Which actions are worth tracking for a business like yours?
The ones that come before money changes hands. For a shop that is a purchase, with its value. For a business that quotes, it is a quote form sent and a phone call of a minimum length. Google Ads Help ("About conversion tracking") describes a conversion as an action you have defined as valuable, and the definition is the important part: Google counts exactly what you tell it to, whether or not it is a customer.
Visits to the contact page, clicks on an email address and time on site are signs of interest. They can be tracked as secondary actions for reference. Counted as conversions, they make the account look several times better than it is.
How does the count get back to Google Ads?
Through one of four routes. The Google tag on your website fires when a form is sent or a thank-you page loads. Call reporting counts calls made from a phone number in your ad. Key events from Google Analytics 4 can be imported into Google Ads. And an offline import lets you upload which enquiries became paying jobs, which is the most honest count of all for a trade business. Each route creates a conversion action, and each action is set as primary or secondary.
How did a Bunbury landscaper's 64 conversions turn into 22? (example figures)
A landscaping business in Bunbury with a crew of three spent $1,600 on Google Ads in a month, and the account reported 64 conversions, $25 each. The owner's diary showed far fewer quote requests. The conversion actions told the story:
| Conversion action | Counted | Real enquiries | What was wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact page view | 31 | 0 | A page visit only |
| Click on phone number | 19 | 15 | Counted taps, including misdials |
| Quote form (Google tag) | 7 | 7 | Right |
| Quote form (imported from GA4) | 7 | 0 | The same forms, counted twice |
| Total | 64 | 22 |
The real cost of an enquiry was $73, not $25. The fix took an hour: the page view and the GA4 import were made secondary, and the phone-number click was replaced with calls from ads lasting 60 seconds or more. The month after, Google Ads reported 24 conversions, close to the diary. Smart Bidding, which had been chasing contact page visits, started bidding for the searches that brought enquiries.
How does CoraVision use your conversion tracking?
CoraVision reads conversions and conversion value from Google Ads, and key events from Google Analytics 4, every night once both are connected, and at launch it also reads your Google Tag Manager containers. The Trust Score on the dashboard exists for the problem in the Bunbury example: it says how far the numbers can be trusted, which is the question to settle before anyone reads a cost per enquiry. Fixing the tracking is something you do yourself, with Cora looking at the settings on your screen.
Questions
What is the difference between a primary and a secondary conversion action?
A primary action is counted in the Conversions column and used by Smart Bidding to set bids. A secondary action is recorded for you to look at but does not steer bidding. Real enquiries and sales should be primary; signs of interest, such as a visit to the pricing page, belong in secondary.
Do I need Google Tag Manager to track conversions?
No. The Google tag can go straight onto your site, and most website builders have a box for it. Tag Manager helps when you have several tags to manage, because it keeps them in one place you can change without editing the website.