How to set up Enhanced Conversions for GA4 and Google Ads

Accurate conversion tracking is crucial for optimizing campaigns and maximizing ROI in digital marketing. Google Analytics and Google Ads now offer Enhanced Conversions tracking, delivering deeper insights and more precise data on user behavior and conversions. 

In this article, we dive deep into the Enhanced Conversions setup process, including tips and the latest updates from Google.

Introduction to Enhanced Conversions

Imagine a tool that can significantly improve the accuracy of your conversion measurement and unlock more effective bidding strategies. That's exactly what Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads do. By supplementing your existing conversion tags with hashed first-party customer data, Enhanced Conversions provide a more complete and precise picture of your marketing performance.

Various reliable methods, including the Google tag, Google Tag Manager, or Google Ads API, can be used to set up Enhanced Conversions. By leveraging these tools, you can be sure that you collect accurate conversion data.

Unlike traditional tracking methods, which may miss conversions due to browser restrictions or privacy settings, Enhanced Conversions use first-party data to capture every interaction. Enhanced Conversions for web capture first-party customer data such as emails and phone numbers, which are then hashed and sent to Google to track conversions more effectively.

How it works

For example, a user clicks on your ad, visits your site, and provides their email address. Even if they don't complete a purchase immediately but do so later, the hashed email address provided during the order confirmation allows Google to link the conversion back to the original ad click. It’s also effective when a user interacts with your ad and website using different devices or email accounts, as Google can use other identifiers like phone numbers to link these interactions.

The advantages of Enhanced Conversions

• The collection of first-party data (like email addresses, phone numbers, etc.) provided by users on your site. This data is encrypted and sent to GA4, ensuring compliance with privacy laws. You don’t have to depend on third-party cookies.
• Enhanced Conversions allow GA4 to match user interactions on your website with their Google accounts, thereby enabling more precise conversion attribution.
• With the help of Google accounts, GA4 can better understand and attribute conversions that occur across different devices and sessions.
• While Enhanced Conversions originated in Google Ads, their integration into GA4 signifies a more unified and comprehensive approach to tracking conversions across Google's platforms. This integration allows for a seamless flow of conversion data between GA4 and Google Ads.

Use cases of Enhanced Conversions

 Let’s discuss how Enhanced Conversions can be applied to different types of campaigns, such as lead generation, e-commerce, and hotel campaigns:

• Lead generation. Enhanced Conversions can track form submissions more accurately, ensuring that all potential customer interactions are captured, even if users have opted out of third-party cookies.
• E-commerce campaigns. You can track purchases by linking online and offline data, giving a complete view of the customer journey from initial visit to final sale.
• Hotel campaigns. Benefit by accurately capturing booking data, allowing you to see which channels drive the most reservations and optimize your strategies accordingly.

Implement Enhanced Conversions to improve the accuracy of conversion tracking in different campaign types by leveraging first-party customer data through the Google Ads API.

How to set up Enhanced Conversions in Google Analytics 4

1. Open your GA4 property and on the left click on “Admin”. Go to “Data Streams”.

2. Choose your web data stream and scroll down to “Google tag”. Then click on “Configure tag settings”.

3. Scroll down to “Allow user-provided data capabilities.”

4. Toggle on the “Automatically detect user-provided data”. 

(Recommendation). Always be mindful of privacy laws and regulations like GDPR or CCPA. Make sure you have consent from users to collect and use their data, especially for Enhanced Conversions.

(Recommendation for linking GA4 with Google Ads). Link your GA4 property with your Google Ads account to leverage Enhanced Conversion data in your ad campaigns.

5. Select your preferred method for setting up user-provided data collection in Tag Manager:

• Automatic collection: Google Analytics scans your web pages for email address patterns, excluding phone numbers and addresses. To enhance this feature, we recommend supplementing it with the following options. Learn more here: Google Analytics Support.
• Manual configuration: choose the types of user-provided data you want to collect, like email addresses or phone numbers. For each data type, specify how you want to identify it on the page—either using a CSS selector or a global JavaScript variable. This method offers more precision than automatic detection but is less reliable than adding a code snippet to your website. If you frequently update your website's code, especially the formatting or CSS selectors on the collection page, consider adding a code snippet for better reliability. Learn more about this option here.
• Code: insert JavaScript code into your web pages to collect email addresses, phone numbers, names, and addresses. Afterward, configure the user_data parameter for each event on the page. Learn more about this option here.

For detailed guidance and information, you can refer to the full article on the Google Analytics Help page.

A few updates of July 2024:

• Enhanced Data Collection in GA4: set up user-provided data and leverage features like Enhanced Conversions in GA4, first-party data demo & interests reporting, and future GA4-powered customer lists in Google Ads. This setup won't affect your user or event-level
• Enhanced Conversions for Leads via sGTM: now available through server-side Google Tag Manager (sGTM), Enhanced Conversions for Leads helps you measure offline interactions, such as purchases or closed leads, without relying solely on fragile identifiers like GCLIDs, which browsers increasingly strip out. Setting up EC for Leads via sGTM gives you more control over user data sent to Google and reduces the code running on your website pages.
• Enhanced Conversions for Hotel Campaigns: Enhanced Conversions now support reporting for Hotel Campaigns, filling gaps caused by the absence of third-party cookies or browser limitations. Previously, Hotel Campaigns and EC were not integrated. EC bidding support for Hotel Campaigns will be introduced later this year.

How to set up Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads

1. Enable Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads.

Log in to your Google Ads account, navigate to Tools & Settings → Conversions → check Turn on Enhanced Conversions.

2. Configure User-Provided Data variable in web GTM and add it to GA4 tag settings. 

In web GTM, create a Data Layer Variable to capture user data (such as email, phone number, and address). Then, create a User-Provided Data Variable and associate it with the captured data​.

Configure the User-Provided Data variable in web GTM and add it to GA4 tag settings.

3. Set Up Conversion Tracking Tag.

 In the GTM server container, create a new Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag, and trigger it based on the desired conversion events​. Tag will automatically parse user data form GA4 requests. 

And that’s it! No additional changes or modifications were made to the Google Ads Conversion Tracking setup.

Verifying and optimizing Enhanced Conversions

Once you have set up Enhanced Conversions, you must verify that they work correctly. You can do this by checking the conversion data in your Google Ads account.

To optimize your Enhanced Conversions, use the data to identify areas for improvement in your conversion tracking. Adjust your setup as needed.

What is Protected Audience API

The Protected Audiences API introduces a new method of audience targeting and data protection. It ensures that audience targeting is not only effective but also compliant with the increasing global data privacy regulations. Google's Enhanced Conversions is a part of Google's broader initiative to roll out the Protected Audiences API.

Key features:

• Browsers can store interest groups, which are categories of users based on their interests. This data is stored directly in the user's browser, rather than on external servers, enhancing privacy.
• Browsers can conduct on-device auctions. This means that the decision about which ads to display is made locally on the user’s device, based on the stored interest groups, without needing to track the user’s behavior across different websites.
• The API supports a form of ad rendering that occurs in a controlled environment known as Fenced Frames. This approach isolates the ad from the rest of the webpage content, further ensuring user privacy and preventing any potential data leakage.
• Retrieval of real-time information. This can be used by both advertisers and publishers for various purposes, such as real-time budget calculation or ensuring policy compliance.
• Browsers can remember which ad a user is interested in, based on their past web activity, without the need for cross-site tracking or reliance on third-party cookies.

How the Protected Audience API can be used

For example, a user visits an online clothing store and shows interest in a particular style of jackets but doesn't make a purchase. Later, when the user browses the internet, the Protected Audience API can enable the browser to display ads from that clothing store, specifically highlighting jackets or related items, without relying on third-party cookies.

Or here’s another use case: a user researches flights and hotels in a specific destination but doesn't book immediately. The Protected Audience API could later facilitate the display of ads for travel deals or hotel offers in that destination while the user is browsing other websites. This approach would be based on the user's demonstrated interest but done in a way that respects their privacy and avoids cross-site tracking.

Basically, it works like this:

• User interacts with the site that wants to advertise its products.
• Browser joins an interest group.
• User visits other sites that display ads.
• Ad auction is run on the user's device. The most desirable ad based on seller code is chosen.
• Winning ad is displayed.
• The results about the auction outcome are reported. 

And if you're looking for specific API methods and parameters:

• Buyers guide for joinAdInterestGroup() and generateBid().
• Seller's guide for the Protected Audience API runAdAuction().
• Buyers guide to reportResult().
• Troubleshoot the Protected Audience API.

Common questions about Enhanced Conversion tracking

1. How to check if Enhanced Conversion is being fired correctly on server-side? Because on the client-side, it’s necessary to check for the em parameter.

You may check the event data tab in the server container preview - you should see your user data there. It will be parsed by the Google tags automatically. You may also check an outgoing hit that is sent from the sGTM and you should see user data there as well, but you should expect it to be hashed already.

2. Will an Enhanced Conversion error appear for “Add to Cart” conversions in Google Ads when new users add items to their cart without logging in?

Yes, there will be an error if you do not send any user data with this event. So if you want to have as clean dashboard as possible - enable Enhanced Conversions only for events where you always have user data, like purchase, lead etc.

3. Is sharing user data directly in the Data Layer GDPR compliant? Doesn't it need to be hashed?

User data is hashed when sent to Google. Data Layer is an on-site object and is not subject to regulations directly.

Conclusion

Enhanced Conversions tracking in Google Analytics and Google Ads represents a significant advancement in digital marketing. By offering more precise data and insights, this feature can help you optimize your campaigns and achieve higher ROI. 

The ability to accurately track and measure conversions will be crucial for staying competitive and making informed marketing decisions. 

We’ve provided an overview of Enhanced Conversions, explored various use cases across different campaign types, and offered step-by-step guides for setting up Enhanced Conversions in both Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads. We hope you find this article helpful. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to contact us.