How to Retract Refunded and Cancelled Magento 2 Orders From Google Ads Conversions

TL;DR

The extension's Google Ads conversion tag reports an order when checkout completes, and nothing in the extension reverses that report later. A cancellation sends nothing, and a credit memo produces a GA4 refund on PRO but no change to the tag's conversion in Google Ads. The fix is a spreadsheet upload keyed on the order number, with one adjustment type per order fate. The value you restate has to use the tag's own basis, and Google's windows decide how often you upload.

Key Takeaways

• Cancel an order or issue a credit memo and the tag's conversion stays in Google Ads; the extension has no cancellation event, and its refund event goes to GA4 only [1].
• Pick the adjustment by fate: RETRACT for an order canceled before invoicing and for a fully credited one, RESTATE for a partial credit [2] [3] [4].
• Put the order number exactly as the order grid writes it in the Order ID column, and the action's exact name in Conversion Name [4].
• Restate on the tag's own basis: read wp_conversion_value on one test order in GTM Preview to learn which total it uses, then compute each order's new value on that basis, not by subtracting the credit memo total [1].
• Google's clocks: at least 24 hours after the conversion, 7 days for autobidding readability, 54 days overall [4].
• Weekly files for cancellations and a monthly file for refunds is our suggestion, not a Google rule.
• A retracted website conversion can't be added back, so upload one canceled order first [4].

What does Google Ads still hold for an order that never shipped?

An order is placed Monday and canceled Tuesday, before anyone invoiced it. By Tuesday the Google Ads tag has already reported it.

That tag lives in the GTM container the extension generates, and it fires in the shopper's browser when the success page loads. Open GTM Preview on a test order and the Google Ads tag shows an Order ID that matches the number in your order grid, plus a value. Nothing afterward undoes the report. None of the extension's documented events is a cancellation [1].

The Exclude Orders By Status option doesn't help here. The guide describes it as the switch for statuses "for which a purchase event will not be sent" to Google Analytics [1], while the Google Ads tag has its own enable switch and a separate Exclude Orders with 0 value option [1]. Credit memos are the other half. On PRO, with Refund selected in Track Events, a credit memo sends a refund event to GA4, which refund tracking from credit memos covers and the tier comparison places on PRO. Google Ads has no matching event.

This guide is for stores whose purchase conversion in Google Ads comes from that tag. If your primary action is a GA4 import instead, jump to the section on that case below.

Since v1.17.4, with Require Visitor Consent for Server-Side Events switched on, the extension gates the GA4 Measurement Protocol on the shopper's Consent Mode v2 choice, which server-side events and consent covers, while the Google Ads tag in the container follows your Consent Management Method setting [1].

Google Ads conversion adjustments for three order fates

An order can stop counting in three ways. Adobe's workflow page says you can cancel an order that isn't yet invoiced, and that once it's invoiced a credit memo is the way back [2]. Google offers two adjustment types: restate changes the value but leaves the count, and retract removes the conversion and sets its value to 0.00 [3].

Two rules from Google decide the rows. A conversion that is retracted, or restated down to 0, can't be adjusted again, and later attempts are ignored without an error message [3] [4]. And when one order gets several credit memos, Google processes the earlier adjustment time first [4].

Several memos on one order also change what goes in the value column. The Adjusted Value cell holds the conversion's new value, not the amount refunded [4]. A second credit memo on the same order gets a second row with the new, lower total, and the row that reaches 0 retracts the conversion.

Build the file from the order grid

Export the order grid for the period, keep the canceled orders and the ones with credit memos, and map the columns Google expects. The template sits under Goals > Conversions > Uploads, the plus button, View templates, in the "Conversions adjustments" format [4]. You upload it the way you'd import offline conversions [3].

1. Order ID. The order number exactly as the grid shows it. Magento builds order numbers from a sequence with a prefix, a zero-padded counter and an optional suffix [5]. A spreadsheet that strips leading zeros produces numbers Google can't match, so format the column as text before you paste. Google matches on the transaction ID plus the conversion action name [3], which makes a custom numbering that repeats numbers across two store views feeding one action ambiguous.
2. Conversion Name. The action's name with the spelling and capitalization it has in Google Ads [4].
3. Adjustment Time. When the order was canceled or the credit memo created, after the conversion time and before the upload time, with a time zone ID or a GMT offset [4].
4. Adjustment Type. RETRACT or RESTATE [4].
5. Adjusted Value. Blank for a retraction. Google subtracts a withdrawn conversion's value for you [4].
6. Adjusted Value Currency. A three-letter ISO code; if you omit it, Google uses the currency set for the conversion in Google Ads [4].

Keep every template column, leave out personal data such as emails and phone numbers, and don't mix new conversions into the same file [4]. If a manager account tracks the conversions, the upload has to come from the manager account. Teams that want to automate it can use Google's scheduled uploads [4].

Adjustments made within a day of the ad click may not apply yet, so Google advises uploading an extra day's worth of data with each import, and it won't count duplicates, judged by order ID, conversion name and adjustment time [4]. Keep each row's adjustment time unchanged and an overlapping file is safe.

Enhanced Conversions don't change any of this. The adjustment pages key on the order ID and the action name and don't mention Enhanced Conversions at all. The Google Ads API has a separate enhancement adjustment that attaches hashed customer identifiers to a conversion by its order ID [6], and it retracts nothing.

Which value does a partial credit restate to?

The extension calculates the conversion value from its own settings: Subtotal, or Grand total minus tax or shipping when those exclusions are on, set by Order Success Page Total Calculation and the Exclude switches [1]. A credit memo carries its own grand total, which can include tax and shipping the tag never counted. When the two bases differ, subtracting one from the other lands on neither.

On a test order, open GTM Preview or the browser's dataLayer, read wp_conversion_value, which the extension has sent as a number since v1.15.7 (September 2, 2025) [1], and compare it with that order's subtotal and grand total. That tells you the basis your tag uses. The Preview and log tools walk through where it shows. For each partly credited order, work out the tag's value on that basis from the export and subtract the credited items' share on the same basis.

Illustrative, on a tag that reports the subtotal: the tag reported 150.00 for three identically priced items, and one item comes back. The restated value is 100.00, whatever the credit memo adds for tax or shipping. The sales report differences cover why a Magento total and a tracked value drift apart.

How long do you have to adjust?

Three numbers set the clock. Upload at least 24 hours after the original conversion, which Google says helps avoid errors. When retracting or restating, you have 7 days after the conversion is first recorded "for autobidding readability". Overall, adjustments can be made within 54 days [4]. The page doesn't name the starting point of the 54 days, so count from the order date.

A cancellation happens in the first days and is the case bidding can still use, while a credit memo three weeks after shipping is mostly a correction to reporting. Our suggestion is a weekly file for cancellations, sent within the week the cancel happens so the upload lands inside Google's 7-day bidding window, and a monthly file for refunds. A cancel made just after an upload can still miss the 7 days.

After a sale, the refund wave lands in the order grid weeks after the clicks that paid for it. Credit memos late in the 54 days need the next file before the window closes.

Retraction is final. Google says a website conversion can't be added back to reports once it's removed [4].

When your primary action is a GA4 import

Google's adjustment pages describe uploads matched on an order or transaction ID and a conversion action's name [3] [4]. They don't describe adjusting a conversion that was imported from GA4, and they don't say whether a GA4 refund event changes one.

Check which case you're in. Open Goals > Conversions > Summary and see which purchase action is primary, and whether its source is the website tag or a Google Analytics import. Google Ads conversion tracking on Magento 2 lays out the two routes and how primary and secondary actions interact. Stores running both should look at which action their bidding strategy reads.

Try one retraction before the batch

1. In Goals > Conversions > Summary, note the purchase action's exact name and its source.
2. On a test order, open GTM Preview and confirm the Google Ads tag's Order ID matches the number in the order grid, and note wp_conversion_value.
3. Pick one order that really was canceled and build a one-row RETRACT file for it. If Google answers that the conversion couldn't be found, that order wasn't from an ad click; pick another [3].
4. Upload it from the manager account if one tracks the conversions.
5. Check that action's Conversions (by conv. time) column for the order's date over the next days [7]. Google says the change shows in about the same time regular conversion data takes to appear [3].
6. Send the rest of the period only after the first row has landed.

FAQ

Do I need Enhanced Conversions to retract a conversion?

No. The adjustment is matched on the order ID and the conversion action's name [3] [4]. Enhanced Conversions add customer identifiers to a conversion and play no part in the match.

Can I undo a retraction?

For website conversions, no. Google's page says they can't be added back to reports after removal [4]. Restating a value to 0 is treated the same as a retraction [3].

Does a GA4 refund event lower a conversion imported from GA4?

Google's adjustment pages don't say. The documented route for a tag conversion is the upload described above [3] [4].

Why did Google ignore my second adjustment?

Probably because the first one retracted the conversion or restated it to 0. After that, Google ignores further rows for it without an error message [3] [4].

Keep the order number and value your Google Ads tag reports consistent with Magento, and send refunds to GA4 from the credit memo, with the Magento 2 Google Analytics 4 extension.

Sources

1. WeltPixel Google Analytics 4 User Guide and Change Log (Google Ads conversion tracking; Exclude Orders By Status; Order Success Page Total Calculation; v1.15.7 and v1.17.4 entries), retrieved October 20, 2026, https://docs.weltpixel.com/GA4/User-Guide-WeltPixel-Google-Analytics-4.html
2. Order workflow and processing, Adobe Commerce, last updated October 8, 2026, retrieved October 20, 2026, https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/commerce-admin/stores-sales/order-management/orders/order-processing
3. About conversion adjustments, Google Ads Help, retrieved October 20, 2026, https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7686447
4. How to adjust your conversions, Google Ads Help, retrieved October 20, 2026, https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7686280
5. Magento Open Source 2.4.9 source, order number sequence pattern, retrieved October 20, 2026, https://github.com/magento/magento2/blob/2.4.9/app/code/Magento/SalesSequence/Model/Sequence.php
6. Manage online click conversions, Google Ads API, retrieved October 20, 2026, https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/conversions/enhance-conversions
7. Understand conversions by time with new columns, Google Ads Help, retrieved October 20, 2026, https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9549009