How to Run a Conversion Tracking Health Check for Google Ads

Your checkout still records orders, but Google Ads conversions no longer match. Run a conversion tracking health check for Google Ads before changing bids: check tag coverage, duplicate counts, attribution, and the GA4 import.

This is for the person who owns the Google Ads account and the person who owns the website. After you read it, you can open Tag Diagnostics, the conversion summary, and the GA4 import list, and say which check failed. You will not need a new campaign to do that.

What should a conversion tracking health check include?

A conversion tracking health check for Google Ads reviews the measurement you bid on before you change a keyword, a budget, or a bid. A conversion action is the outcome you asked Google Ads to record. Ask whether the tag is firing, whether bidding uses this action, and whether your columns match the bid strategy. Start with tag quality.

The help page Troubleshoot tag issues with Tag Diagnostics lists five tag quality statuses: Excellent, Good, Needs attention, Urgent, and No recent data. Excellent means no issue. Good means no issue, plus a recommendation. Needs attention is not critical.

Urgent means a critical issue. Google's example is a tag seen before that has not been detected in the last 48 hours, so measured data can drop to zero. No recent data means the Google tag has never been detected. A silent tag gives bidding nothing to learn.

1. Read Tag quality before you open a campaign.
2. Mark each action primary or secondary. See primary vs secondary conversions.
3. Keep one date range. Recent days still fill in. See Google Ads conversion numbers keep changing.

Do not treat No recent data and a stopped tag as one outage. Never detected means Google has not seen the tag. A tag that goes quiet after a checkout change needs investigation.

Are the pages and landing pages tagged?

Tag coverage is the set of pages where the Google tag was found. A Google tag is the sitewide snippet that lets Google measure the visit. In a conversion tracking health check for Google Ads, an untagged page is a coverage gap. The help page Use Tag Assistant to troubleshoot your unverified or inactive conversion actions says the Google tag belongs on every page, including a new domain or a new thank-you URL.

The Tag coverage summary shows which pages have the tag, and Tag Assistant can add untagged pages to it. Troubleshoot tag issues with Tag Diagnostics points one alert at that summary. Some of your landing pages are not tagged means landing pages for ad creatives and Performance Max lack it. Those landing pages are added to the tag coverage report for that Google tag.

• List untagged URLs in the Tag coverage summary.
• Match them to final URLs on live ads, including Performance Max.
• After a redesign, start Tag Assistant on the landing page, then open the new thank-you URL.

A tag on the home page and none on the new confirmation page measures the click and misses the purchase. Status can stay Unverified, Tag inactive, or Needs attention until that URL is tagged.

How do you catch a duplicate conversion?

A duplicate conversion is one outcome counted more than once. A conversion tracking health check for Google Ads looks for that before cost per conversion. The usual path is a confirmation page. The tag fires, the buyer reloads, and the tag fires again.

The help page Use a transaction ID to minimize duplicate conversions says two hits on the same action with the same transaction ID are not both counted. Google Ads treats the second as a duplicate, returns an error, and drops it. A transaction ID is a unique value your site creates for that order, up to 64 characters, and it must not identify a person. Count set to One records at most one conversion after an ad click.

With Count set to Every, a unique transaction ID lets distinct purchases count and prevents a repeat of the same purchase. One fixed ID on every order keeps only the first hit.

• Pass a dynamic transaction ID on purchases. In Tag Manager, use a variable, not a fixed string.
• For one lead per click, set Count to One. Count every vs one is that tally.
• Treat a GG_ prefix as a blank ID. It does not clear a missing transaction ID alert.

Two form submits after one click can be two Analytics events and one Ads conversion when Count is One. Do not pick Every just to fill a lead column. Troubleshoot tag issues with Tag Diagnostics flags multi-source conversions when fewer than 10% of transaction IDs matched the other source in the past 2 days.

Which attribution model is crediting the click?

An attribution model is the rule for which ad interaction gets credit for a conversion. A conversion tracking health check for Google Ads reads that rule on every action you bid toward. It changes the Conversions column, the All conversions column, and bidding on that column. The help page About attribution models says first click, linear, time decay, and position-based models are no longer supported.

Those actions moved to data-driven attribution. Last click remains and gives all credit to the last-clicked ad and its keyword. Data-driven attribution is the default for most conversion actions and splits credit from your past data for that action. You set it on website actions and on Google Analytics actions.

A change applies going forward and does not rewrite stored history. The help page About data-driven attribution says every action is eligible at any volume. Google recommends at least 200 conversions and 2,000 ad interactions on supported networks in 30 days, and the model still runs with less.

• Read the model on each primary action.
• Compare Last click with Data-driven before you pause a keyword. Data-driven attribution explains a count that moves while orders do not.
• Target CPA and Target ROAS use the Conversions column. Set the model in the manager account when that account owns tracking.

Do not compare a last-click month with a data-driven month and call the gap a slump. Credit moved. Thin data can make the two models match.

Is the GA4 import the same event as the website tag?

A GA4 import is a Google Analytics key event created as a Google Ads conversion. A key event is an Analytics event marked important to the business. That mark alone does not put the event into bidding. The help page Create conversions from Google Analytics events in Google Ads says you import it after it is a key event, the accounts are linked, and auto-tagging is on.

You need a Marketer role in Analytics and admin access in Google Ads. The Google Click Identifier, the GCLID, must survive redirects or the import cannot tie the event to the click. Actions created in Analytics start as secondary, so they do not bid until you change action optimization in Google Ads. A primary action is read-only in Analytics.

Rows can take up to 24 hours, and reports can include modeled conversions when a path was not observed. A website tag and this import may both run. Two primary actions for one purchase count it twice.

• Import the key event you would pay for. GA4 key events vs Google Ads conversions keeps that mark separate from the Ads action.
• If the website tag already counts that outcome, do not make the import primary too.
• Measure web key events from Google Analytics properties says Every is for sales and One is for leads. Paid and organic attribution inherits the count and the click-through window from Analytics.

Google's example on Create conversions from Google Analytics events in Google Ads dates a July 19 click and a July 20 purchase on the click in Ads and on the purchase in Analytics. Ads cookies expire after 90 days. The Ads window can run from 1 to 90 days, while Analytics can keep a cookie for up to 2 years.

What does a broken setup look like in the columns?

A broken setup still shows clicks. The columns stop matching the orders, the inbox, or each other. A conversion tracking health check for Google Ads reads tracking status before cost per conversion. Use Tag Assistant to troubleshoot your unverified or inactive conversion actions says a conversion verified in Tag Assistant updates in about 30 minutes and shows as no recent conversions, then as Recording once conversions arrive.

Troubleshoot tag issues with Tag Diagnostics describes Eligible (Misconfigured) when the site is missing a Google tag, which often means no biddable conversions in the last 28 days. No recent data means the tag was never detected. Urgent can follow when a previously seen tag is missing for 48 hours and data drops to zero. Create conversions from Google Analytics events in Google Ads says the Conversions column uses your count method and primary actions only.

The All conversions column also includes secondary actions and view-through conversions when the model includes them.

• Zero conversions with Urgent tag quality warrant checking whether the tag stopped. Start with why Google Ads conversions are not tracking.
• Conversions far above orders are a reason to investigate reloads, missing transaction IDs, or two primary actions.
• Leave yesterday unfinished until conversion lag clears. Read why Google Ads conversion numbers keep changing.

A quiet day with Excellent tag quality is still a real day. Urgent quality plus a missing confirmation tag is a measurement failure. Use Google Ads data exclusions only after you have confirmed that outage, not because the week looked weak.

Use it inside Claude or ChatGPT

Ask for a read-only review of conversion actions and tag settings, then test the website with Tag Assistant.

• AdvisorPPC in the Claude connector directory
• the AdvisorPPC plugin for Claude Code on GitHub
• how to add AdvisorPPC in ChatGPT

For the wider review, use the Google Ads audit checklist. Find my wasted spend free. AdvisorPPC's Free plan reads and reports on Google Ads without changing the account. No card is required.

Policy details checked against Google Ads Help on 2026-10-24, including Tag Diagnostics, Tag Assistant, transaction IDs, attribution models, data-driven attribution, and Google Analytics conversion imports.