🔥 Fix your conversion goals before Google Ads optimises the wrong thing
👉https://www.skool.com/theconversionclinic/about
Choosing the wrong conversion goals in Google Ads can quietly burn budget, even when the dashboard looks “fine”.
In this video, I break down how a conversion goal, conversion action, and conversion tracking actually work together, and why Smart Bidding will optimise around whatever you tell it to.
I’ll cover primary vs secondary goals, how to set up conversion properly for e-commerce and service businesses, and how to avoid double-counting that makes your numbers look better than reality.
I also show how to use segmentation (conversion action) to spot fluff conversions fast, plus when offline tracking and conversion value are worth using.
⏩ Skip to Section
0:00 Fixing the wrong conversion goals
0:23 Primary vs secondary conversions
0:37 E-commerce conversion setup
1:06 Why add to cart should stay secondary
2:03 Service business conversion tracking
2:39 What not to track as a primary goal
4:50 App conversion tracking
5:21 Removing duplicate conversions
6:39 Campaign goals vs account defaults
8:03 Finding inflated conversion actions
9:00 Cleaning up inactive conversions
📺More videos from The Conversion Clinic
Max Clicks vs Max Conversions (3 Examples to Help You Decide… Backed by $53M Results): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0NOx9DDpKg&t=11s
How to Track SEO ROI in 5 Minutes (I Tracked $1,597,828.33 Easily): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDxKxWi7mXM&t=1s
📚 Related resources
What is Conversion Value in Google Ads? The 3-Minute Guide: https://josiahroche.co/blog/what-is-conversion-value-in-google-ads/
❓FAQs
Q1. What’s a conversion in Google Ads?
A conversion is the action I tell Google Ads to count as valuable, like a purchase, enquiry form, booked call, or qualified lead. This matters because Google will optimize around that action once it is used in bidding.
Q2. What’s the difference between a conversion goal and a conversion action?
A conversion action is the exact event being tracked, such as a purchase, phone call, or form submission. A conversion goal is how Google groups those actions inside the account. This is important because Smart Bidding uses these goals to decide what kind of users to find, so the setup needs to match the real campaign goal.
Q3. What’s the difference between primary and secondary conversions?
Primary conversions are the actions Google uses for bidding and optimization. Secondary conversions are still tracked, but they are mainly there for extra insight.
Q4. What should e-commerce businesses track as a primary conversion?
For e-commerce, the primary conversion should usually be purchases because that is where the revenue comes from. I also want the conversion value passed back properly so Google can distinguish between a small order and a high-value sale.
Q5. Should add to cart and begin checkout be the primary conversions?
Usually, no. Add to cart and begin checkout; show interest, but it doesn’t prove that someone actually bought. If those actions are primary, Google may optimize for users who nearly buy instead of users who complete the purchase. I prefer to keep them as secondary conversions for funnel analysis.
Q6. What should service businesses track as conversions?
For service businesses, I would track actions that show real intent, like completed forms, booked appointments, and phone calls that last long enough to matter. I would be careful with click-to-call, click-to-email, newsletter sign-ups, and page views because they can inflate results. A lead conversion should be tied to someone who could realistically become a customer.
Q7. How do I check if Google Ads is double-counting conversions?
A simple way is to segment your reports by conversion action and check what is actually being counted. If the same lead or purchase appears through multiple sources, like GA4, Google Ads tags, and another tracking tool, the account may be double-counting.
Q8. When should I use offline conversion tracking?
Offline conversion tracking is useful when the real sale happens after the first lead comes in. For example, a form submission might not be valuable until the person becomes a qualified lead, booked a job, or closed a sale. Sending that data back into Google Ads helps the system optimize for better leads, not just cheaper leads.
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Wrong conversion goals can make a campaign look healthy while it’s chasing the wrong actions. Check your primary goals first, remove duplicates, and make sure Google is optimising for real leads or sales. Subscribe for more Google Ads fixes, or join Skool to keep learning 👍
Hi, can you please help me determine which goal should be chosen for ecom store when there is no history data on conversions and Google Ad account is completely new? When I choose Maximize conversions it is stuck and has no results meaning 0 impressions for days Thank you!.
Nice walkthrough. Thanks again.
Saved me a lot of time. Thanks for putting this together.
This cleared things up. Will be watching more of your stuff.
Appreciated the examples. This took the guesswork out of it for me. Instant follow.
Perfect timing for me. I never thought about it that way before. Definitely coming back for more.
This cleared things up. Thanks a lot.
Nicely broken down. This took the guesswork out of it for me. More like this please.
Great little tutorial. I had no idea it could be this straightforward. Thanks for sharing.
So for my first time promoting my app, I should optimize for app installs first to gather data and make in-app-purchases as a 2ndry conversion tracking or I should do in-app purchase as my primary and app installed as 2ndry? I am confused! I just don't want to lose potenial purchases by optimizing primary for in-app-purchases because I fear google can neglect some users like not showing the ads to them thinking that they will not end up purchasing (or as it might think). So can you advice on this please?
I want more call for home visit doctor what to choose conversion goal account based or campaign based
Thanks for the video.
I have multiple lead forms on the website, and I set them up as different conversion goals. But they're automatically grouped under the category Lead form. In a specific campaign setting, I can choose the category (all the lead forms), but not a specific one (form 1, form 2, etc.). What should I do? Thanks for your advice.
Thank you man really good informational video🙏
Great breakdown – thanks! For value-based tROAS campaigns, would you typically treat non-ecommerce conversions as “Purchase” to strengthen bidding signals?
Which purchase conversion data is more reliable and more useful for smart bidding strategies: native Shoppify/Google Ads data (with enhanced conversions) OR GA4 purchase data?
Hi, how about using the ThankYou Page event as the primary , and the form_submit (which leads to this Thank you page) as the secondary , as an additional option for analysis? After all, the Thank You page seems to be more reliable.