Send tracked calls to GA4 without double counting in Google Ads

1. 1Open the GA4 integration settings, click Sign in with Google and choose the Google account that can reach your GA4 property.
2. 2Choose your GA4 Account, GA4 Property and GA4 Data Stream, one of each. The tool uses the stream's API secret if one exists and creates one if not.
3. 3Turn on Send GA4 events after each activity and Send conversion events. Send events when no GA4 session data is available (offline sources) sends calls that have no GA4 session to match, such as calls to numbers used offline. CallTrackingMetrics' own setup turns it on; leave it off only if GA4 should hold session-matched calls alone.
4. 4Turn on the setting that prevents duplicate events from being sent from a single activity.
5. 5Preview the event format and write down the event name it shows, such as CTM_Activity for a first-time inbound caller, then save.

On a CallTrackingMetrics agency plan the path differs: go to Integrations, Google Analytics 4, Settings, link a Google Analytics user, click New Data Stream Link, assign the account and save. The duplicate toggle there reads Prevent duplicate events from being sent from a single activity to the same Data Stream.

1. 1Make one test call to a tracking number from a visit to your site, so GA4 receives the event.
2. 2In GA4, open Admin, and under Data display click Events.
3. 3Find the call event in the Recent events tab and click the star icon next to it.

Google says a new key event can take up to 24 hours to show in standard reports, while Realtime updates within a few minutes.

1. 1In GA4, when you open Advertising, then Tools, Conversion management to create Google Ads conversions, or import GA4 events from the Google Ads side, leave the call event unselected.
2. 2In Google Ads, open Campaigns, add the All conv. column and pick a date range long enough to include calls. Click the segment icon and choose Conversions, then Conversion source: rows with Google Analytics as the source come from GA4. Segment by Conversions, then Conversion action to check whether one of them is your call event.
3. 3If it is, go to Summary in the Conversions drop-down of the Goals menu, click Edit goal on its goal, set it to Secondary (observe only) under Conversion action optimization, and click Save.
4. 4Do not rely on the default. Google says conversions created from GA4 start as Secondary, but one of its pages also ties that to the account already having goals from an Analytics property, and the default may not hold for an action imported from the Google Ads side. Either way it can be switched to Primary in Google Ads.
5. 5Check custom goals too. Google says actions in a custom goal are used for bidding regardless of whether they are set as primary or secondary. If a custom goal includes the GA4 call action, remove it from that goal.