Enhanced conversions in Google Ads: setup and checks

This guide is built from Google Ads Help, mainly About enhanced conversions, About enhanced conversions for web and Set up enhanced conversions for web using the Google tag, plus the pages linked below. Conversion actions, tags and attribution are in our Google Ads conversion tracking guide; sales that close offline (enhanced conversions for leads versus GCLID import) are in our offline conversion import guide.

What enhanced conversions does

Google describes enhanced conversions as a feature that "supplements your existing conversion by sending hashed first party conversion data" to Google. It does not replace your conversion tag. When someone converts, the tag also captures details the customer gave you, such as email, name, home address or phone number, hashes them with SHA256 and sends them to Google, which matches them to Google accounts that were signed in when they engaged with your ad. A conversion that cookies alone would have missed can then be credited to the click or view.

Google's web page lists three benefits: "Recover conversions that otherwise wouldn't have been measured", better data for bidding, and hashing for privacy. Two versions exist:

• Enhanced conversions for web: for "sales and events that happen on a website". This guide covers it.
• Enhanced conversions for leads: for sales "that happen off a website" from website leads, matched when you import them. See our offline conversion import guide.

If you load Google Ads tags through Google tag gateway or server-side Google Tag Manager, Google says the data is encrypted before it is sent, and that matching happens "inside a confidential computing environment".

One setting since April 2026

Google's settings update page sets out the change. Since April 2026 Google Ads accepts user-provided data "from website tags, Data Manager, and API connections simultaneously", and from June 2026 web and leads became "a single feature with a simple on/off switch", without the old choice of one implementation method. Existing users were moved over automatically if they had agreed to the customer data terms.

Some Google setup articles still describe a dropdown where you pick Google tag, Google Tag Manager or API, so your screen may look different from older screenshots. The data still has to come from somewhere: the tag, GTM or an API upload, as described below.

One more limit from the setup article: conversions imported from Google Analytics "aren't supported for enhanced conversions". To use it, create a Google Ads conversion action with the Google tag or Google Tag Manager.

Before you turn it on

Google's checklist before setup:

• Know the exact URL where the conversion tag fires (for example the confirmation page) and what triggers it (a click or a page view).
• Make sure customer data, such as the email address, is available on that page when the tag fires. If it was entered on an earlier page, it has to be carried over.
• Plan for some code changes and access to your developer.
• Read the customer data policies and confirm you can comply (see below).

Turning it on

At account level, per the settings update page:

1. In Google Ads, open Settings in the Goals menu.
2. Expand the Customer data use panel and tick Turn on enhanced conversions.
3. Optionally tick Turn on conversion-based customer lists, which lets Google build customer lists from your conversion data.
4. Select Agree and save, review the data terms and select Agree and continue.

Agreeing confirms that the Google Ads Data Processing Terms apply and that you follow Google's policies. You can still opt single conversion actions out. Google's account-level page adds that new conversion actions inherit the account setting, and that leftover action-level configurations can conflict with it, which "may result in dropped enhanced conversion pings". Turning the feature off later does not change conversion data you already have, but you lose it for bidding and reporting.

How the tag picks up the data

With the Google tag, the setup article offers three ways to capture user-provided data, and they can be combined:

• Automatic detection: the tag "Inspects the page for strings matching configured data types". Least effort; Google says it "works for most advertisers". You can exclude CSS selectors.
• CSS selectors or JavaScript variables: you point the tag at the page element or variable that holds the email, phone or address. In Chrome you right-click the value, choose Inspect, then Copy > Selector.
• Code snippet: your page passes the data directly with gtag('set', 'user_data', {...}) on the conversion page. Google says this "improves accuracy", and "Code snippet data is always prioritized" when methods are combined.

If you set up the conversion action by URL rather than with an event snippet, Google says only automatic detection or CSS/JavaScript selectors are available. With automatic or selector collection, Google uses an ads cookie to collect the hashed data and connect it with conversions in the same user session; under Consent Mode that cookie follows the ad_storage consent state.

Which fields to send

At least one of these is required, per the setup article:

• Email: the preferred field.
• Name and address: first name, last name, postal code and country are required; street, city and region are optional extra match keys.
• Phone: only together with an email or full name and address, in E.164 format (plus sign, country code, no spaces or dashes).

You can send the values unhashed and let Google normalise and hash them, or hash them yourself. If you hash them yourself, Google's rules are: trim spaces, lowercase, format phones to E.164, remove dots before the domain in gmail.com and googlemail.com addresses, then hash with hex SHA256 and use the sha256_ keys. If your form doesn't collect a field, remove it from the snippet rather than leaving it blank. You can pass up to three emails or phone numbers and two addresses as arrays.

Setting it up in Google Tag Manager

Google's Tag Manager article follows the same idea in three parts:

1. In your Google tag settings, select Allow user-provided data capabilities and choose automatic detection, CSS/JavaScript, or code.
2. Turn on enhanced conversions in Google Ads and agree to the terms.
3. In GTM, make sure a Google tag with your Ads account as a destination is in the container, then manage its user-provided data settings there.

When the email is entered on one page and the conversion fires on a later one, Google offers the Google Ads User-Provided Data Event tag: it uses the same conversion ID and label as the conversion action and fires where the data is available, such as the form step. For selectors, Google recommends reading values by the element's ID attribute, which is "less likely to change over time" than class names. Tags, triggers and preview mode are covered in our Google Tag Manager basics guide.

The third route is the Google Ads API, for developers who send conversions from a server. Note Google's separate notice that offline and leads uploads moved to the Data Manager API from 15 June 2026.

Checking that it works

Test straight after setup, then again after a few days:

• In the browser: complete a test conversion, open developer tools, Network tab, search "google" and open the request to googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/. In its payload, look for an em parameter starting with tv.1~em followed by a long hashed string. If it shows only tv.1~em, the parameter is sent but empty, usually because the data wasn't on the page when the tag fired.
• Diagnostics: about 72 hours after setup, the diagnostics report is under Goals > Summary > Diagnostics. It rates data quality as Excellent, Good, Needs attention or No recent data (nothing in 7 days) and shows a coverage rate: the share of conversion events that carry user data. Alerts are hidden when there are fewer than 20 conversions in 7 days.
• Status column: per Google's impact results page, a conversion action first shows "Recording (processing enhanced conversions)". Enhanced conversions "need up to 30 days to train"; then the status reads "Recording (enhanced conversions)" and hovering shows the impact on reported conversions for 30 days.

A status of "Check enhanced conversions" in the conversions table links straight to the diagnostics. Google also offers a Chrome extension, the enhanced conversions assist tool, for step-by-step validation.

Customer data rules and consent

Google's customer data policies apply to enhanced conversions. The main points:

• Send only first-party data that customers shared with you (retailer data only for brands that sell through retailers, with written agreements).
• Disclose to customers that you share their data with third parties for ad measurement, and get consent "where legally required".
• No data about children under 13, and no conversions in sensitive categories, such as health or medical purchases, negative financial status, religion, political affiliation or sexual orientation.
• Follow Google's EU User Consent Policy where it applies.

The setup article adds that the tag only sends user-provided data once the terms are accepted and, where used, the consent parameters are "granted". How Consent Mode and GTM's consent settings fit together is in our GTM consent overview; update your privacy notice before you switch the feature on.

How we set it up

This is our own practice, not Google's guidance:

• We check the privacy notice, the consent banner and the sensitive-category list before anything else; a clinic's appointment bookings, for example, fall under health and medical information.
• We prefer the code snippet or a data layer variable over automatic detection, because form markup changes with redesigns.
• We send email first and phone only as an extra key, and test the payload with a real test conversion.
• We note the start date in the account, because reported conversions can rise once the training period ends, and compare cost per conversion before and after with that in mind.
• We check the diagnostics coverage rate a week later and fix pages where the data was missing.

If you want help with Google Ads tracking, see our services.

Frequently asked questions

Can I turn enhanced conversions off for one conversion action?

Yes. Google lets you opt single conversion actions out while the account setting stays on. Turning it off doesn't change conversion data you already have.

How long does it take to see results from enhanced conversions?

Diagnostics appear about 72 hours after setup. Google says enhanced conversions need up to 30 days to train before they affect your reported conversions.

Does Google see my customers' email addresses?

The data is hashed with SHA256 before it is sent, or you send it unhashed and Google normalises and hashes it. Google matches the hashes to signed-in Google accounts and reports conversions, not customer details.

Can I use enhanced conversions with Google Analytics conversions?

No. Conversions imported from Google Analytics aren't supported. You need a Google Ads conversion action set up with the Google tag or Google Tag Manager.

What is the difference between enhanced conversions for web and for leads?

Web improves measurement of conversions that happen on your site. Leads matches sales that close offline to the website lead, using the same hashed data in your import. Since 2026 both sit under one setting.

For other platforms' equivalents, see our guides to the Meta pixel and Conversions API and the LinkedIn Insight Tag, and our guide to value-based bidding in Google Ads.