Google Ads Enhanced Conversions — Setup and Recovering Missing Conversions

Google Ads only counts a purchase when it can connect the order to an ad click. Normally that connection is a click ID (GCLID) carried in a cookie — and cookies get blocked by consent banners, Safari's tracking prevention, and ad blockers, or never make it across devices. Every lost click ID is a sale your campaigns paid for but never got credit for.

Enhanced Conversions closes that gap. WPX Conversion Tracking sends privacy-safe, hashed customer data (email, phone, address — SHA-256 hashed before it leaves the server, so Google never receives readable personal data) with each server-side purchase upload. Google matches the hashes against signed-in accounts that interacted with your ads, so the purchase can be attributed even when the click ID is gone. Unmatched orders are simply discarded — there is no scenario where a conversion is invented.

The two settings in the app

Both live in Advanced Settings → Google Ads Settings (Plus plan).

1. Enable Enhanced Conversions — attaches the hashed customer data to every purchase conversion upload. With a click ID present it strengthens the match; without one, it becomes the only way the conversion can be attributed at all.

2. Import all events that have user-provided data, even those without GCLID — by default, only orders carrying a Google click ID are uploaded. With this ON, orders without any click ID are uploaded too, as long as there is hashed customer data for Google to match on. This is the toggle that recovers consent-banner and cross-device purchases. It requires Enhanced Conversions to be enabled.

We recommend enabling both. Together they lift conversion coverage without any double-counting risk — Google deduplicates within the conversion action, and unmatched no-click orders are dropped, not guessed.

Configure your Google Ads account (2 minutes)

All three steps are in Google Ads → Goals → Conversions → Settings.

1. Customer data terms — expand the section and accept the terms. This is Google's one-time authorization to receive hashed first-party data on this account.
2. Enhanced conversions for leads — tick "Turn on enhanced conversions for leads." Despite the name, this is the account setting that authorizes customer data on conversions uploaded through the Google Ads API — which is how a server-side integration delivers purchases. The method dropdown below the checkbox only offers "Google tag" and "Google Tag Manager"; that's expected, and either choice is fine — it only governs on-page form tracking. Select Google tag and press Save.
3. Enhanced conversions (a separate section in the same list):
4. • If it's not configured yet: turn it on and choose Google Ads API as the setup method.
   • If it's already active — showing something like "Managed through Google Tag. Recording Enhanced Conversions" — leave it exactly as it is. This section controls your existing tag-based enhanced conversions. Switching its method would stop Google from processing the data your current tags send, and it isn't needed for our integration anyway.

Already running tag-based Enhanced Conversions?

Many stores already have enhanced conversions running through the Google & YouTube channel app or a Google Tag Manager setup. The two systems don't collide:

• Your existing tag-based enhanced conversions keep working untouched — as long as you leave the "Enhanced conversions" web section on its current method.
• WPX Conversion Tracking creates its own conversion action, set to Secondary — it records in the "All conv." column, runs in observation mode, and never influences Smart Bidding until you decide otherwise. It is a zero-risk parallel trial next to whatever you run today.
• The only rule: never run two Primary purchase actions at once. If you later switch to the WPX action as your source of truth, flip both in the same step — WPX action to Primary, the old one to Secondary.

Verifying it works

1. In Google Ads, open Goals → Conversions → Summary, expand the Purchase goal, and find the WPX conversion action. After the first orders come in, its "All conv." column starts filling — a Secondary action does not report in the "Conversions" column, and that is by design.
2. Give it time: Google's conversion UI typically lags 4–6 hours behind uploads. A brand-new action showing zero right after setup is normal.
3. In the app, the Conversion Tracking Accuracy card on the dashboard shows per-day delivery for every enabled pixel, including Google Ads — sent, failed, and skipped orders at a glance.
4. Expect small, explainable differences from an older conversion action: attribution windows may differ (the WPX action uses a 90-day click-through window; existing actions are often 30-day), and a Secondary action reports in "All conv.".

Frequently asked questions

Will this break my existing Google tag / GTM enhanced conversions?
No — as long as you leave the "Enhanced conversions" web section on its current method. The steps above only accept the data terms and enable "Enhanced conversions for leads", both of which are additive.

The dropdown under "Enhanced conversions for leads" has no API option. Am I missing something?
No — that dropdown only configures how Google's on-page tag captures lead-form data. API uploads are authorized by the checkbox itself. Pick "Google tag", save, done.

Can no-GCLID imports double-count or inflate my conversions?
No. Google matches the hashed data against actual ad interactions and discards anything it can't match. Deduplication happens within the conversion action, and the WPX action is Secondary — it doesn't feed the "Conversions" column or Smart Bidding unless you promote it.

Why are conversions missing only in certain countries?
That is the consent-banner signature: visitors who decline the cookie banner never carry a Google click ID to checkout, so those purchases are invisible to Google Ads. Enabling both settings above recovers most of these orders via hashed-data matching.

Why does the new conversion action show zero conversions?
Two normal reasons: Google's UI lags roughly 4–6 hours behind uploads, and a Secondary action reports under "All conv." rather than "Conversions". If it still shows nothing after a day of orders, check the Conversion Tracking Accuracy card in the app and reach out to support.

Updated on: 31/07/2026