Question from Reddit user:
Hello!
Does anyone have any recommendations on how to track conversions in Google Ads for visitors who hit a PPC landing page and download a form to receive a white paper (PDF)?
I’m trying to set this up for a client, but they are not using a ‘thank you’ page so I can’t use the Event snippet code via Google Ads.
I was going to try to set up a Goal in Google Analytics based on a Destination URL using the PDF URL and import the Goal in Google Ads.
Has this worked for anyone?
I should also mention the PPC landing page and form is being created through Pardot, and i’m not sure if I could use the Click-based Event snippet code instead of Page Load-based?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
Your idea of tracking the PDF download URL as a GA goal and importing it to Google Ads is a good starting point, but it’s fundamentally flawed for accurate conversion tracking because it only measures the start of the download, not a confirmed lead.
The correct, most reliable solution is to track the click event in Google Tag Manager (GTM) and send that data as an Enhanced Conversion event directly to Google Ads.
For the highest data quality and to confirm a true lead, the best solution is to use the Salesforce Account Engagement API (Pardot API) to pass confirmed lead data back to Google Ads, combining it with the Google Ads API for click-to-lead matching.
The long answer is:
Your instinct to use the destination URL for the PDF in Google Analytics is a valid client-side workaround, and yes, many people have tried it, but it often leads to low-quality conversion data.
The issue is that tracking a user hitting the PDF URL only confirms the link was clicked or the download started, not that the user successfully completed the lead generation form that precedes the white paper delivery, especially since this is handled through Pardot.
The gold standard for this scenario, where a “thank you” page is not available, is to use GTM to track the button click that triggers the PDF download.
You would create a GTM trigger for a click event targeting the element that initiates the download and fire a GA4 generate_lead event on that trigger.
However, since your ultimate goal is Google Ads conversion tracking, you can also use GTM to directly fire the Google Ads conversion tag on that same click event.
Since this is a simple download link and the conversion is the lead form submission before the download, the most accurate method within the client-side limitation is to track the successful form submission event before the redirect to the PDF.
Since you can’t modify the Pardot thank you page, this is tricky.
The ultimate, future-proof solution is to completely bypass the client-side issues and use a server-side solution integrated with Pardot.
This involves creating a robust pipeline that uses the Salesforce Account Engagement API (Pardot API) to extract the confirmed lead submission record after it’s processed by Pardot.
This confirmed lead data, which includes the timestamp and the GCLID (Google Click ID) that Pardot should be capturing, is then sent from your server-side environment, hosted on a platform like Stape or Google Cloud Platform, directly to the Google Ads server using the Google Ads API.
This process, often called offline conversion import or Enhanced Conversions for Leads, matches the confirmed lead in Pardot with the original Google Ads click, providing the highest accuracy.
The Google Analytics Data API can also be used to supplement this data by providing session information, ensuring your GA4 reports and Google Ads reports are based on a confirmed lead event, not just a link click, which is a massive improvement in data quality.
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