Tag: Smart Bidding

Conversion tracking breaks silently. A tag stops firing after a site update. A developer removes a script during a redesign. An auto-imported goal becomes a primary conversion without anyone noticing. The result is weeks or months of bad data feeding into Smart Bidding — and wasted ad spend before anyone catches it. A regular audit of your conversion tracking prevents this.

This guide provides a systematic process for auditing your Google Ads conversion tracking, with a repeatable checklist you can run monthly.

Why You Should Audit Conversion Tracking Regularly

Conversion tracking is not a set-and-forget system. Here are the most common ways it breaks:

• Website updates: A new theme, a plugin update, or a page redesign can remove or break the conversion tag without any warning
• Tag duplication: Someone adds a Google tag directly to the site while GTM already has one — now every conversion is counted twice
• Auto-imported goals: Linking Google Analytics or enabling Google Ads features can automatically create conversion actions that end up as primary without your knowledge
• Default changes: Google occasionally changes default settings for new conversion actions, which can differ from your intended configuration
• Form plugin changes: Updating your form plugin might change how forms submit, breaking event-based triggers
• Expired or paused actions: Conversion actions that have not received data in over 7 days show as “Tag inactive” — but you might not notice unless you look

Any of these issues corrupts the data Smart Bidding uses to make decisions. If Google thinks you are getting 50 conversions a week when you are really getting 25, your Target CPA bids will be wrong and your budget allocation will be off.

Step 1: Review Your Conversion Actions List

Start in your Google Ads account:

1. Go to Goals > Conversions > Summary
2. Review every conversion action in the list — not just the ones you remember creating

For each conversion action, check:

Status: Is it actively recording? The status column tells you:

• “Recording conversions” — working correctly
• “Tag inactive” — the tag has not fired in over 7 days. Either nobody converted (possible) or the tag is broken (more likely)
• “Unverified” — Google has never detected this tag firing. It was created but never installed, or was installed incorrectly
• “No recent conversions” — the tag was detected but no conversions have been recorded recently

Primary vs Secondary: Check the “Optimisation goal” column. Every action marked as “Primary” is influencing your Smart Bidding. Ask yourself: should this action be affecting how Google bids? If it is a page view, a newsletter signup, or an auto-imported Analytics goal, it probably should not be primary. See our guide to primary and secondary conversions for the full breakdown.

Count model: Click into each conversion action and check the count setting. Lead generation actions should almost always be “One” (one conversion per click). If you see “Every” on a form submission action, duplicate submissions are inflating your numbers.

Source: Note where each conversion action comes from. Some are created manually, some are imported from Google Analytics, some are auto-created by Google Ads features like call extensions. Imported and auto-created actions are the ones most likely to be misconfigured.

Step 2: Verify Tags Are Actually Firing

The status column in Google Ads tells you whether tags have fired recently, but it does not tell you if they are firing correctly right now. For real-time verification, you need to check on the site itself.

Using Google Tag Assistant (GTM Users)

If you use Google Tag Manager:

1. Open your GTM workspace and click Preview
2. Enter your website URL and connect
3. Navigate to the page where conversions happen
4. Trigger a test conversion (submit the form, visit the thank-you page)
5. In the Tag Assistant panel, verify that:
   • Your conversion tag appears under “Tags Fired”
   • It fires exactly once per conversion (not twice, which would mean double-counting)
   • The Conversion Linker tag is firing on all pages

For more detail on GTM setup and testing, see our GTM conversion tracking guide.

Using the Tag Assistant Chrome Extension

If you do not use GTM (or want to check for tags outside of GTM):

1. Install the Google Tag Assistant Legacy extension or use the Tag Assistant at tagassistant.google.com
2. Visit your conversion page and trigger a conversion
3. Check for Google Ads conversion tags in the assistant output
4. Look for any duplicate tags — two conversion tags with the same Conversion ID firing on the same page is a common cause of inflated conversion counts

Check for Duplicate Tags

Duplicate conversion tags are one of the most common causes of conversion over-counting. They happen when:

• The same conversion is tracked via both GTM and a Google tag installed directly on the site
• Multiple GTM triggers fire the same conversion tag on one page
• A conversion tag is set to fire on “All Pages” instead of just the conversion page
• The thank-you page reloads or refreshes after the initial load

For a deeper dive into why your conversion numbers might be inflated, see our article on why Google Ads reports more conversions than you actually received.

Step 3: Compare Google Ads Conversions to Actual Results

This is the most important step in any conversion tracking audit. Pull two numbers and compare them:

1. Google Ads conversion count: Go to your campaign reports and note the total conversions for the past 30 days
2. Actual results count: How many real leads, sales, or enquiries did you actually receive in that same period? Check your CRM, email inbox, form submission logs, or phone records.

Some discrepancy is normal. Google Ads uses attribution models that can assign fractional conversions across multiple clicks. A small difference (10-15%) is expected. But if Google Ads says 80 conversions and you only have 40 real leads, you have a serious tracking issue.

Common causes of large discrepancies:

• Duplicate firing: Tags firing twice per conversion (see Step 2)
• Spam submissions: Bots submitting forms that trigger the conversion tag but are not real leads
• Wrong count model: “Every” instead of “One” means repeat visitors create multiple conversions
• Cross-device attribution: Google attributes a conversion to a click on a different device, which might not align with your own tracking
• Multiple primary actions: Several conversion actions all counting as primary, inflating the total

One advantage of per-lead tracking tools like TrueConversion is that you can compare your actual form submissions — with the traffic source attached to each one — against what Google Ads reports. This makes discrepancies immediately obvious and easy to diagnose.

Step 4: Check Conversion Lag and Attribution Windows

Conversion lag is the time between when someone clicks your ad and when they convert. Understanding this is important for both your reporting and your audit.

1. Go to Goals > Conversions > Summary
2. Click on a conversion action
3. Look at the conversion window settings — the default click-through window is 30 days

If your conversion window is 30 days, a click from January 1st can generate a conversion that appears on January 30th. This means your most recent data is always incomplete — conversions from the last 30 days may still be trickling in.

To see how your conversions distribute over time after the click, go to Goals > Tools > Attribution > Conversion paths. This shows you the typical lag between click and conversion for your account. If most conversions happen within 1-3 days, a 30-day window is fine. If your sales cycle is longer (common in B2B), you might need a longer window.

Key things to check:

• Are your conversion windows appropriate for your sales cycle?
• Are you making campaign decisions based on data that is still within the conversion lag period? (Wait until the full window has passed before drawing conclusions)
• Is your attribution model set to data-driven (the current Google default) or last-click? Data-driven distributes credit across touchpoints, which can show fractional conversions.

Step 5: Verify Enhanced Conversions Are Working

If you have enabled enhanced conversions, verify they are functioning:

1. Go to Goals > Conversions > Summary
2. Click on the conversion action that has enhanced conversions enabled
3. Go to the Diagnostics tab
4. Check the “Enhanced conversions” section
5. Look for:
   • Tag health: Should show “Active” or “Recording”
   • Match rate: Typically 30-70%. If it is 0%, the user-provided data is not being captured correctly
   • Coverage: What percentage of your conversions include enhanced conversion data

If enhanced conversions show “No data” or a 0% match rate, revisit your GTM configuration. The most common issue is that the CSS selectors or dataLayer variables are not matching the form data on the conversion page.

Step 6: Check for Auto-Imported Conversion Actions

Google Ads can automatically create conversion actions from several sources:

• Google Analytics (GA4) linked goals: When you link GA4 to Google Ads, events marked as conversions in GA4 can be imported automatically
• Google Ads call extensions: If you use call extensions, Google can auto-create a “Calls from ads” conversion action
• Store visits: For businesses with physical locations, Google may auto-create store visit conversion actions
• Automatically created conversions: Google Ads can auto-detect certain website actions and create conversion actions for them

The risk is that these auto-imported actions often default to primary, meaning they start influencing your Smart Bidding without you realising. During your audit, look for any conversion actions you did not manually create. For each one, decide whether it should be:

• Kept as primary: Only if it represents a genuine business outcome and provides clean data
• Changed to secondary: If you want to track it for reporting but do not want it affecting bidding
• Removed: If it is redundant or does not provide useful data

To prevent this issue going forward, periodically check Goals > Conversions > Settings and review the “Automatically created” conversions section. You can disable automatic creation if you prefer full manual control.

The Monthly Audit Checklist

Run through this checklist once a month (set a calendar reminder):

• Review all conversion actions in Goals > Conversions > Summary
• Check the status of each action (Recording / Tag inactive / Unverified)
• Verify that only the right actions are set as primary
• Confirm count model is correct (One for leads, Every for transactions)
• Test-fire conversion tags on your site using Tag Assistant or GTM Preview
• Check for duplicate tags firing on conversion pages
• Compare Google Ads conversion count to actual leads or sales for the past 30 days
• Review conversion lag and attribution window settings
• Check enhanced conversions diagnostics (if enabled)
• Look for any new auto-imported or automatically created conversion actions
• Verify the Conversion Linker tag is still firing on all pages (GTM users)
• Confirm that conversion values are accurate (if you use conversion values)

This checklist takes about 20 minutes once you are familiar with it. The time investment is minimal compared to the damage that weeks of bad conversion data can do to your Smart Bidding performance and budget.

What to Do When You Find Issues

If your audit reveals problems, here is how to prioritise fixes:

Fix immediately:

• Duplicate tags causing double-counting — this directly corrupts Smart Bidding
• Wrong conversion actions set as primary — especially auto-imported ones
• Tags that have stopped firing — your campaigns have no conversion data

Fix this week:

• Count model misconfigurations (Every instead of One)
• Enhanced conversions not working
• Conversion windows that do not match your sales cycle

Plan for:

• Adding offline conversion imports if you are not using them yet
• Setting up enhanced conversions if not enabled
• Creating a primary offline conversion action and making online form submissions secondary

After making changes to primary/secondary status or fixing tag issues, give Smart Bidding two to three weeks to recalibrate before evaluating performance. The algorithm needs time to adjust to the corrected data.

Summary

A monthly audit of your conversion tracking catches problems before they waste significant budget. The core of the audit is simple: review your conversion actions list, verify tags are firing correctly, compare reported conversions to actual results, and check for any auto-imported actions that might be influencing your bidding without your knowledge.

The biggest issues to watch for are duplicate tags, conversion actions incorrectly set as primary, and growing gaps between Google Ads reported conversions and your actual lead or sales count. If you want to make this comparison easier, per-lead tracking tools like TrueConversion let you see the traffic source of every individual form submission alongside your Google Ads data — making discrepancies easy to spot.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I audit my conversion tracking?

Monthly is the recommended frequency for a full audit. However, you should also check conversion tracking after any website update, theme change, form plugin update, or Google Ads account restructure. If you notice sudden changes in conversion volume or cost-per-conversion, run an immediate audit — something may have broken.

What is a normal discrepancy between Google Ads and actual conversions?

A 10-20% difference is common and usually explained by attribution modelling (data-driven attribution distributes fractional credit), cross-device conversions, and conversion lag. If the discrepancy exceeds 30%, investigate. If Google Ads reports significantly more conversions than you actually received, the likely causes are duplicate tags, wrong count model, or spam form submissions. If it reports fewer, check for broken tags or expired cookies.

Can I delete old conversion actions that I no longer use?

Yes. You can remove conversion actions from your account, but the historical data associated with them will also be removed from your reports. If you want to preserve historical data, change the action to secondary and leave it in place — it will not affect bidding but will still appear in “All conversions” reports. Only delete actions that you are certain you will never need to reference again.

Every conversion action in Google Ads is either primary or secondary. This setting controls whether Google’s Smart Bidding algorithms use that conversion to optimise your campaigns. Get it wrong and your campaigns optimise for the wrong outcomes — wasting budget on leads that never turn into customers.

This guide explains the difference, shows you exactly how to configure each type, and covers the most common scenarios where the distinction matters.

What Are Primary and Secondary Conversions?

Primary conversions are used by Smart Bidding strategies (Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximise Conversions, Maximise Conversion Value) to optimise your campaigns. When Google decides who to show your ad to and how much to bid, it looks at your primary conversions to make that decision.

Secondary conversions are tracked and reported but are not used for bidding optimisation. They appear in your Conversions columns only if you add the “All conversions” column to your reports. Think of them as observation-only metrics.

By default, every new conversion action you create in Google Ads is set to primary. This means unless you deliberately change it, every conversion action you track is influencing your bidding.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Here is a scenario that plays out on thousands of Google Ads accounts every day:

You set up conversion tracking for form submissions. Every form fill gets counted as a primary conversion. Google’s algorithm optimises to get you more form fills. The problem? Not every form fill is a real lead. Some are spam, some are sales pitches, some are job applications. Google does not know the difference — it just sees a conversion and optimises to get more people like that person.

If you are running Smart Bidding (and most accounts are), this directly affects who sees your ads and what you pay. The algorithm is making decisions based on every conversion action marked as primary.

When to Use Primary Conversions

Mark a conversion action as primary when:

• It represents your actual business goal (a genuine lead, a purchase, a booking)
• You want Smart Bidding to optimise towards getting more of this action
• The signal is clean — the data reliably represents real value

Examples of good primary conversions:

• Purchase confirmations (e-commerce)
• Qualified lead form submissions (if you can filter out junk)
• Phone calls over 60 seconds
• Offline conversions imported from your CRM (only verified sales or qualified leads)

When to Use Secondary Conversions

Mark a conversion action as secondary when:

• You want to track it for reporting but do not want it influencing your bids
• The action is a micro-conversion or engagement signal, not a business outcome
• The data is noisy (includes spam, irrelevant submissions, or duplicates)

Examples of good secondary conversions:

• All form submissions (before filtering for quality)
• Newsletter sign-ups
• PDF downloads
• Page views of key pages (pricing, contact)
• Chat widget interactions

The Recommended Setup for Lead Generation

If you run a lead generation business (services, B2B, professional services), the cleanest setup is:

1. Secondary: Track all form submissions as a secondary conversion. This gives you volume data without polluting your bidding.
2. Primary: Import only qualified, genuine leads as a primary conversion using offline conversion imports. This tells Google exactly which clicks led to real business.

This two-tier approach means Google sees every form fill for reporting purposes, but only optimises towards the ones that actually mattered. Over time, Smart Bidding learns which types of clicks lead to real customers and adjusts accordingly.

Tools like TrueConversion can automate this by identifying genuine leads and uploading only those as conversions to Google Ads — but you can also do it manually with spreadsheet uploads, which we cover in our offline conversion import guide.

How to Change a Conversion Action to Primary or Secondary

Here is the step-by-step process in the Google Ads interface:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account
2. Click Goals in the left navigation menu
3. Click Conversions, then Summary
4. Find the conversion action you want to change and click its name
5. Click Settings (or the pencil icon) — if you need help finding your conversion actions in the interface, our GTM conversion tracking guide includes a step-by-step walkthrough
6. Scroll to Goal and action optimisation
7. Select either Primary — used for bidding optimisation or Secondary — not used for bidding optimisation
8. Click Save

The change takes effect immediately for new auctions. Existing campaign data will not be retroactively changed, but Smart Bidding will start adjusting based on the new primary/secondary designation within a few days.

Configuring the Count Model

While you are in the conversion action settings, check the Count setting as well:

• One: Counts only one conversion per click, regardless of how many times the action happens. Use this for leads — one person submitting a form twice is still one lead.
• Every: Counts every instance of the conversion action. Use this for e-commerce transactions where each purchase has separate value.

For lead generation, almost always choose One. This prevents duplicate form submissions from inflating your conversion count and misleading Smart Bidding.

Conversion Windows and Attribution

Two other settings worth reviewing while you are configuring your conversion actions:

Click-through conversion window: How many days after a click can a conversion be attributed? The default is 30 days. For most lead generation businesses, 30 days is sensible. For impulse purchases, you might shorten it to 7 days.

Attribution model: Google now defaults to data-driven attribution for most accounts. This distributes credit across multiple touchpoints in the conversion path. If your account does not have enough data for data-driven, it will fall back to last-click.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Leaving everything as primary: If you have five different conversion actions all set to primary, Smart Bidding is optimising for all of them simultaneously. This dilutes the signal and confuses the algorithm.
• Using “Every” count for leads: One person refreshing your thank-you page three times should not count as three leads.
• Not checking after setup: Google occasionally changes defaults or adds conversion actions automatically (like from linked Google Analytics goals). Audit your conversion actions at least quarterly.
• Switching too frequently: Changing conversion actions from primary to secondary (or vice versa) resets the learning period for Smart Bidding. Make the change, then give it two to three weeks to stabilise.

How to Check Your Current Setup

To quickly audit which conversion actions are currently influencing your bidding:

1. Go to Goals > Conversions > Summary
2. Look at the Optimisation goal column
3. Every action showing “Primary” is being used by Smart Bidding
4. If you see actions that should not be influencing bids (like page views or newsletter sign-ups), change them to secondary

If the “Optimisation goal” column is not visible, click the columns icon and add it.

Summary

Primary and secondary conversions give you control over what Google optimises for. The key principle is simple: only mark a conversion as primary if it represents genuine business value. Everything else should be secondary — tracked for reporting but kept away from your bidding strategy.

For lead generation businesses, the ideal setup is to track all form submissions as secondary and import only qualified leads as primary conversions. This gives Smart Bidding a clean signal and stops your budget being wasted on junk leads.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I have multiple primary conversion actions?

Yes, but be deliberate about it. Every primary conversion action influences Smart Bidding simultaneously. If you have a primary action for form submissions and another for phone calls, the algorithm optimises for both. This is fine if both represent equal business value — but if one is noisier than the other, it can dilute the signal.

What happens to my data if I switch from primary to secondary?

Historical data remains unchanged in your reports. The conversion action will continue to track and record conversions. The only difference is that Smart Bidding will stop using it for optimisation going forward. Expect a learning period of two to three weeks as the algorithm adjusts.

Do secondary conversions appear in the main Conversions column?

No. Secondary conversions only appear in the “All conversions” column. You need to add this column to your reports manually if you want to see them. The default “Conversions” column only counts primary conversion actions.

Should I use primary or secondary for Google Analytics imported goals?

In most cases, secondary. Google Analytics goals imported into Google Ads are often broad engagement metrics (time on site, pages per session) that should not influence bidding. If you have a specific GA4 event that represents a genuine conversion, you can keep it as primary — but audit it carefully to ensure it is not double-counting with your Google Ads conversion tag.