides for the CRMs currently supported below:

• Configure Zoho CRM
• Configure HighLevel CRM
• Configure Pipedrive CRM
• Configure HubSpot CRM
• Configure Salesforce CRM
• Configure Odoo CRM
• Configure Klaviyo CRM
• Configure ActiveCampaign CRM 

If you’re using a CRM that isn’t supported by Stape’s apps, you can still implement Google Ads Offline Conversion Tracking using Stape’s server-side GTM tag.

We will show how to configure it step-by-step in the article below.

If you don't have a CRM at all, and don't want to pay for one just to track offline conversions, you can use a Google Sheet as a lightweight CRM instead – combined with web GTM, server GTM, and Stape's Google Sheets integration to sync qualified leads to Google Ads automatically. See the full walkthrough in our guide: Google Ads offline conversion tracking without a paid CRM.

Google Ads offline conversion tag uses Stape Google Ads connection for authentication and Google Ads developer's account. We simplified the process for Stape users, which is why there are differences in requirements based on where your server GTM is hosted.

You can find Google Ads Connection in the Connections tab of your Stape admin account. Then click sign in for Google Ads and pass the authorization with your Google account with access to the Google Ads you’re setting this up for.

1. Create and set up a server Google Tag Manager container. 

2. Send data to the server GTM container. The two most popular sending data to sGTM are by setting up server-side Google Analytics 4 tracking, and Data Tag/Data Client. 

3. Download the Google Ads tag from GitHub.

4. Click three dots in the top right corner →  Click Import →  Select the Google Ads tag template you’ve recently downloaded from GitHub →  Click Save.

Or

Add Google Ads Offline Conversion tag from Template Gallery.

5. Create Google Ads Offline Conversion tag. In the Tags section, click New, and as Tag Type choose the one you uploaded as a tag template.

6. Configure the following settings:

Conversion Action ID - refers to the conversion ID you want to use to track offline conversions. To track offline conversion, you need to create an offline conversion type in Google Ads. After offline conversion is created, to find the conversion action ID, click edit goal and check the URL. ctId parameter is responsible for Google Ads offline conversion ID. 

Customer ID - your Google Ads MCC account ID. It can be found under the drop-down arrow near the name of the MCC account.

Conversion Environment - Conversion environment of the uploaded conversion. Conversion environment should be UNSPECIFIED.

Conversion DateTime - The date-time at which the conversion occurred. It must be after the click time. The timezone must be specified. The format is "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss+|-hh:mm", e.g., "2019-01-01 12:32:45-08:00". If not set, the current time will be used.

Gbraid - The click identifier for clicks associated with app conversions and originating from iOS devices starting with iOS14.

Wbraid - The click identifier for clicks associated with web conversions and originating from iOS devices starting with iOS14.

Gclid - The Google click ID (gclid) is associated with this conversion.

You can customize tags by adding Conversion Custom Variables, Cart Data, and User Data.

In the end, you will get the configured tag; below is the example:

If you don’t use Stape for server-side tracking or just would like to handle your own authentication, you will need:

1. Enable Google Ads API. To do it use a link to Google Cloud Console, look for Google Ads API, and click “Enable”.

2. Google Service Account with corresponding permissions.

3. Google Ads developers token.

4. Choose Own Google Credentials in the tag settings:

Add operating Customer ID - it stands for Google Ads account ID. You can find it under "Account Information."

The attribution of offline conversion depends on click identifiers such as gclid, wbraid, or gbraid. These values are captured on the first interaction with an ad/website and must later be included when sending an offline conversion event to Google Ads.

By the time a conversion happens offline, these identifiers are frequently missing because the conversion data is separated in time and system from the online ad click.

A server-side enrichment using Stape’s Enricher power-up helps deal with this problem. When an offline conversion event arrives at the server container, it can be matched using available identifiers such as an email address or an external customer ID. If a match is found in previously stored user profiles, the missing Google click identifiers can be restored and attached to the conversion event before it is sent to Google Ads.

This allows offline conversions to still be properly attributed to the original ad click and provides Google Ads with more data to optimize the ad targeting.

Offline conversion data tracking is the process of measuring how customers interact with your business offline. This includes people who visit your website but don’t purchase anything, people who call you after seeing one of your ads, and even people who visit your physical location. 

By tracking this data, you can better understand how well your advertising campaigns are performing and whether or not you should be increasing your budget. We've walked you through the steps in this blog post, but if you need help setting it up, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'd be happy to assist!