Google Ads — manual setup

Before you start

• You need a Google Ads account with at least one conversion action. If you're just creating everything for the first time, set up the conversion action FIRST (Tools → Conversions → + New conversion action) — AdsPing can't create it for you, just forward to it.
• Your Google account needs Admin or Standard access on the Google Ads account. Read-only or email-only access is insufficient. Check at Tools → Access and security in Google Ads.
• Manager (MCC) accounts: if your account is an MCC, AdsPing connects to the MCC and lets you pick which sub- account to forward conversions to. The conversion actions themselves still live on the sub-account.

Create a conversion action (full wizard)

If you don't already have the conversion action you want AdsPing to fire (Lead, Purchase, PhoneCall, etc.), create it first inside Google Ads. AdsPing forwards events to existing actions — it can't create them via API. The walkthrough below uses a phone-call conversion as the example, which is the trickiest type to get right; the same steps apply to website conversions (just simpler — fewer screens).

Step 1 — Pick data sources

Open ads.google.com → Tools → Conversions → + New conversion action. The first screen asks which data sources you want to track. Tick the boxes for what applies to your site:

• Conversions on the website — purchases, leads, sign-ups, add-to-cart. Required for any standard ecommerce or lead-gen flow.
• Conversions obtained from phone calls — only if you want to track phone clicks AND you have a phone number on the site.
• Leave Transformations in practice (mobile app) and Offline conversions unchecked unless you specifically need them — they don't flow through AdsPing.

Click Save and continue.

Step 2 — Define the conversion action

The next screen asks for the conversion action's details. Typical settings for a phone-call action:

• Goal: Lead → Potential customer obtained through phone call
• Source: Website (clicks on a phone number on the site)
• Value: "Use a single value" → enter a reasonable per-call value. For optimisation to work well, this should reflect the actual margin a call brings on average (e.g. 50 TRY for a service business where 1 in 4 calls converts and average ticket is 200 TRY).
• Counting: One conversion per click (avoids double-counting the same caller).
• Click-through window: 30 days is the default and works for most B2C funnels.

Step 3 — Grab the event snippet

After saving, Google shows a 3-step summary. Click Show the event snippet on the conversion row to reveal the gtag snippet:

The snippet looks like this:

The only two values AdsPing needs from this snippet are inside the send_to string. It's always formatted as AW-ConversionId/ConversionLabel. For the example above:

'send_to': 'AW-17521972457/ufKLCP6P-6ocEOmpkKNB'
              └─────┬─────┘ └────────┬────────┘
                  ID                LABEL

• Conversion ID = AW-17521972457 (account-level — same prefix for every action on this Google Ads account)
• Conversion Label = ufKLCP6P-6ocEOmpkKNB (action-specific — different for every conversion action)

Note:Don't copy the value, currency, or event_callback from this snippet — AdsPing fills those in from each event's own data (e.g. the value comes from pbq('track', 'Purchase', { value: 199.90, currency: 'TRY' })).

Step 4 — Verify the action appears under Goals

Once the wizard finishes, the new action shows up under Goals with a status badge. A brand-new action usually says "Intervention is needed" for the first 24-48 hours — that's Google waiting for the first conversion data to come in. It clears automatically once events start flowing.

Step 5 — Wire the action into AdsPing

With Conversion ID and Conversion Label in hand, open the pixel in AdsPing → Destinations → Google Ads card → + Add action (or Manage → Edit on an existing pipeline) and fill in:

• Name: something descriptive — e.g. "Phone click — Acme"
• Conversion Action ID: from the URL of the action's detail page (see Step 2 below for how to find it)
• gtag Conversion Label: the label string from the snippet (e.g. ufKLCP6P-6ocEOmpkKNB)
• Event name filter: the pb.js event name that should fire this conversion — PhoneCall for phone clicks, Purchase for ecommerce, etc.

https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions/customers/3884688380/detail?ctId=987654321

<!-- Event snippet for Lead - Acme Inc Form conversion page -->
<script>
  gtag('event', 'conversion', {
      'send_to': 'AW-12345678/AbCDe1FgHIjKlMnoPq',
      'value': 1.0,
      'currency': 'USD'
  });
</script>

Basic Access — when, why, how

Google's Conversions API requires your developer token to graduate from Test Account mode (default) to Basic Access. Until graduated, server uploads return UNAUTHENTICATED: token does not have valid permissions for production accounts for any non-test customer.

How to apply

1. Google Ads → Tools → API Center.
2. Click Apply for Basic Access.
3. Fill the form:
   • Tool name: AdsPing (or your white-label name).
   • Tool URL: https://adsping.io.
   • Customer use case: Server-side conversion forwarding for advertisers using AdsPing pixel tracking. We upload click conversions on behalf of the advertiser via the Conversions API after pb.js captures the event in the browser.
   • Read or read+write: Read+write (we call uploadClickConversions).
   • API methods used: customers:listAccessibleCustomers, googleAds:search, customers:uploadClickConversions.
4. Submit. Google reviews 1-3 business days, sometimes longer.

While waiting

gtag fallback (step 4) covers conversions during this period. Match rate is lower than server-side but adequate. Set up gtag values for every conversion action so nothing is dropped.

After approval

Server-side uploads start working immediately — no AdsPing config change needed. The gtag fallback continues to fire alongside; Google deduplicates the two via gclid. If you want pure server-side after approval, clear the gtag Conversion ID + Label on each pipeline.

Common issues

UNAUTHENTICATED: …token does not have valid permissions…

Basic Access is still pending or your developer token was revoked. Apply (or re-apply) at the API Center. While waiting, gtag fallback keeps conversions flowing.

INVALID_ARGUMENT: gclid is required

Server uploads need either a Google click ID (gclid), an iOS app click ID (gbraid), or an Android one (wbraid). pb.js captures all three from URL params and stores in a first-party cookie. Visitors arriving without a Google ad click won't have any of these — that's expected; AdsPing skips the upload silently for those events. Only Google ad clickers count toward Google attribution anyway.

DUPLICATE_CONVERSION_IN_REQUEST

Two pipelines on the same pixel both forward the same event to the same conversion action. Edit one of them — change either the pb.js event filter or the Conversion Action ID so they don't collide.

DEVELOPER_TOKEN_NOT_APPROVED or unexpected behavior across customers

Basic Access on a developer token works only for accounts you directly manage. If your token is approved but you're trying to upload conversions for a customer that hasn't linked your manager account, Google rejects. Either: (a) the customer links your MCC, or (b) the customer applies for Basic Access on their own developer token and shares it with you.

Next

• Google Ads concepts — multi-action design + match rate tradeoffs.
• Diagnostics — Google Ads doesn't have Test Events; here's the next- best verification path.