Google Conversion Events Tag for Google Tag Manager Server-Side

The Google Conversion Events Tag for Google Tag Manager Server-Side allows you to send conversion events directly to Google's advertising platforms (like Google Ads) using the Data Manager API. This server-to-server integration ensures robust and accurate tracking of conversions, independent of client-side restrictions.

The tag is designed to handle both single and multiple conversion event uploads in a single request, with comprehensive support for user data, consent information, ad identifiers, and custom variables.

How to use the Google Conversion Events Tag

1. Sign in to the Data Manager API Connection via the Stape admin. How-to.
2. Add the Google Conversion Events Tag to your server container in GTM.
3. Set up your Destination Accounts and Conversion Events, specifying the Advertising Accounts Customer IDs and the corresponding Conversion Event IDs you want to send data to.
4. Choose your Conversion Event Mode: Single to configure one event's data through the UI, or Multiple to manually provide a pre-formatted array of events.
5. Configure the Conversion Information, User Data, and other relevant parameter groups. The tag can auto-map many of these fields from a standard GA4 or e-commerce data layer.
6. Add a trigger to fire the tag on the appropriate server-side events (e.g., a purchase event).

Parameters

Destination Accounts and Conversion Events

This is where you define which Google Ads accounts and specific conversion actions will receive the data.

• Product: The Google product to send data to (currently Google Ads).
• Operating Customer ID: The ID of the Google Ads account that will receive the conversion.
• Customer ID: The ID of the account used for authorization (e.g., an MCC account). If the operating account is the same as the authorizing account, this can be the same.
• Conversion Event ID: The unique ID for the conversion action in Google Ads.

Conversion Event Mode

You can send data in two ways:

• Single Conversion Event: Configure the parameters for a single conversion directly in the tag's UI fields.
• Multiple Conversion Events: Provide a complete, pre-formatted JSON array containing data for up to 2000 conversion events. This is useful for batch uploads.

Conversion Information

This section contains the core details of the conversion.

• Parameters: Includes Transaction/Order ID, Event Timestamp, Currency, and Conversion Value.
• Auto-mapping: If enabled, the tag will attempt to automatically populate these fields from the incoming event data (e.g., transaction_id, currency, value).

User Data

This section is crucial for matching the conversion to a user. You can provide multiple identifiers to improve match rates.

• Identifiers: Includes Email Address(es), Phone Number(s), and User Address (First Name, Last Name, Region, Postal Code).
• Auto-mapping: If enabled, the tag will automatically pull user data from common event data keys (e.g., user_data.email).
• Hashing & Normalization: The tag automatically normalizes and SHA-256 hashes user identifiers if they are provided in plain text, following Google's formatting guidelines.

Ad Identifiers

This section allows you to send click identifiers for attribution. It's as important as the User Data parameters for matching the conversion to a user.

• Parameters: gclid, gbraid, wbraid, Landing Page User Agent, Landing Page IP Address and Session Attributes.

Device Information

You can include device details for the conversion event.

• Parameters: User Agent and IP Address.

User Properties

This section provides more context about the customer.

• Parameters: Customer Type (New, Returning, or Re-engaged) and Customer Value Bucket (Low, Medium, or High).

Cart Data

This section allows for sending product-level details for e-commerce transactions.

• Parameters: Merchant Center ID, Feed Label, Feed Language Code, Transaction Discount, and a list of Items with their ID, quantity, and price.

Custom Variables

This section allows you to send any additional key-value pairs for custom reporting.

• Parameters: A list of Variable Name, Variable Value, and optional Destination References.

Advanced Options

• Validate Only: If true, the request is validated by the API but not executed. This is useful for debugging.
• Use Optimistic Scenario: If true, the tag fires gtmOnSuccess() immediately without waiting for a response from the API. This speeds up container response time but may hide downstream errors.
• Request-level Consent: Apply adUserData and adPersonalization consent statuses to all users in the request. This can be overridden at the user level when using the "Multiple Users" mode.
• Consent Settings: Prevent the tag from firing unless the necessary ad storage consent is granted by the user.
• Logging: Configure console and/or BigQuery logging for debugging and monitoring requests and responses.

Useful Resources

• Stape's Data Manager API Connection
• Data Manager API for Conversion Events
• Conversion Event definition
• User Identifiers Normalization Guidelines

Open Source

The Google Conversion Events Tag for GTM Server-Side is developed and maintained by the Stape Team under the Apache 2.0 license.