Witch one is the best way to push conversion events to Google Ads? Thru GTM, GA4 or both?
I’ve created a Google Ads accont and made GTM to push a purchse tag for its conversion tracking.
GTM was also sending a purchase tag to GA4 at the same event. I found out that one can link Google Ads to GA4 directly. So now I’m wondering witch is the “best” way to do that.Should I link GTM with both GA4 and GAds while letting the linking beteewn GA4 and GAds active or should I take another route like: Link GTM with GA4 and let the GA4 to GAds linking do the magic for me?
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The short answer is:
The best and most robust way to push Purchase conversion events to Google Ads is by using Google Tag Manager (GTM) to send the event directly to both Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for analytics and to the native Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag for bidding optimization, all while maintaining the link between GA4 and Google Ads for secondary conversions and audience sharing.
For ultimate reliability and data quality, you should further enhance this by moving to a server-side GTM container, hosted on a service like Stape or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which then uses the Google Ads API or Google Analytics Measurement Protocol to send the data directly to the respective platforms, mitigating the loss caused by ad blockers and browser restrictions.
Relying solely on the GA4-to-Google Ads conversion import for a primary conversion like Purchase is not recommended because the data is delayed and uses GA4’s attribution date, which is inferior for Google Ads’ Smart Bidding to the native tracking’s ad-click date attribution.
The long answer is:
Your goal should be to leverage the strengths of each platform while minimizing their weaknesses, which means a combined approach is superior to an ‘either-or’ choice, but with a specific hierarchy for critical conversion actions like Purchase.
The best practice for a primary, high-value conversion like a Purchase is to use the native Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag, implemented through your GTM web container, which fires when the Purchase event occurs in the data layer.
This direct connection ensures that Google Ads receives the conversion data with minimal latency and attributes the conversion to the date of the ad click (gclid tracking), which is crucial for the optimal performance of Smart Bidding strategies.
Simultaneously, you should absolutely continue sending the same Purchase event from GTM to your GA4 property using the Google Analytics 4 Event tag, as GA4 is your source of truth for holistic site behavior, cross-channel attribution, and audience building.
The link between your Google Ads and GA4 accounts should remain active, but you should only import lower-funnel, non-transactional events like AddToCart or Lead as secondary conversion actions in Google Ads, or simply use the GA4 data for audience creation and reporting insights within Google Ads.
Crucially, you must ensure you do not import the Purchase event from GA4 as a primary conversion if you are already using the native Google Ads tag for the same event, as this leads to duplication or conflicting data and hampers optimization.
The most advanced and cost-effective solution for long-term data reliability is to transition to server-side tracking, utilizing a GTM Server Container hosted on Stape or GCP.
Your website’s GTM web container would be configured to send all event data, including the Purchase event and vital user parameters for Enhanced Conversions, to your custom server container endpoint.
The server container would then use the Google Ads API (specifically its conversion management features, including Enhanced Conversions for Web) and the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol to dispatch the conversion data directly to Google Ads and GA4, respectively.
This server-side approach is highly cost-effective in the long run because it dramatically improves conversion data accuracy by bypassing client-side restrictions like ad blockers and Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), providing superior data quality for Google Ads’ machine learning and leading to a better return on ad spend.
Furthermore, sending Purchase data and other events into GA4 allows you to export this high-quality, server-side-validated data into a platform like BigQuery via the BigQuery API for advanced analysis, which can then be visualized and operationalized in Looker Studio using the Looker Studio API for end-to-end data intelligence.
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