Glossary
Conversion Tracking
Conversion Tracking is the practice of measuring when a user completes a valuable action — a purchase, form submission, phone call, sign-up, or download — after interacting with a marketing channel, so the action can be attributed back to the campaign, ad, and keyword that drove it. In Google Ads, conversion tracking is implemented by placing a tag on the conversion page or importing offline events, and it is the prerequisite for every conversion-based Smart Bidding strategy: without accurate conversion data, Target CPA, Target ROAS, and Maximize Conversions cannot optimize bids, and reported return on ad spend is meaningless. Conversion tracking spans browser-based tags, enhanced conversions that match hashed first-party data, and offline conversion imports that close the loop for businesses whose sales happen off-site. It is the foundation of measurement — everything from Quality Score-informed bidding to incrementality testing depends on conversion events being captured accurately, consistently, and without duplication.