Create a Google Ads conversion action

Create the conversion action

1. In Google Ads, open the Goals → Conversions → Summary menu, then + Create conversion action. Google shows a data sources panel.
2. Tick Conversions offline. The other boxes are not about Oriva: if another source, such as conversions on a website, is already ticked, don't untick it, it is your account's.
3. Google asks you to add an offline data source. Choose “Skip this step and set up a data source later”. Oriva sends straight to Google: there is nothing to connect here.
4. Leave the “Turn on enhanced conversions” box (some accounts still read “for leads”) unticked. It is a separate account setting that lets Google use customer data, such as a hashed email, to match conversions, from tags as well as from the API. Oriva doesn't need it to send conversions: you can decide later.
5. Choose the category (see below). One choice at a time: you will create the other actions afterwards with + Create conversion.
6. Set up the action: name, value, count, primary or secondary. Leave the click-through conversion window at 90 days. Save.
7. On the “Set up your data source” screen, don't click any of the three buttons: the one called “Data Manager API” only opens the documentation. Continue, then finish.

Which category for which event?

• A sign-up (complete_registration): category Sign up, count One, no value.
• A trial start (start_trial): category Subscribe, count One, no value.
• A purchase (purchase): category Purchase, count Every, a different value for each conversion.

Google's list has no “trial” category: a free trial that starts goes under Subscribe. The “Qualified lead” and “Converted lead” categories are made for leads imported from a CRM: don't pick them.

Primary or secondary?

A primary action is used to optimize your campaigns' bidding. A secondary action is only recorded. If you only want to optimize on one event, keep the others secondary. Google doesn't always let you choose at creation: you can change it afterwards by opening the matching goal.

Watch out for account goals

When you save, the category's goal (for example “Sign up”) may show up as “Account default”. In that case it applies to every campaign that uses the account-default goals, not just the new ones, even though it has no data yet. In Goals → Conversions → Summary, open Edit goal, expand “Account default” and switch off Make this an account-default goal, or limit it to the campaigns you care about. Check that your other goals haven't moved.

Get the ID

In Goals → Conversions → Summary, open the action you just created. Its ID is the number that follows ctId= in the page address (the browser URL): that is what goes in Oriva's Conversion action ID field.

Don't confuse it with the “Conversion ID” Google shows in the tag instructions (AW-…): that one is shared by the whole account, not specific to the action.

An inactive action at first: that's normal

Until Oriva has sent something, Google shows the action with no recent data, even “Misconfigured” in the goals summary. That doesn't mean anything is broken: it changes after the first conversions arrive.

One conversion action per tracked event

A Google Ads destination in Oriva relays exactly one Oriva event to exactly one conversion action. If you track both sign-ups and purchases, you need two conversion actions and two Oriva destinations.