Offline Conversions
Optimize your ad spend to find your best leads and customers.
Connect your Google Ads Account
Follow the set-up instructions here!
Supported Objects and Sync Behaviors
Object
Behaviors
Identifier
Click Conversion
Update or Create
Click ID, WBRAID, GBRAID
Call Conversion
Update or Create
Caller ID
Enhanced Conversion
Update or Create
Order ID
Conversion Adjustment
Send
N/A
Learn more about all of our sync behaviors in our Syncs documentation.
Contact us if you want Census to support more Google Ads objects and/or behaviors
Sync Offline Click and Call Conversions with Census
1. Create or find your custom conversion event in Google Ads
Google Ads has extensive documentation on creating offline conversion events. The main steps are:
Create a new conversion action.
Select the data source for this conversion action as Import.
Select Other data sources or CRMs.
Select Track conversions from clicks or Track conversions from calls.
Enter a name for the conversion action that you're creating. Hold onto this name exactly as entered -- spelling and capitalization will be important when syncing these conversions via Census!
Choose your counting option for the conversion action, either One conversion or Every conversion. Many offline conversions occur only once (e.g. "Reached onboarding milestone X"). In this case, select the counting option One conversion to protect yourself from accidentally syncing duplicate conversions.
Complete the set-up for this conversion event, selecting your desired conversion window (we recommend using the maximum 90-days) and ads attribution model.
Important: After creating a new conversion action, Google recommends waiting 6 hours before syncing conversions for that conversion action. If you sync conversions during the first 6 hours, it can take two days for those conversions to appear on your reports.
2. Create your Census Model for the Conversion Action
Navigate to the Models page.
Here you can write SQL queries that contain the conversion action you want to send to Google Ads.
Google Ads Offline Click and Call Conversions require a specific set of properties. We'll want a model that has the following three required fields:
One of: the Google Click ID (also often known as the
gclid), WBRAID, or GBRAID value.The Conversion Name, spelled exactly as it is found in Google Ads
The Conversion Timestamp, with timezone specified -- either using your warehouse's "timestamp with timezone" datatype, or hard-coded in a string (e.g. '2021-03-04 09:23:57+0000').
Optional properties include:
Order ID, a unique reference in your systems for this conversion action
Conversion Value, positive non-zero decimal values accepted (e.g. 1.00 USD = 1.00)
Currency Code, the ISO 4217 3-character currency code (e.g. 'USD')
External Attribution Credit and Model, calculated outside Google Ads
Once you have created your model, click save.
3. Create your Sync
Now head to the Sync page and click the Add Sync button
In the "What data do you want to sync?" section
For the Connection, select the data warehouse you connected in the Prerequisites Step 2
For the Source, select the model you created in step 2 of this section
Next up is the "Where do you want to sync data to?" section
Pick Google Ads as the Connection
For Object, pick Click Conversion or Call Conversion
For the "How should changes to the source be synced?" section
Send will be selected by default
Pick the right mapping key, the Google Click ID in your model
Finally, select the fields you want to update in the Mapper in the "Which Fields should be updated?" section. Here simply map the fields from your model to the properties of the Click or Call Conversion.
The end result should look something like this:
Click the Next button to see the final preview which will have a recap of what will happen when you start the sync.
4. Confirm the conversions are now in Google Ads
It may take around 3 hours for synced offline conversions to show up in your Google Ads account. When they do, they'll appear in reporting on these conversion actions. To learn more about reporting on these conversions, you may wish to visit this Google Ads help article.
Sync Enhanced Conversions with Census
Google Ads also supports conversion tracking on the web if you only know your prospect or customer's email or phone number, using "Enhanced Conversions". These conversions can be used in place of, or as a supplement to, Click Conversions.
Essentially, Google will compare the person's email or phone number to its database of Google users and ad clicks, and give credit for the Conversion to an ad campaign when it finds a match.
1. Create or find your custom conversion event in Google Ads
Setting up a conversion in Google Ads is exactly the same as traditional Click Conversions. However, Enhanced Conversions require slightly different data points so that Google can match a person to your conversion, and avoid duplication if you also track this conversion using other methods.
2. Create your Census Model for the Conversion Action
Navigate to the Models page.
Here you can write SQL queries that contain the conversion action you want to send to Google Ads, plus the data Google needs to track the conversion via the Enhanced Conversion mechanism.
Google Enhanced Conversions require a specific set of properties.
A. Minimum Conversion Parameters
We'll want a model that has the following three required fields:
The Order ID
If you are tracking the conversion solely as an Enhanced Conversion, any unique ID will do
If you are supplementing existing conversion tracking, use the same Order ID that you're already sending to Google Ads
The Conversion Name, spelled exactly as it is found in Google Ads
The Conversion Timestamp, __ with timezone specified -- either using your warehouse's "timestamp with timezone" datatype, or hard-coded in a string (e.g. '2021-03-04 09:23:57+0000').
B. User Identifiers
You also must supply user identifier parameters so that Google can match this conversion to its records of users and ad click.
You may choose to use a pre-hashed value (if you have one), or for Census to perform the hashing for you:
Email, normalized with the following transformations:
Remove leading/trailing whitespaces.
Convert the text to lowercase.
Remove all periods (.) that precede the domain name in gmail.com and googlemail.com email addresses.
Phone Number, formatted to the E164 standard.
C. Optional Parameters
Conversion Value, positive non-zero decimal values accepted (e.g. 1.00 USD = 1.00)
Currency Code, the ISO 4217 3-character currency code (e.g. 'USD')
Once you have created your model, click save.
3. Create your Sync
Now head to the Sync page and click the Add Sync button
In the "What data do you want to sync?" section, select the model you created in step 2 of this section, or an existing table that contains this data.
Next up is the "Where do you want to sync data to?" section
Pick Google Ads as the Connection
For Object, pick Enhanced Conversion
Finally, select the fields you want to update in the Mapper in the "Set Up Field Mappings" section. Here simply map the fields from your model to the properties of the Enhanced Conversion.
The end result should look something like this:
Click the Next button to see the final preview which will have a recap of what will happen when you start the sync.
4. Confirm the conversions are now in Google Ads
It may take around 3 hours for synced offline conversions to show up in your Google Ads account. When they do, they'll appear in reporting on these conversion actions. To learn more about reporting on these conversions, you may wish to visit this Google Ads help article.
Conversion Adjustments
Once a conversion has already been reported to Google Ads, you can adjust the conversion at a later point in time using Census.
A conversion adjustment requires exactly one of the following sets of properties in order to identify which conversion to adjust.
Order ID or
Google Click ID (GCLID) and exact conversion date time
Digital Markets Act (DMA)
When syncing Conversions to Google Ads, you can include consent information to ensure compatibility with Google's EU User Consent Policy. Google Ads objects now support two additional fields: Consent for ad user data and Consent for ad personalization, which can be set to one of the following values: UNKNOWN, UNSPECIFIED, GRANTED, DENIED. See Google's documentation for more information on the behavior of different options.
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