Question from Reddit:
Just looking for some tips on which conversion to track.
We have a web business that goes to a WhatsApp chat and then we close sales from there.
We are currently only tracking WhatsApp chats but I’ve recently programmed a way to track the purchases and tie them to the google click so I want to start uploading and report on purchases which should really help optimise our campaigns
What is the most effective way to track? Only use purchase + value as my primary goal or both?
Thanks everyone!
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
You should use both your initial WhatsApp chat and the final purchase event, but assign them different conversion categories within Google Ads.
The most effective way to track for optimization is to set the final purchase with its value as your Primary conversion action for bidding, while setting the WhatsApp chat as a Secondary conversion action for observation only.
This approach tells Google’s Smart Bidding to optimize directly for the revenue-driving purchase while still giving the system visibility into the earlier, high-volume lead event.
The optimal method for ensuring both purchase and value are accurately attributed to the original Google click is to use the Google Ads API and the WhatsApp Business API with a server-side solution to send the conversions back.
The long answer is:
Congratulations on successfully programming a way to connect the offline purchase to the initial Google click ID (gclid), as this is the single most important step for accurate optimization.
Your question of whether to use only the final purchase or both is common in a lead-to-sale funnel like yours.
The solution is to leverage Google Ads’ ability to distinguish between Primary and Secondary conversion actions.
First, you should continue tracking the WhatsApp chat submission as a conversion, but change its setting in Google Ads to Secondary conversion action.
This serves as a vital early signal for your Smart Bidding strategy.
It helps the algorithm identify high-quality clicks that are likely to convert before the final purchase data is even available, which is particularly useful for new campaigns or those with a long sales cycle.
Second, your final purchase event, with its associated value, should be set as the Primary conversion action.
This tells the bidding system, such as Target ROAS or Maximize Conversion Value, that this is the event it must optimize for to generate the highest revenue.
Now, for the execution.
The most robust and reliable way to ensure you capture the final purchase and value is to use a server-side integration involving the Google Ads API and the WhatsApp Business API.
Here’s why this is superior to client-side tracking: The WhatsApp chat is an offline conversion, meaning the final sale happens outside of your website’s tracking environment.
To accurately attribute this back to the Google click, you must use the Google Ads API’s Enhanced Conversions for Leads or Offline Conversion Import feature.
The process would be as follows: when a user initiates the chat, your website (via Google Tag Manager) captures the gclid and a unique identifier (like a phone number or an internal Lead ID) and passes them to your backend system.
When the sale is closed through the WhatsApp Business API, your backend system extracts the unique identifier and the purchase value.
This data is then sent instantly to a server-side environment like Stape or Google Cloud Platform.
This environment is configured to then send a complete conversion payload directly to the Google Ads API, including the original gclid, the purchase value, and the transaction time.
This method ensures 99%+ accuracy because it eliminates client-side issues like ad-blockers or browser limits, directly closing the attribution loop between the Google click and the final sale with its revenue value, giving you the best data for campaign optimization.
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