ReferenceTracking error
Missing conversions in Google Ads
A key event in Google Analytics does not reach Google Ads on its own. The accounts have to be linked with auto-tagging on, and a conversion created from the key event. One created from Analytics starts as secondary and steers no bidding. Data takes up to 24 hours to appear, and history from before the import never arrives.
At a glance
- Where it shows
- In Google Ads, the conversion actions on Summary under Goals: the Analytics event is absent, shows nothing, or sits as secondary.
- What stops
- No ad stops. Campaigns cannot bid on the leads Analytics counts until a conversion exists and is used for bidding.
- How serious
- No policy risk. The cost is bidding steered by the wrong count, or by none.
- How long
- Google says imported data can take up to 24 hours to appear, and data from before the import is not included.
What it means
Google Analytics lists this under Missing conversions in Google Ads in its troubleshooting for missing Analytics data in Google Ads. Key events have to be turned into conversions first, through the Google Ads or the Google Analytics interface. Google adds that only conversions based on key events related to Google Ads campaigns are created, so key events from visitors who never clicked an ad do not appear.
Getting a lead from Analytics into bidding takes four separate things in two products: the event fires and is marked as a key event, the two accounts are linked with auto-tagging on, a conversion action is created from it, and that action is used for bidding. The Conversions column only includes primary actions, so an imported action can exist, record, and still steer nothing.
What actually triggers it
The key event exists but no conversion was made from it
Marking an event as a key event in Analytics does not create anything in Google Ads. Until someone creates the conversion from either side, Google Ads has nothing to show.
The conversion was created and sits as secondary
Google sets conversions created in Analytics, or based on Analytics key events in an account that already has Analytics goals, as secondary, to avoid counting the same event twice for bidding. It records but stays out of the Conversions column. Action optimization can only be changed in Google Ads.
The event never fires
Not on Google's help page
A key event can be set up for an event name nothing on the site sends, and it sits at zero looking configured. A new event also has to fire and appear under Recent events before Google lets you mark it. In one account reviewed, Analytics counted about a quarter of the form submissions the form's own feed received: most of the gap was a booking form from another service that never sent the lead event.
No link, no auto-tagging, or a lost click id
Google requires the accounts to be linked and auto-tagging turned on in Google Ads. It also requires that the website does not alter or drop the GCLID, such as through redirects, because that identifier is what ties the visit to the ad click.
It is too soon
Imported data can take up to 24 hours to appear, and name changes to a key event or property take up to 24 hours to show in Google Ads. Data from before the import is not included, so a new import always starts at zero.
Fix it in this order
- In Google Analytics, open Admin, then Events under Data display, and confirm the event is listed with Mark as key event turned on. If it is not listed, it has not fired: submit a real form on the live site and look under Recent events.
- Confirm the link in Analytics under Admin, Google Ads links. In Google Ads, open Admin, Account settings, Auto-tagging, and check that the box to tag the URL people click through from the ad is ticked.
- In Google Ads, open Goals, then Summary, and click + Create conversion action. Select the Analytics property and the event, click Select events, then Save and continue.
- Before using it for bidding, check whether a Google Ads tag on the site already counts the same form. If both count, one form fill becomes two conversions; keep one of them primary and set the other to secondary.
- Change the chosen action's optimization to primary in Google Ads, then wait 24 hours and compare its count against your own lead records.
Counting starts from the import. Nothing earlier is filled in, so judge it on the days after, not on the month so far.
Often confused with
Missing Google Ads data in Analytics
The opposite direction: ad clicks and cost do not show in Analytics. Google says data can take 48 hours to appear after linking, and lists auto-tagging and click ids lost in redirects as causes.
The conversion exists in Google Ads but recorded nothing for 7 days.
Should the Analytics import or the Google Ads tag be the one that counts?
Count each lead path once. When the site has a Google Ads form tag and an imported Analytics event for the same form, both primary means every lead counts twice in bidding.
Choose by which one sees more of the real leads, checked against your own records. In one account reviewed, the uncounted Analytics import recorded nearly twice the leads of the counted form tag, so the column showed half the real number. In other setups the tag sees more, for example where a form sits inside another service's frame that Analytics never hears.