Question from Reddit user:
I run a counseling practice that uses SimplePractice to manage client notes and maintain a schedule. They have a Client Portal that allows new and existing clients to schedule appointments.
Is there a track a conversion if they complete the scheduling process? Once completed it does not redirect back to my website.
SimplePractice does have a scheduling widget (I’m assuming an API) that I have access if I pay for the next-tier pricing plan. Would that help me track conversions?
I am also using WebsiteBuilder through domain.com, which is easy to use but terrible for managing HTML injection or customization in my experience. So that may be a limiting factor as well.
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
You are facing a very common problem with third-party scheduling tools where the conversion (the appointment completion) happens entirely off your main website, making standard conversion tracking impossible because there is no thank you page to fire a tag on.
Simply getting the scheduling widget (API) will likely not solve the problem if your website builder blocks customization.
The most reliable and future-proof solution is a server-side approach using the Google Ads API and the SimplePractice API to send the conversion data directly back to Google Ads, bypassing the limitations of your website builder and the lack of a redirect.
The long answer is:
Your situation is challenging because the conversion path – clicking the ad, navigating to your site, clicking the SimplePractice link, and completing the booking – breaks down at the final step where the booking completion does not return the user to your domain.
This means the Google Ads conversion tracking code, which is installed on your site via Google Tag Manager (GTM), never has a chance to fire.
The scheduling widget API that SimplePractice offers may provide a small improvement, perhaps by allowing you to fire a client-side event in the iFrame upon successful booking, but this is often unreliable, depends heavily on the widget’s design, and is likely still blocked by your restrictive website builder.
To gain full control and accurate attribution, you must move the conversion tracking from the unreliable user’s browser to a secure server environment.
This is where the solution of combining APIs and server-side tagging comes in.
First, you must ensure that when a user clicks your Google Ad, the Google Click ID (gclid), which is passed by auto-tagging, is captured and stored in a first-party cookie on your domain via GTM.
When the user completes the booking on the SimplePractice portal, you would need to use the SimplePractice API to extract the data for the new appointment.
Crucially, your team would need to link that booking event data with the stored gclid for that user.
This combined data – the booked appointment and the original gclid – is then sent from your secure backend (or a server-side tagging environment like Stape or Google Cloud Platform) directly to Google’s servers using the Google Ads API (specifically, the Enhanced Conversions feature or an offline conversion import).
By using the Google Ads API and sending the gclid along with the timestamp of the booking, Google can accurately match the conversion back to the exact ad click, regardless of where the final transaction took place.
This is a robust solution that is not affected by your website builder’s limitations, browser restrictions, or the absence of a thank you page redirect.
About The Author
