Top 7 Google Ads Conversion Tracking Mistakes

Running Google Ads without proper conversion tracking is like flying blind. Conversion tracking is what tells you how your ads are performing, and when your data is off, it’s difficult to devote time and resources to the marketing efforts that actually work – mostly because you can’t tell what’s working in the first place.

Whether you’re new to Google Ads or have years of experience under your belt, it’s surprisingly easy to overlook things that perfect your tracking setup. Here are seven common mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.

1. Only Using One Landing Page (And Never Testing Alternatives)

One common (and costly) error is sending all your paid traffic to a single landing page without testing variations. Whether it’s your homepage, a product page, or another landing page, it could be beautifully designed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it converts well.

Let’s say you own an eCommerce business selling home gym equipment, and you’re running paid ads for several different products but sending all your traffic to a general fitness equipment landing page. While the page has high-quality images and good copy, the conversion rate is stuck at 1.2%.

So you decide to test a few page variations: one focused on home gym bundles, one for compact equipment, and one for free weights. You discover the page advertising home gym bundles outperformed the others, increasing your conversion rates to 3.7% and giving you a much more accurate picture of what your customers are interested in, but how much better would your conversion rates be if you had ads specific to each product and sent customers directly to their product pages?

Google Ads rewards relevancy and user engagement. If you’re not A/B testing different landing pages (or at least experimenting with headlines, layouts, or offers), you’re missing the chance to increase conversions and lower your cost-per-click (CPC).

To fix it, create multiple versions of your landing page. Then run tests  to track which one brings better engagement, leads, or sales.

2. Not Implementing Referral Tracking For Gravity Forms

It’s one thing to know someone filled out a form. But knowing how they found your site and what brought them there gives you the insight you need to improve your ads and get better results.

Gravity Forms is a very popular WordPress form builder, and if you use it on your WordPress site to collect leads or inquiries, it’s important to track where those form submissions are coming from. This is especially true when you’re running Google Ads. Without referral tracking, you won’t know which campaigns or ads are bringing in results.

For the most well-rounded data, you should be tracking form submissions on your landing pages using plugins like our Referral Tracking for Gravity Forms and Google Ads Tracker for Gravity Forms, alongside the Google Analytics add-on. Learn more about the details of Gravity Forms referral tracking here. Not using Gravity Forms? Look for similar solutions for your form software of choice.

3. Not Connecting WooCommerce, Shopify, or Other Platforms to GA4 and Google Ads

Not connecting your eCommerce platform – whether it’s WooCommerce, Shopify, or another system – to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Ads can also undermine your tracking efforts. Without this integration, you’re missing out on conversion and revenue data that helps you understand how your ads are performing and what actions users are taking on your site.

Google Ads needs accurate conversion data to learn what’s working and to show your ads to the right people. This is more important than ever in the age of Performance Max campaigns and machine learning.

If that data isn’t set up correctly or is missing, the system can’t tell which clicks are turning into real results. That means your budget may go to the wrong places, your campaigns won’t perform as well, and you could miss out on valuable sales or leads.

4. Overloading Landing Pages with Fancy Widgets and Effects

It’s tempting to pack your landing pages with flashy design elements like sliders, animations, parallax scrolling, auto-play videos, and interactive widgets. While these features might impress a designer or create a “wow” moment for visitors, they often come at the cost of speed and user experience.

All these effects require additional scripts, images, and code to load. On a desktop, that might not seem like a big deal. But on mobile – where the majority of traffic now comes from – every second of load time matters. A slow-loading page leads to a higher bounce rate, fewer conversions, and poor performance metrics.

Google prioritizes fast, mobile-friendly pages. If your landing page loads slowly or struggles on mobile devices, your Quality Score will drop. A lower Quality Score means higher costs per click and fewer chances for your ad to appear in top positions.

Your best bet is to keep your designs simple and clean by avoiding unnecessary widgets or overly complicated code, and always try different page variations rather than bogging down one page with tons of extras. Learn more about Google’s policies on this subject here.

5. Forgetting a Clear CTA or Lead Capture Form

We can’t forget the most important part of a landing page: a strong call-to-action (CTA) or lead capture form. Without one, you’re not guiding visitors to take the next step.

Every landing page should have:

• A clear, visible CTA (most often placed above the footer)
• A form, button, or phone number (whatever best suits your goal)
• Minimal distractions that lead users away from converting, including links to other landing pages

Without those elements, users bounce. Even interested visitors won’t take action if you don’t tell them how or where. A vague “Learn more” button or a phone number buried in the header or footer sections are typically not enough to compel someone to take the next step.

In short, think of your CTA as the bridge between interest and action. Without it, a website page is just informing people, not converting them.

Tip: You can repeat the CTA multiple times throughout the page, especially if it’s long. Not everyone will take action the first time they see the button, but making it accessible as they scroll increases the chance they’ll convert when they’re ready.

6. Tracking the Wrong Actions

Not all website actions are created equal – yet plenty of advertisers mistakenly track the wrong ones as conversions. A common example is using time on site or page views as conversion events instead of more meaningful actions like form submissions, purchases, or calls.

While time on site might indicate interest, it doesn’t directly tie to a business goal. Someone spending three minutes on your homepage doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ready to become a customer. On the other hand, submitting a contact form, completing a checkout, or signing up for a service are clear signals of intent and should be prioritized when defining conversions in Google Ads.

7. Not Properly Understanding the Data

Having access to analytics is one thing, but knowing what the numbers actually mean is another. Without a solid understanding of your reports, it’s easy to make the wrong assumptions or miss key trends that affect your campaigns.

For example, you might see a high number of clicks and assume your ads are performing well. But if your conversion rate is low, it could mean your landing page isn’t effective, your targeting is off, or you’re attracting the wrong type of traffic. Similarly, you might notice a spike in form submissions, but without knowing which campaign or keyword triggered those leads, you’re left guessing what to improve.

There are a multitude of tools and plugins available to help make sure you’re tracking everything correctly. However, those without the technical know-how (or the time to learn it all) might find all the moving parts a little overwhelming.

Which is when you may want to consider…

Leaving Google Ads Conversion Tracking to Professionals

Tracking isn’t as simple as downloading plugins and installing a few tags. It involves connecting your website platform, syncing Google Analytics, setting up Google Tag Manager, and making sure conversions are tracked at every step. Small mistakes in any of these areas can cause big problems. It’s also really easy to miss errors when you aren’t sure what to look for.

A professional Google Ads agency should know:

• How to properly integrate Google Ads with GA4 and Google Tag Manager to ensure all tools are synced and sharing accurate data across platforms.
• How to configure custom event tracking for actions like form submissions, phone clicks, video views, scroll depth, add-to-cart events, and more.
• How to align tracking with campaign goals and attribution models, making sure your conversions are counted in ways that actually reflect how users interact with your website.
• How to monitor and maintain tracking over time, including ongoing audits to catch broken tags, site changes, or third-party updates that may disrupt data collection.

Our sister company, Barrel Roll, is a Google Ads Premier Partner. That means we’ve been recognized by Google for consistently driving strong campaign performance, maintaining high client satisfaction, and demonstrating expert-level proficiency across all aspects of Google Ads, including conversion tracking and data strategy.

If you’re serious about scaling your business with Google Ads, working with a Premier Partner ensures your tracking is accurate, your campaigns are optimized, and your ad spend is giving you real results.