TL;DR
Most Magento setup guides answer the question "how do I get a conversion into Google Ads" and stop there. The harder question is which of the two available routes should carry it, because the answer changes what your bidding sees, whether your numbers are counted once or twice, and how much identity data reaches Google. This article covers the decision, the Enhanced Conversions field set that only exists on PRO, where conversion value is actually controlled, and what Google changed in 2026. For the click-by-click admin screens and the container import, we already have the Google Ads conversion tracking setup guide, and this piece links there rather than repeating it.
Key Takeaways
- Disable Magento's own Google trackers before configuring anything:
Admin > Store > Configuration > Sales > Google API > Google Analyticsset to No, andGoogle Adwordsset to No [1]. - Route one is the Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag the extension writes into your generated GTM container. Route two is importing a GA4 key event into Google Ads, which is the path server-side purchases travel [1][3].
- There is no Google Ads offline upload or Ads API connection in the extension. Anything described as "server-side Google Ads" on Magento 2 with this module means GA4 first, then import.
- When both routes exist for the same purchase, Google sets imported actions to secondary "to prevent counting the same event twice for bidding" [3]. Decide which one is primary on purpose.
- Enhanced Conversions is a PRO feature, along with the pre-hash option, the Enhanced Conversions for Leads tag, and a picker of exactly nine customer attributes that defaults to sending all of them [1].
- Conversion value rules live entirely in Google Ads [6]. The module's value controls are the currency code, the zero-value exclusion, and the tax and shipping settings.
- Since April 2026, Google accepts user-provided data from website tags, Data Manager and API connections without you choosing between implementation methods [5].
Turn Magento's own Google trackers off first
This step has nothing to do with Google Ads settings and everything to do with what your store is already sending.
Magento ships its own Google Analytics and Google Adwords integrations. If you install a tracking extension while those remain enabled, two independent sets of tags describe the same order. Set Admin > Store > Configuration > Sales > Google API > Google Analytics to No, and Admin > Store > Configuration > Sales > Google API > Google Adwords to No before you configure anything else [1].
Stores that skip this usually discover it later, from the wrong direction: conversions that look inflated in Google Ads while GA4 looks normal, or a remarketing tag firing twice on the same page load. Rule it out at the start and the rest of this article describes a single system rather than two arguing ones.
Two routes to Google Ads, and only one leaves the browser
Google itself lists two ways a website reports conversions: the Google tag path, set up with a URL, manually with code, or through the Tag Manager integration, and the Google Analytics events path, where you select an existing event or create a new one [2].
On Magento 2 with this extension, those map cleanly.
Route one, the conversion tag. The extension writes a Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag into the GTM container JSON it generates from your configuration. The fields that feed it are Google Ads Conversion ID, Google Ads Conversion Label and Google Conversion Currency Code, with Exclude Orders with 0 value for the free-order case [1]. There is also Send separate dataLayer event for Google Ads Conversion, which pushes an ads_purchase event you can use as the tag's trigger in cases where the tag misses its timing on the success page. That option arrived in v1.14.1 on April 19, 2024 [1]. This route is browser work: a tag, in a container, on a rendered page.
Route two, the GA4 import. Your server sends the purchase to GA4 through the Measurement Protocol, and Google Ads imports that GA4 key event as a conversion action. The extension supports this end of it directly: since v1.15.3, June 20, 2025, server-side purchases carry the gclid when one is available in the frontend cookie, meaning when the shopper arrived through a Google ad click [1]. The documentation states the recommendation plainly: "For best results, link your Google Ads and GA4 accounts and import GA4 purchase events as conversions" [1].
What does not exist is worth stating in the same breath, because the phrase "server-side Google Ads tracking" gets used loosely. The extension has no Google Ads API connection and no offline conversion upload. Server-side on Magento 2 with this module means the Measurement Protocol going to GA4, and Google Ads reading the result. Our write-up on what server-side tracking actually changes sets out the wider version of that boundary.
Which route should you run?
Both, in most accounts, with one of them chosen deliberately as primary.
The import route has prerequisites: linked Google Ads and GA4 accounts, auto-tagging on, and editor or administrator access to the GA4 property. Web imports also ask for an attribution basis, either Google Paid Channels, the default since June 2023, or Paid and Organic Channels [3].
| Your situation | Run this |
|---|---|
| Ad blockers or browser restrictions cost you visible purchase volume | Import route as primary, tag route retained for speed |
| Smart Bidding should not wait for GA4's processing delay | Tag route as primary |
| Checkout redirects through a payment provider and the success page is unreliable | Import route as primary |
| You want customer identity in the conversion for match quality | Tag route with Enhanced Conversions |
| Reporting and bidding should agree with your GA4 revenue | Import route as primary |
The reason to decide instead of drifting is in Google's own documentation for the import: conversion actions created this way "are set to 'secondary' conversion actions to prevent counting the same event twice for bidding" [3]. That default is doing you a favor. The failure mode is an account where someone later promotes both to primary, and every purchase counts twice in the numbers that decide your bids.
What Enhanced Conversions add, and where you switch them on
Enhanced Conversions is Google's feature for improving measurement accuracy by matching hashed first-party data from your conversion to signed-in Google accounts [4]. Normalization is specified on Google's side: whitespace removed, text lowercased, phone numbers in E.164 format, then hashing with SHA-256 before the data is used [4].
On Magento 2, the whole family sits on the PRO tier [1]:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
Enable Enhanced Conversions |
Populates the dataLayer with the email and phone number used in checkout, sent to Google Ads through the conversion tag |
Pre-hash Enhanced Conversions User Data |
Sends the data already hashed, described in the documentation as an extra layer of security and privacy, since Google hashes what it receives anyway |
Send Enhanced Conversions to Google Analytics 4 |
Extends the same user-provided data to the GA4 side |
Enable Enhanced Conversions for Leads |
Creates the separate GTM tag the leads variant needs during JSON generation, shipped in v1.15.5, July 29, 2025 |
Enable inclusion / exclusion for Enhanced Conversion data |
Turns on the attribute picker below |
The picker, added in v1.15.9 on October 28, 2025, holds exactly nine attributes: Customer Email, Customer Phone, Customer First Name, Customer Last Name, Customer Street, Customer City, Customer Region, Customer Country and Customer Postal Code [1]. The default is No, which means every parameter is sent. If your legal team has a view on which customer fields may travel to an ad platform, this is the screen where that view becomes a configuration rather than a policy document.
One operational detail applies to every setting in this article, and the documentation repeats it for a reason: if you change a setting, regenerate and reimport the JSON container into Google Tag Manager [1]. A change saved in Magento and never republished in GTM is a change that exists only in your admin. The container flow itself is covered in the server-side setup guide.
Enhanced Conversions for leads is its own subject, with separate conversion action rows, and the ecommerce case rarely needs it. Our Shopify-side article on Google Ads conversion tracking covers the shared Google-side concepts if you want them without the Magento specifics.
Conversion value: what the module controls, and what it does not
Two systems touch the number attached to a conversion, and they do not overlap at all.
The module decides what value leaves your store. Google Conversion Currency Code sets the currency for the conversion tag, entered in the short form the documentation shows, for example usd. Exclude Orders with 0 value keeps free orders out. The tax and shipping switches that govern transaction totals apply here as they do everywhere else in the extension.
Google decides what the value becomes once it arrives. Conversion value rules "let you adjust your conversion value reporting and Smart Bidding optimization" [6], and they are configured at Goals icon → Conversions drop-down → Value rules → Create conversion value rule [7]. Conditions available are Audience, Device and Location, with a maximum of two conditions per rule, and every rule in an account has to use the same condition types. Only one rule can apply to a given conversion [6][7]. They work on Search, Shopping, Display, Hotel and Performance Max campaigns [7].
There is no value-rules setting in the Magento admin, and there should not be. A merchant who wants mobile conversions valued at 80 percent of desktop is describing a bidding preference, not a data correction, and Google Ads is where that belongs.
What changed in 2026
Three items are worth a re-read of your own setup.
The vocabulary moved. What Google Analytics calls a key event is what Google Ads imports as a conversion [3]. Older guides that talk about importing GA4 "conversions" are describing the same mechanism under the previous name, which matters mostly when you are searching for help and finding two vocabularies.
The implementation choice went away. Google's documentation for enhanced conversions in the Ads API states that starting from April 2026, Google Ads accepts user-provided data from website tags, Data Manager and API connections, and you no longer need to choose between different implementation methods [5]. For a Magento store on the tag route, that removes a category of worry rather than adding a task.
Consent gating stayed where it was, at the container. The extension's Consent Management Method setting decides whether GTM loads only after the shopper accepts cookies, using Magento's Cookie Restriction Mode, or always loads with an external CMP handling consent through Google Consent Mode v2 [1]. Google Ads tags are gated by that container-level choice rather than by any Ads-specific switch. The full implementation, including the June 15, 2026 change to how ads identifiers are controlled, is in our Consent Mode v2 guide.
FAQ
Does the extension send Google Ads conversions server-side?
Not directly. There is no Google Ads API or offline conversion upload in the module. The server-side route is the Measurement Protocol purchase going to GA4, carrying the gclid when the shopper arrived from a Google ad click, and Google Ads importing that GA4 key event as a conversion action [1][3].
Do I need PRO for Enhanced Conversions?
Yes. Google Ads conversion and remarketing tracking are on STANDARD. Enhanced Conversions, the pre-hash option, Enhanced Conversions for GA4, Enhanced Conversions for Leads, new customer data and cart data are all PRO features [1].
Will running the tag and the GA4 import double count my purchases?
Not by default. Google creates imported conversion actions as secondary specifically to prevent the same event counting twice for bidding [3]. The risk is manual: someone promoting both to primary later, without noticing they describe the same order.
Which customer fields can I choose to send with Enhanced Conversions?
Nine: email, phone, first name, last name, street, city, region, country and postal code. The inclusion and exclusion setting defaults to No, which sends all of them [1].
Do I still need the older setup walkthrough?
For the screens, yes. The step-by-step Google Ads setup guide covers the admin fields, the container import and the conversion test. This article covers the choices that guide does not make for you.
If you are configuring Enhanced Conversions or the Measurement Protocol purchases that feed the import route, both live on the PRO tier of the Magento 2 Google Analytics 4 extension, currently v1.17.4, released September 1, 2026.
One thing to check today, before any of the above: open your Google Ads conversion actions list and note which rows are primary. On most accounts that have been running for a year or two, nobody has looked since the day they were created.
Sources
- WeltPixel Google Analytics 4 User Guide, v1.17.4, September 1, 2026, https://docs.weltpixel.com/GA4/User-Guide-WeltPixel-Google-Analytics-4.html
- Set up your web conversions, Google Ads Help, retrieved September 7, 2026, https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16560108
- Create Google Ads conversions based on Google Analytics key events, Analytics Help, retrieved September 7, 2026, https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10632359
- About enhanced conversions, Google Ads Help, retrieved September 7, 2026, https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9888656
- About enhanced conversions for web in the Google Ads API, Google Ads Help, retrieved September 7, 2026, https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13261987
- About conversion value rules, Google Ads Help, retrieved September 7, 2026, https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10518330
- Set up conversion value rules, Google Ads Help, retrieved September 7, 2026, https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10520348