Is your conversion tracking lying to you? A ten-minute check
If the conversions are wrong, every decision after them is too. How to check yours before you change anything else.
Smart bidding, reports and budget decisions all rest on one thing: the conversions Google Ads counts. If they're wrong, everything built on them is wrong too. This check takes about ten minutes.
Open the conversions summary
In Google Ads, go to Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. You'll see every action the account counts and whether each one is primary (used for bidding) or secondary (reported only).
Look for these four problems
- Duplicates. The same form counted twice, for example by a Google Ads tag and a GA4 import. Keep one source as primary.
- Soft actions marked primary. Page views, scroll depth or time on site shouldn't drive bidding for a lead-generation business.
- Leads counted every time. For enquiries, the count setting should usually be One, so one person filling a form twice counts once.
- Missing calls. If the phone is how most customers get in touch and calls aren't tracked, Google is bidding blind.
Test it
Submit your own form and make a test call, then check they appear in the account within a day or two. If they don't, nothing else matters until they do.