How to set up offline conversion tracking in Google Ads

In an ideal world, a company sets up an ad, a user clicks on it, goes to the website and immediately buys the product. But it happens, the user clicks on the ad, doesn't make a purchase on the website, but goes to an offline store and makes the purchase there. Marketers and business owners will be greatly helped by tracking offline conversions in Google Ads to:

See the entire customer journey from ad click to offline store purchase already after they have closed the website page.
Understand which ad campaigns and channels bring leads and customers, and which ones should stop using.
Set up targeted advertising based on more accurate data and attract new customers.
How to set up offline conversions in Google Ads, told in the article.

How tracking offline conversions works

When a user buys something offline after clicking on an ad, the purchase data needs to be transmitted to Google Ads. In order for the advertising system to realize that the purchase was made by the very person who clicked on the ad, it is necessary to match the user's actions online and on the company's website with his offline actions. A unique identifier - GClientID - will help to do this. It is assigned automatically by the analytics system.

A user can also be identified with the help of UserID, which is assigned to him on the site or with the help of cookies.

Data on visits is collected by algorithms using enabled geolocation, data on WiFi networks and IP addresses of devices used by the user. Google then correlates ad clicks with offline actions.

Conditions for customizing offline conversions

To import data about offline events, you need to assign a unique ID to each lead. Companies often assign an ID and transmit it automatically. For example, when a user fills out a form.
It's important to have automatic site tagging enabled, which, along with Google Ads and Google Analytics, will help you understand whether clicks on ads lead to targeted actions.
It is also important that no more than three months have passed from the time a user clicks on an ad to purchase. Google Ads ignores information about such offline conversions and does not show it in the conversion statistics.

How to create an offline conversion

Go to Google Ads → "Tools & Settings" → "Conversions." Click "Create action-conversion" → "Import".



Select the conversions you want to import. Click "Other data sources or customer interaction management systems" → Track conversions by clicks or calls.



In the new window, fill in the settings:



Note the name - the same will need to be used for offline conversions in the table.

Site Settings

Once the conversions are ready, you need to add a hidden field for GCLID on every page where users fill out forms. It will automatically assign unique IDs to site visitors and transmit the data to your server. To add a field, you may need the help of a developer or site administrator. You can also use Google Task manager.



The <input> tag should be inserted between the <form> tags, and the code itself should be inserted before the </body> tag

Customizing the transfer of offline conversions

You can import conversions in two ways: manually or automatically. With Albato's no-code service, you can link any services in 5-10 minutes and automatically transfer conversions to CRM or Google Sheets, for example.

We tell you how to set up manual import below.

Choose a template that matches the type of conversion. You can find it in your Google Ads account: "Goals" → "Conversion" → "Uploads":



Click on the link "see the templates":




And download the template you want:




Google gives a few recommendations to help you correctly transfer offline conversions:

Don't transmit users' personal information in the file.
Don't add your own columns to the file.
Do not delete the Google Click ID column, without it the import will not work.
Do not use quotes in the time zone column.

Fill in the columns:


Google Click ID - Google Click ID.

Conversion Name - Conversion Name, must match the name you entered when you created the conversion action.

Conversion Time - Conversion Time. There is a list of acceptable formats, if it is important to specify the time zone for offline conversions, any of the last options will do.



IMPORTANT: Remember to set the TimeZone value in the "parameters" row and/or in your Conversion Time column
For instructions on how to setup your data, visit http://goo.gl/T1C5Ov

Conversion Value (optional field) - conversion value.

Conversion Currency (optional field) - the currency that is specified in the Conversion Value column. This field comes in handy if you can have the conversion value in different currencies.

Importing a conversion

Important: Upload a file with conversion data to the management account at least 4-6 hours after you have created the file.

In the same Conversions section where you downloaded the template, go to the Uploads menu, click "select source" and select the source:



Go to the "Uploads" tab and click "select source":



Select and upload the file from your computer. Once it is uploaded you can see how much data was transferred and how many transfer errors there were.

Here you can also configure automatic import and set a schedule. To do this, you need to select the source, upload the file upload the file or give access to it.

Optimize offline conversions in Google Ads

With the help of offline conversions data, you can improve the effectiveness of your ads. To do this, import data every day and analyze conversions: adjust ads and bids, optimize keywords, work on improving user experience after a click.


Companies interact with customers in different channels. It's a good plan to consider them all to make decisions based on complete data. Setting up and tracking offline conversions in Google Ads can help.

Updated on: 06/12/2023