Question from Reddit user:
Hi All,
Trying to track conversions in Google Ads for Calendly bookings and am trying to figure out the best way to go about it? I’ve done some reasearch but see conflicting viewpoints.
Thanks!
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
The best way to track Calendly bookings as Google Ads conversions is to use Google Tag Manager to fire the conversion tag upon a successful booking, as this is the only way to capture the booking event client-side.
The most reliable trigger is the redirect to your Thank You page after the booking.
However, the superior and more resilient solution is to use the Calendly Webhook to send the booking data to a server-side environment like Stape or Google Cloud Platform, which then uses the Google Ads API to instantly send a high-quality, first-party conversion event back to Google Ads, completely bypassing client-side browser issues and ad-blockers.
The long answer is:
It’s understandable you’re finding conflicting advice, as Calendly presents a tracking challenge because the booking happens within an iframe or a separate Calendly domain, meaning you can’t directly access the internal events or data from your main website’s GTM container.
The GTM solution, which is the standard method, involves redirecting the user to a specific Thank You page on your domain after a successful booking.
In Calendly’s settings, you can specify a URL to redirect to upon completion.
You then set up a Google Tag Manager Page View trigger that only fires on the URL of this unique Thank You page.
When the page loads, you fire your Google Ads Conversion Tag (either the standard tag or a GA4 conversion event that is imported into Google Ads).
This works reliably for most users, but it can be affected by users closing the window too quickly or browser restrictions that delay the page load.
The much more robust and future-proof solution is to use a server-side architecture.
This approach moves the conversion event logic off the user’s browser and into a controlled server environment.
First, you configure a Calendly Webhook to send a payload of data to your server endpoint (hosted on Stape or Google Cloud Platform) every time a booking is completed.
This data package contains crucial information, including the user’s original Google Click ID (gclid), which you must pass to Calendly using a URL parameter when the user lands on your site.
Once your server endpoint receives this booking data, your server-side GTM container or custom code uses the Google Ads API to make a direct, server-to-server call.
This is known as Enhanced Conversions for Leads.
This method allows you to send a Conversion Upload or Conversion Adjustment to Google Ads, ensuring the conversion is registered with the correct gclid attribution, high data quality, and maximum reliability, as it is completely immune to ad-blockers, privacy settings, and client-side page load failures.
This is the gold standard for tracking off-site form submissions like those from Calendly.
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