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As concerns over user privacy grow, more regulatory bodies are passing rules limiting invasive tracking while at the same time browsers are similarly building in features to protect privacy. This means third-party cookies and related functions are being phased out, and businesses with online presences — AKA pretty much all of them like, presumably, yours! — will need to adapt accordingly.
Luckily, there are newer options that allow you to still gather helpful information to optimize your digital marketing efforts — Google’s enhanced conversions is one of these options.
Today, we’re doing a primer on this feature and how enhanced conversions will help you have a better understanding of who converts, and how to use that information to improve your work.
What are enhanced conversions and how they work?
This tool is offered by Google Ads as a way to potentially improve your accuracy in measuring conversions. Enhanced conversions don’t replace your existing conversion tags, but rather work alongside them to give you a better overall read on your conversions and, from there, bid more effectively.
Once set up, enhanced conversions may provide first-party data on a customer when they convert on your site. This information can include email, name, phone number, and more. It can then be captured in your conversion tracking tags and hashed — ensuring it remains secure during transmission — after which it can be sent to Google and used to enhance your conversion measurement while still respecting user privacy.
Enhanced conversions were created by Google in response to an evolving ecosystem that’s moving away from features like third-party cookies in favor of increased privacy and reduced tracking visibility — whether from regulatory bodies like GDPR and CCPA, or browsers like Safari and Firefox, which have implemented restrictions on overzealous tracking.
Why do they matter?
The bottom line as to why enhanced conversions are important, is that they help you get better, more accurate information on where your conversions are coming from.
Among the ways this happens, enhanced conversions:
- Improve the accuracy of your conversion tracking
- Allow Google’s algorithm to make better-informed decisions regarding your efforts
- Help fill in gaps that exist in standard conversion tracking
Together, these add up to give you deeper insight into your conversions, allowing you to be less wasteful in the time, money, and human power that devote to your online marketing efforts.
Setting up enhanced conversions
The easiest area to create enhanced conversions is in GA4, although Google Ads itself also offers ways to set them up. Depending on your approach, it may require adding scripts to your site that can assist the process.
The process depends on which route you take. Regardless, you’ll have to turn on the setting to allow enhanced conversion measurements, and you’ll want to be able to make a test lead action to confirm everything’s working properly.
Wordstream has a nifty step-by-step guide with visuals to walk you through the set-up, but the general process begins with setting up data-layer variables to gather first-party data — this allows it to be sent back to Google for your uses.
Otherwise, the simplified steps are:
- Turn on enhanced conversions in Google Tag Manager via Google Ads
- Once your Google Ads Conversion Tag is running on your Google Tag Manager account, apply enhanced conversions
- Test by running a preview mode test order
Enhanced conversions are now implemented!
We recommend checking out the super in-depth Wordstream guide we mentioned above for help when setting up, as it includes detailed substeps and pictures.
While this was just a primer, you can definitely nerd out about enhanced conversions way more and go down the rabbit hole on the minutiae therein — if you’re so inclined, we definitely recommend doing so!
At the end of the day, these are a result of the evolving ecosystem that’s newly favoring individuals’ online privacy after a decade-plus of increasingly intense data-harvesting from tech companies. By adapting proactively sooner rather than later, you’ll give your business a strong foundation for gaining insight on your conversions while complying with the new infrastructure and respecting your customers.
