Should we count conversions with the Google Ads tag or Google Analytics?
By Jose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTAAdapted from Chapter 4 of The Nonprofit Ad Grant Handbook · Checked against Google's rules November 3, 2026Either route works. Google's Ad Grants guidance recommends importing key events from Google Analytics, and for most nonprofits that's the easier road, because Google Analytics is usually on the site already. What doesn't work is taking both routes for the same action. Choose one source for each action, make only that one primary, and set how often it counts.
The two routes
There are two ways to tell Google Ads that a conversion happened, and people argue about them more than they need to.
The first is the Google Ads tag. It's a snippet of code on your site, and you create the conversion inside Google Ads, pointed at a thank-you page or an event.
The second is Google Analytics 4. You mark the action as a key event in Google Analytics, link Analytics to Google Ads, and import that key event as a conversion.
Import from Google Analytics. Google's Ad Grants guidance recommends the import. For most nonprofits it's the easier road, because Google Analytics is usually on the site already and someone on staff already knows their way around it.
How to import a key event
To import, you'll need edit access in both tools. It takes a few minutes once the two accounts are linked.
- In Google Analytics, mark the action as a key event.
- In Google Ads, open Goals, then Conversions, and add a new conversion action.
- Choose to import it, and pick the key event from your Google Analytics property.
Imported conversions can take up to 24 hours to appear in Google Ads. A quiet morning after a change doesn't mean anything is broken.
One source per action
Don't take both routes for the same action. If a volunteer application is counted once through the Google Ads tag and again through the Google Analytics import, your account sees two volunteers where there was one, and bidding learns from the double count. Choose one source for each action and make only that one primary. The other, if you keep it, goes to secondary.
The opposite problem is just as common.
An illustration from the handbook. The youth sports league is a composite, not a real organization.
A youth sports league ran a paid Google Ads account for registrations, alongside the grant. The paid account reported dozens of registrations a month. The grant reported none, although grant ads were sending plenty of families to the same registration page. The website carried only the paid account's tag. The grant account, with no tag of its own and no imported event, could see nothing.
Each account needs its own way to see conversions. That can be its own tag, placed beside the other (one tag loader on the page can serve both accounts), or the same Google Analytics key event imported into each account. One account's conversions never flow to another.
Counting once
Each conversion has a counting setting. Every counts each time the action happens after an ad click. One counts a single conversion per ad click, however often the person repeats it.
An illustration from the handbook. The family is a composite, not a real family.
If someone submits a sign-up form a second time to fix a typo and the counting is set to Every, Google Ads records two sign-ups for one new family.
One for leads and sign-ups. Google recommends One for leads and sign-ups, where a repeat is almost always the same person.
Where you change it depends on how the conversion reaches Google Ads. For a conversion created in Google Ads, it's a setting on the conversion itself. For one imported from Google Analytics, the counting is controlled in Google Analytics, in that key event's settings, and Google Ads follows along. We learned that one the slow way, hunting through Google Ads for a setting that wasn't there.
A first step
Choose one source for each action and make only that one primary. The other, if you keep it, goes to secondary.
Sections 4.5 and 4.6 of the handbook cover both routes, running more than one Google Ads account, and where to set the counting for each kind of conversion.
Questions
Do we need edit access to import from Google Analytics?
Yes. To import, you'll need edit access in both tools, and the two accounts need to be linked.
We changed an imported conversion this morning and nothing shows yet. Is it broken?
Probably not. Imported conversions can take up to 24 hours to appear in Google Ads.
We run a paid account and a grant account. Can they share conversions?
One account's conversions never flow to another. Each one needs its own way to see conversions, either its own tag beside the other or the same Google Analytics key event imported into each account.
Where is the counting setting for an imported conversion?
In Google Analytics, in that key event's settings. Google Ads follows along, so you won't find the setting in Google Ads.
See something wrong or out of date? Tell us
Jose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTAJose Gomez, Jr., CEA, MVTA, is the CEO of 3nity. He founded the company in 2001 to serve the people who serve people, after working as Internet Director at a media network. He built a career website that was acquired by Salem Communications in 2004, and created the 3nity Web Presence Platform. Through Nonprofit Marketing Center, a division of 3nity, he and his team help churches and nonprofits of every kind bring resources and awareness to their missions, including by helping them get the most from the Google Ad Grant.