Server-side conversion tracking in Google Ads (Adwords)

Server-side Tag Manager allows you to move your Google Ads conversion tracking tags from the webpage to the server-side, which will help improve page load time and increase your ads conversion tracking accuracy. Moving Ad tags onto server-side tagging will also reduce the amount of code that needs to run on the webpages and aid with performance issues for slower internet connections!

In this article, we’ll show you how to set up Google Ads (AdWords) conversion tracking using Google Ads tag for the Google Tag Manager server container.

Google Ads conversion tracking is a tool that measures what happens after a user interacts with your ad - such as completing a purchase, submitting a form, or adding a product to their cart. This data helps you evaluate ad performance and powers Smart Bidding, allowing Google to target users more likely to convert based on your defined business goals.

By tracking both primary and micro-conversions, you gain insights into which campaigns, keywords, and ads drive results. It also helps optimize ROAS, lower cost per conversion, and adjust values post-conversion if needed (e.g., for returns), making your ad strategy more effective and data-driven.

Here is the official documentation on Google Ads and server-side tracking: Google Ads conversions (Google).

Google released Google Ads Conversion tracking and Conversion linker tags for the Google Tag Manager server container in July 2021. With the new change to GTM server-side tracking, you can now get more out of your Ads account. This means that you will have access to more reliable server tracking, making conversion data accurate!

Google Ads conversion tracking works only based on the Google Analytics 4 tag, meaning that if you want to set up Google Ads tracking yourself, you should configure server-side GA4. Unlike Facebook, Google Ads do not support deduplication, so you should use either web or server-side conversion tracking.

Follow the steps below to set up Google Ads server-side tracking.

This guide explains how to set up and host a server container. We also have an article which covers the steps for sending data from the web to the server container.

The next thing you need to do is configure the server-side Google Analytics 4.

We have a detailed user manual on how to set up server-side Google Analytics 4 in our blog post.

In the Server container, set up the Conversion Linker tag. This tag should trigger on all pageviews. 

Create a new Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag in the Server container → add Conversion ID and Conversion Label similar to the web Ads tag setup.

Then, you can add Product and User Data (it looks very similar to how Facebook's conversion API works). If you send user and product data from the web to the server, you can enable these checkboxes and select event data as a data source. Our Ads server conversion triggers on the purchase event. 

That’s it for the server container. But Google also added a bonus to the web Google Ads tag.

You can set up enhanced conversion tracking in the server-side Google Ads conversion tag. This means that it's possible to send user data to Google Ads. 

Why set enhanced conversion up?

Log in to your Google Ads account → Tools & Settings → Conversions → check Turn on enhanced conversions.

In web GTM, go to “Variables” → in the section “User-Defined Variables” → click “New” → add the following settings:

Go to the “Tags” section and find the GA4 tag or create it (click “New” → Tag Type: Google Analytics: GA4 Event).

Add the user-provided data using the user_data parameter, as shown in the screenshot below. Select the variable you created in Step 2 in the “User Data” section.

In the server GTM container, go to Tags → New → Tag configuration “Google Ads Conversion Tracking”.

Add triggers based on needed conversion events. The tag will automatically process user data from GA4 requests.

Server Google ads product remarketing tag works based on the Google Analytics 4 product data.

Open the Google Ads Remarketing tag inside the server Google Tag Manager container and enable Send dynamic remarketing event data.

To make dynamic product remarketing work, make sure that in the web Google Tag Manager, you've configured product data inside the Google Analytics 4 tags. 

First, test that the Google Ads Conversion tag was triggered in the server container and that the request it sent was correct.

Check that the FPGCLAW cookie was added. It will work if you add the gclid parameter to the URL.

Setting up server-side tracking in Google Ads is not difficult, but it does take some time. You can set up this type of tracking by using the Google Ads tag for the server container or server-side Google Analytics.

If you need help setting up either one, don’t hesitate to submit a help request. We have experience with both methods and would happily estimate the cost if you are interested in our services.

Do any of these sound like they could work for you? Let us know which method sounds best from the ones discussed today, or let us know what your needs are so we can find the right solution for you.