I’m sure, it’s no surprise to anyone that our measurement landscape is changing due to several privacy changes. Previously, we lived in a world of fully observable data, like cookies and device identifiers. However, evolving user expectations of privacy have led to additional privacy regulations and restrictions on cookies, changing the way the ecosystem measures conversions.
Enhanced conversions is one of the products in our privacy-centric measurement portfolio that was developed to help preserve accurate measurements when fewer cookies are available.
Enhanced conversions allow conversion tags to capture hashed customer data. Advertisers collect data on their conversion pages and then match it against Google logged-in data. The enhanced conversions feature is currently available for Search and YouTube in Google Ads, and Google is actively working on expanding it to SA360 and Google Analytics 4 in 2022.
What are Enhanced Conversions?
Enhanced conversions is a feature that can improve the accuracy of your conversion measurement and unlock more powerful bidding options. Enhanced Conversions supplements your existing conversion tags by sending hashed first-party conversion data from your website to Google in a privacy-safe way.
The enhanced conversions feature works best for deep conversion types such as a purchase or sign-ups where customer data is required.
Enhanced Conversion Benefits
The short-term Enhanced Conversion benefit is that advertisers will see more accurate conversion reporting.
- Maintain Accurate Measurement
- Model Conversions Effectively
- Improve Performance
Early testers of enhanced conversions have seen a median conversion rate uplift of 5% on Search and average of 17% conversion uplift on YouTube.
Enhanced Conversion Requirements
- Using sitewide tagging, using Google site tag or Google Tag Manager
- Have Google Ads conversion tracking as their conversion source
- Have a webpage where customers submit data in cleartext
Possible Types of Implementations
Google offer advertisers a lot of flexibility in terms of how they can implement enhanced conversions.
Currently, there are three types of implementations possible for enhanced conversions.
- Automatic
- Manual
- Via an API
- The first step is always to accept the terms of service after picking the “Turn on enhanced conversions” box in the Google Ads UI. After accepting the terms of service
- Select “Global site tag or Google Tag Manager” and press “Next”
- Input your website to check for a Google tag and select “Check URL”
- Select “Automatic setup” and then press “Save”
If you’re using Google Tag Manager, you’ll be prompted to this section. Open Google Tag Manager to finish the automatic setup process. If a tag is not detected, you can press “select one manually” and then select your tag type. Advertisers looking for more implementation customization options can also edit the code of their page via the manual set up.
Sophisticated advertisers who want to pass data server-to-server can do so using the enhanced conversions API. To decide which implementation option is best for you, please discuss your options with your account representative.
Next, we will talk about the product roadmap. We have a lot of exciting new features coming. There are three large areas where we are investing.
- Google is actively working to bring enhanced conversions across different platforms like Search Ads 360 and Google Analytics 4.
- Second, Google is working on making it easier for advertisers to implement enhanced conversions and improve troubleshooting and diagnostics.
- And finally, Google is working on building integrations with many third party TMS to make it easier to ingest data from them.
Overall, enhanced conversions is a critical product for future proofing your measurements.