Google Ads user journey conversion tracking
Hi everybody,
I hope someone can help me with this, I’ve been researching, and I have not been able to find a solution to what I want to implement. I will walk through an example of what I want to accomplish.
I am running ads on Google Ads for a client, and we have different goals, for example these:
Download a PDF
Buy a course
Fill out a form
The PDF download is the goal that has the least value, BUT, in that PDF there are different links that can take you to buy a course, and others that take you to fill out a form.
I can see in Google Analytics that there are users who buy the course or fill out the form that come from the PDF (the source for those goals is the PDF itself).
What I want to accomplish is to know if the users that bought the course or filled out the form from the PDF, downloaded the PDF from the ads that I am running.
I hope I am being clear.
Long story short, I want to know if the Google Ads conversion for downloading the PDF ends up in a bought course or a form submission.
Is this possible? How?
Thanks and happy holidays!
The short answer is:
Yes, itâs possible, and itâs a common challenge in advanced conversion tracking.
The recommended solution for getting this user journey data back into Google Ads involves using the Google Ads Enhanced Conversions for Leads feature, which allows you to send a unique identifier (like a hashed email address or user ID) with the initial âDownload a PDFâ conversion, and then match that identifier to the subsequent âBuy a courseâ or âFill out a formâ conversion via an offline upload, effectively linking the entire user path back to the originating ad click.
For the most robust and budget-friendly implementation, youâll likely need a server-side tagging setup using Google Tag Manager and a service like Stape or Google Cloud Platform, combined with an automated data pipeline using the Google Ads API, Google Analytics Data API, and Looker Studio to manage the data flow and reporting.
The long answer is:
The reason youâre losing the connection is because, by default, Google Ads Conversion Tracking is focused on the immediate action (the PDF download), and when the user clicks a link inside the PDF, the original Google Ads click ID (gclid) and tracking parameters are typically lost, as the PDF becomes the new referrer in Google Analytics.
To bridge this gap, you need to implement a mechanism that tracks the user across the PDF and associates their final high-value conversion with the initial Google Ads click.
The most sophisticated way to do this is using the Google Ads Enhanced Conversions for Leads (or Enhanced Conversions for Web, if you capture PII on the PDF download).
The process involves capturing a unique, privacy-safe identifier, like a one-way hashed email address (SHA256) at the time the user downloads the PDF, and sending this alongside the âDownload a PDFâ conversion event.
This identifier must also be stored in your clientâs internal system (CRM or database) when they complete the final, high-value actions, like âBuy a courseâ or âFill out a formâ.
You then use a server-side solution, often implemented using Google Tag Manager with a dedicated server container, which can be hosted affordably on a service like Stape or via a self-managed solution on Google Cloud Platform.
The server container receives the subsequent âBuy a courseâ or âFill out a formâ events and looks up the stored identifier.
The final step is to use the Google Ads API to perform an Offline Conversion Import.
Youâll upload a file containing the gclid (if you captured it), the high-value conversion action name, and the unique identifier.
Google Ads then uses the identifier to match the âBuy a courseâ or âFill out a formâ event to the original âDownload a PDFâ ad click.
The power of a combined solution using the Google Ads API, Google Analytics Data API, Looker Studio, Google Tag Manager, and Stape/Google Cloud Platform is that it provides a scalable, affordable, and flexible way to automate this entire user journey tracking.
Google Tag Manager with Stape/Google Cloud Platform handles the server-side event collection and unique ID generation/storage, ensuring data quality and a lower cost than many enterprise tools.
The Google Analytics Data API can pull the full user journey context that you currently see, while the Google Ads API handles the critical Offline Conversion upload.
Looker Studio acts as the affordable, unified reporting layer, combining data from Google Ads (showing the matched journey conversions) and Google Analytics (showing the full path) into a single, comprehensive dashboard.
This entire setup, while requiring initial development, is a highly effective and cost-efficient way to achieve granular user journey attribution and optimize your campaigns based on true ROI.
For the Google Tag Manager setup, you’ll be working with Standard Events like page_viewpurchase or custom events, ensuring you fire the server-side requests correctly.
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