Google Ads Enhanced Conversion – All You Need to Know

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With the implementation of stricter privacy regulations and restrictions on the use of third-party cookies, Google Ads can’t report all conversions resulting from your ads. This not only affects conversion tracking but hinders your ability to optimize your ad spend. That’s where Google Ads Enhanced Conversion comes in. 

Enhanced conversions enrich conversion tags with first-party customer data directly from websites, giving you deeper insight into your audience. In the process, they help you create more personalized and relevant campaigns.

If you’re wondering whether this is for you, this article will help clear the doubt. Here we discuss everything you need to know about the Google Ads Enhanced Conversion feature to get you started on leveraging this powerful Google offering. 

Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads: Explained

Google Ads enhanced conversions allow advertisers to improve the accuracy of their conversion tracking by providing additional customer data in a secure and privacy-safe way. Introduced in May 2021, enhanced conversions essentially supplement your existing conversion tags with first-party data that your users provide.

When a user completes a conversion on your site, be it making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form, conversion tags collect certain data such as email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses. If enhanced conversions are enabled, the first-party customer data is hashed with a security algorithm and sent to Google. This data is matched against signed-in Google accounts, allowing Google to more accurately attribute conversions to ad interactions.

What makes this every marketer’s favorite feature is that it empowers websites to share encrypted and anonymous user conversion data with Google while safeguarding user privacy and meeting data protection regulations.

How Do Google Ads Enhanced Conversions Work? 

Google Ads offer two types of enhanced conversions. Here’s how each of these works. 

• Enhanced Conversions for Web

When customers visit your website, engage with it, or purchase something, they share their personal details such as email address, phone number, name, home address, etc. This data that is willingly shared by the user is collected and recorded in your website’s conversion tracking tags.

But before this data is sent to Google, it’s hashed using a one-way algorithm known as SHA256. This secure algorithm transforms the data into a unique set of characters to ensure it remains private as it’s transmitted.

Now, once Google receives the hashed data, the data is matched with Google’s signed-in accounts. This is done to attribute campaign conversions to clicks, views, and other ad events.

This entire process helps marketers track conversions while ensuring user privacy.

But it doesn’t end there. Google Ads conversion tracking also allows you to leverage the hashed user data to build custom audiences for your advertising campaigns. You can now offer more personalized and relevant ads to your customers, without infringing on their privacy and all through your first-party data repository. 

• Enhanced Conversion for Leads

When a user lands on your website after clicking on your ad, they browse your site to learn more about your offering. Then they fill out an online form. This makes them a lead. The details that they fill up are then hashed for data security and sent to Google. 

You then store it in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database. You can now use their data to nudge them towards conversion. Once they convert into a paying customer, you then upload the hashed lead information and Google matches this to identify which ad prompted the journey. 

Additional read: Google Ads Metrics a Digital Marketer Should Be Tracking

Why Should You Use Enhanced Conversions?

As a marketer hearing there’s a new feature or a fresh tool that can help you improve your campaign is nothing out of the ordinary. You’re probably used to this by now. But Google Ads enhanced conversion is one feature you should stop and consider. 

Here’s a look at what Google Ads enhanced conversion brings to the table.

1. Drives ROI

One of the biggest benefits of this Google Ads feature is its positive impact on your Return on Investment (ROI). By allowing you greater insight into your conversions, it helps you identify what ads are working and what are not worth their ad spend. 

Not only that, it also helps you plan more effective and successful ad campaigns in the future by giving you data on what’s engaging, resonating, and performing best with your audience. Thereby, ensuring you get a high ROI on your ads. 

2. Improves CTR

Google Ads enhanced conversion has the ability to drive your Click Through Rate (CTR). By helping you gain insight into your customer’s touchpoints, it helps you understand what’s getting their attention. 

Based on this data, you can launch ad campaigns that replicate your top-performing ad formats or content, giving your ads a better chance of driving your CTR. 

3. Improves Smart Bidding 

Google Ads enhanced conversion allows you to get even more out of Smart Bidding. You can now leverage relevant conversion metrics to optimize campaigns. 

Smart Bidding’s transparent reporting and detailed status updates with enhanced conversion’s detailed view of the ground reality ensures your ad budget doesn’t get wasted.

4. Improves Customer Journey Mapping

Lastly, Google Ads enhanced conversion feature also helps you understand your customer journey better. It facilitates accurate customer journey mapping by offering a clear and more granular picture of your customer’s touchpoints. 

As a marketer, you don’t need to be told how important and powerful this insight is. Based on this data, you can create high-performance ad campaigns that bring in the numbers.

But Is the Enhanced Conversion Feature Necessary? 

One word- yes. Apart from the significant benefits offered by Google Ads enhanced conversion feature, implementing it is a critical step for marketers who want a more accurate view of their conversions in the age of data privacy laws.

Regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have had a huge impact on the way businesses collect and process their user data. While they have granted more control to users over their data, these regulations have made tracking user data equally challenging for businesses. As a result, businesses that don’t adopt these advanced features are going to pay the price of foregoing insight into their campaign efforts. Features like Google Ads enhanced conversion ensure marketers gain access to user activities while ensuring their privacy is protected.

Additional read: Google Ads – Marketer’s Guide to Performance Max Campaigns

Setting up Google Ads Enhanced Performance 

Kickstarting your Google Ads enhanced performance feature can be done in multiple ways, subject to which type you’re implementing.

• Enhanced Conversions for Web: this can be set up through Google Tag Manager, Google Tag, and the Google Ads API.

• Enhanced Conversion for Leads: this can be set up through Google Tag Manager or Google Tag

You can find a detailed step guide for each kind of set up here.

Scale your Google Ads Performance with EasyInsights

Google Ads enhanced conversions are essential for marketers who want to measure conversions more accurately. They help you fill gaps in conversion tracking by supplementing first-party conversion data with user data from Google’s database. Embracing this feature can help you optimize your campaigns and bidding strategies for better performance.

With enhanced conversions enabled, you’ll also need an advanced analytics tool to measure the performance of your campaigns. So, check out EasyInsights, a next-gen first party data activation and enrichment automation tool.

EasyInsights’ platform allows you to move your data from your marketing data hub to other systems seamlessly. You decide which data gets routed to what destination, whether it’s customer email data shared with support teams or lead scoring data shared with sales teams. Further, with EasyInsights’ composable CDP in your tech stack, identity resolution, ETL, reverse ETL, customer 360, etc., are not only possible but efficiently executed. So, onboard EasyInsights and start your first party data strategy on the right foot.

To know more, book a demo today!

Additional read: Fixing (Not Set) Value for Google Ads in Google Analytics Report