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API for Google Ads conversions
Posted by on November 22, 2025 at 12:49 pmWe're having more and more problems getting all our leads counted as conversions in Google Ads (using gtag.js)
We see about 5 leads in our CRM. 100% sure attributable to Google Ads. Google only counts 1.
I know the gclid for these leads. I just need to flag them as converted somehow.What's the best way to do this?
– Importing as offline conversions
– Use stape.io with webhooks
– Cloudflare Tag Gateway (wouldnt be perfect I know)
– Some very obvious (REST) API from Google I'm missing hereI've built my own website and have full access to the servers. So no problem if it gets very technical
All help appreciated
Btw if anyone can explain me why it's so overly complicated to report conversions server side? Why doesn't Google have a webhook/REST API for this use.
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1 Reply
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So many ways to do it. Preferably use a server context to read the gclid. If you use Cloudflare you can just send it to a worker which processes it.
Or you can use something like n8n, make.We use posthog a lot which lets you track events there you can set destination to forward them based on your requirements. Works well for us
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Offline conversion tracking would just be the easiest at this point.
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Offline conversions via the data manager https import is fairly easy to set up and allows for tracking leads both with GCLID and enhanced conversions. This is probably a better long-term solution than the legacy CSV file upload as the legacy system doesn’t support enhanced conversions.
There are a bunch of reasons why your CRM count and your conversion count won’t match up exactly. Offline conversion tracking might help solve that, but it might be more complex. I’ve gone into geeky detail here if that’s your sort of thing: [https://pete-bowen.com/my-lead-count-doesnt-match-my-conversion-count](https://pete-bowen.com/my-lead-count-doesnt-match-my-conversion-count)
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Offline conversion tracking would just involve either periodically uploading your MQLs or SQLs from a spreadsheet, or connecting your CRM to Google Ads and automating the process.
If your CRM doesn’t connect natively you can usually do that through Zapier, although it’s a bit of plumbing and extra cost.
That would honestly be your best option to ensure great lead quality and to optimize campaign performance.
However, since browsers and some other tools can strip the GCLID this isn’t foolproof. There are workarounds to save the GCLID other ways like passing the same variable into a dummy placeholder (e.g. gclickid) and using that instead.
Outside of that Tag Gateway is a really simple and free way to boost standard conversion tracking. Full blown server-side tracking gets you incrementally better performance than Tag Gateway and, of course, opens the door for better tracking beyond Google Ads and GA4. But it’s a complicated setup (you need an expert) and requires for a monthly hosting fee and periodic adjustment/maintenance.
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