Google Ads · Track a conversionStep 1 of 3

Track InitiateCheckout

The InitiateCheckout event fires when a visitor arrives on your checkout page — they’ve clicked Checkout or Buy now and are about to enter payment details. Strong purchase-intent signal for Smart Bidding.

1. Create the InitiateCheckout conversion action in Google Ads

Before AdsPing can forward an InitiateCheckout to Google Ads, the conversion action has to exist on the Google Ads side.

Skip this section if you already have a Begin-checkout conversion action set up that uses the website data source.

1.1 — Sign in to ads.google.com
Open ads.google.com with the Google account that has Admin or Standard access.
1.2 — Open the Conversions page
Left navigation → Goals (Hedefler) → Conversions (Dönüşümler) → Summary (Özet).
1.3 — Click “+ New conversion action”
1.4 — Pick “Website” as the data sourceMost important step
Pick Website (Web sitesi). Do NOT pick Phone calls, App, Import, or GA4. (See the equivalent warning on the Purchase page for the full reason.)
Click Save and continue.
1.5 — Pick the conversion category: Begin checkout (Ödeme başlatma)
On the “Group your conversions” screen, pick:
Ödeme başlatma — Begin checkout
“Bir kullanıcının ödeme akışına girmesidir.”
In English Google Ads UI: Begin checkout.
Click Save and continue.
1.6 — Recommended settings on the details page
- · Conversion name: “Begin checkout — [your store]”.
- · Value: Use different values for each conversion — AdsPing sends the cart total. Smart Bidding can weight high-value carts.
- · Count: One — same visitor reloading the checkout page shouldn’t inflate the metric.
- · Click-through window: 30 days.
- · Attribution model: Data-driven.
- · Include in “Conversions”: No — mid-funnel signal. Optimize toward Purchase, not checkout-start. Setting Yes here would tell Smart Bidding to find clickers who reach checkout but possibly never buy.
Click Done, then Save and continue.
1.7 — Skip the tag-setup screen
You don’t need to install Google’s tag. Click Done and exit the wizard.
1.8 — Copy the Conversion Action ID
Click your new InitiateCheckout action and copy the number after ctId= in the URL bar.
```
https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions/customers/3884688380/detail?ctId=987654321
```

2. Wire the action in AdsPing

2.1 — Open your pixel → Destinations tab → Add action on the Google Ads card.
2.2 — Fill the form:
- Name: “Begin checkout — [your store]”
- Customer: pre-filled.
- Conversion action: pick the Begin-checkout action you created.
- Event name filter: InitiateCheckout
2.3 — Save. See wizard Step 3 for screenshots.

3. Copy the snippet

Replace the example values with template variables that render the actual cart total and items.

Option A — `pbq` (recommended)

checkout.html

<!-- Place inside the <body> of your checkout page,
     AFTER the AdsPing script in <head>. -->
<script>
  pbq('track', 'InitiateCheckout', {
    content_ids: ['SKU-1043'],
    num_items: 1,
    value: 24.90,
    currency: 'USD'
  });
</script>

Option B — `dataLayer`

checkout.html

<!-- Place inside the <body> of your checkout page,
     AFTER the AdsPing script in <head>. -->
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  window.dataLayer.push({
    event: 'begin_checkout',
    ecommerce: {
      value: 24.90,
      currency: 'USD',
      items: [
        { item_id: 'SKU-1043', item_name: 'Acme Hydrating Serum' }
      ]
    }
  });
</script>

4. Where to paste the snippet

Paste it inside the <body> of your checkout page template. The event fires on page load — that’s the moment you want to capture, before the user starts entering card details.

5. Test it

Add a product to cart and click Checkout. The moment the checkout page loads, an InitiateCheckout row appears in Recent Events within 10 seconds.

✓ InitiateCheckout is live.

Google Ads now sees the full funnel: ViewContent → AddToCart → InitiateCheckout → Purchase.