Google Ads

MarketingIT / Technical

Preb reports your results back to Google Ads from its servers, so Google can optimize your campaigns on real outcomes — new leads, booked calls, and closed revenue — rather than just clicks. You connect your Google account once, tell Preb which Google Ads account to use, and map each step of your funnel to a Google conversion action.

How it works (Data Manager API)

Preb uploads conversions through Google's Data Manager API — Google's current method for importing offline and enhanced conversions. A few things this means for you:

  • You connect with your Google account — there's no developer token to hunt down and no code to install.
  • Each conversion is sent with the gclid (the Google click ID captured when someone clicks your ad) plus hashed customer details, so Google can match it back to the right click for the best accuracy.
  • Customer details are hashed — scrambled into an irreversible fingerprint — before they leave Preb, so Google can match without Preb sharing raw data.
  • Conversions are only reported for visitors who accepted marketing tracking in the consent banner; their consent choice is attached to each upload so Google knows it was permitted. Visitors who decline are never reported — which is what keeps the tracking lawful in the EU.

Connecting Google Ads

You connect Google on the Google Ads page under Integrations.

Open the Google Ads integration

Go to Integrations and open the Google Ads card.

Connect with Google

Click Connect with Google and approve access. (Only workspace admins can do this.)

Add your customer ID

Enter your Google Ads customer ID (next section).

Map your conversion actions

Match each funnel step to a Google conversion action (see Mapping conversion actions) and Save Google Ads settings.

Test the connection

Click Test connection to verify your setup without sending real data. Once verified, the tab shows a green "Connected and verified" status.

You can Disconnect at any time from the same tab. Once real conversions flow, the page also shows when the last one was sent.

Customer & MCC IDs

Customer ID — the account number for the Google Ads account you advertise from, shown in the top-right of Google Ads (formatted like 123-456-7890). Dashes are fine.

Manager (MCC) ID (optional) — leave this blank unless your Google Ads account sits underneath a manager (MCC) account. If it does, enter the manager account's ID here so Preb knows which account it's logging in through.

Mapping conversion actions

Google needs a separate conversion action for each kind of event — that's what lets it tell a free lead apart from a €12,000 sale and bid accordingly.

Create Import conversion actions in Google Ads

In Google Ads, go to Tools → Conversions and create one Import conversion action for each funnel step you want to track.

Copy each action's numeric ID

Each conversion action has a numeric ID. Copy it.

Paste each ID next to the matching event in Preb

On the Google Ads page, paste each ID into the matching row. Leave a row blank to skip sending that event.

Send the value to Google with your Sale action

For value-based bidding, set up your Sale conversion action in Google Ads to use the conversion value sent with the event. Preb sends the real deal amount with each sale, so Google can optimize toward revenue rather than lead count.

Lifecycle events

These are the six steps you can map to conversion actions, in funnel order:

EventWhen it fires
New leadSomeone submits the booking form
Call bookedA call is scheduled
Call cancelledThe booker cancels
No-showThe booker misses the call
SaleA deal closes — sends the revenue value
Subscription renewalA recurring payment renews

You only need to map the ones you care about. Most advertisers start with New lead and Sale, then add the others as their reporting matures.

Bookings without a Google click ID (optional)

Google normally credits a conversion only when the ad's click ID (gclid) reached the booking form. Every booking without one shows as Skipped · no click ID under Recent events. If many of your bookings arrive that way, you can switch an event to Send without a click ID (Enhanced Conversions for Leads): Preb then uploads the hashed email and phone number and Google matches them against the people who clicked your ads.

  • In Google Ads, create the conversion action as Import → Leads with enhanced conversions for leads enabled, and paste its numeric ID as usual.
  • Tick the checkbox under that event in Preb and save.
  • This uses exactly the data Meta's Conversions API already receives (hashed identifiers, never plain text), and like everything else it runs only for visitors who accepted marketing cookies.

One more thing for attribution to work

Google can only credit a booking to an ad if the ad's click ID (gclid) reaches your booking form. That's automatic when you embed the Preb widget (inline or popup snippet — not the plain iframe) or point your ad straight at your booking link. If you send ad traffic to your own landing page first, paste the short forwarding snippet from your event's Embed tab onto that page. See Attribution & UTM tracking.

Verify your setup

Use Test connection on the Google Ads page: it checks your login, customer ID, and conversion-action mappings against Google without sending any real data, and turns the status green once everything lines up. After a few live bookings, open Tools → Conversions in Google Ads and confirm your conversion actions show recent activity (Google can take a few hours to display imported conversions).

Troubleshooting

Where the numeric ID is

Open the conversion action in Google Ads and look at the address bar: the number after ctId= is the ID Preb needs (at least six digits). The customer ID is ten digits, with or without dashes. Preb checks both shapes as you type.

Your conversion action must be an “Import” action

When you create the conversion action in Google Ads, choose the Import type (shown as "Import" / offline conversions), not a "Website" action. A Website action rejects Preb's uploads. If Test connection fails or Google shows a "misconfigured" error, this is almost always the cause — recreate the action as an Import action and paste its numeric ID back into Preb.

  • "New lead" fires but sales don't show up in Google. Only map the events you actually track, and remember that later events (Sale, renewals) come from your payment provider — see Stripe payments & revenue.
  • Bookings aren't credited to any ad. Google only counts a conversion when the ad's gclid reached the booking form. Direct, organic, and Meta-sourced bookings have no gclid, so Preb skips Google for them (that's expected — it avoids errors). Each such booking shows up under Recent events as Skipped · no click ID, so you can see at a glance how many bookings never carried a Google click. If even your ad clicks show as skipped, check that the gclid is reaching the form using the forwarding snippet described above.
  • Nothing is sent at all. Confirm the visitor accepted marketing cookies — Google conversions never fire without consent. See Consent & cookie banner.