How to Set Up Google Ads Offline Conversion Tracking

A prospect clicks your Google Ad on Monday, requests a quote online on Tuesday, and signs a $50,000 contract three weeks later. But as far as Google Ads is concerned, all that happened was a form submission.

The platform has no idea that this lead turned into a major sale—which means it can't optimize your campaigns to find more customers like this one.

This disconnect between online ad clicks and offline sales is costing you money. Without offline conversion tracking, Google's automated bidding is optimizing for leads that fill out forms rather than leads that actually turn into high-value customers. You're essentially asking the algorithm to work with one hand tied behind its back.

Why Offline Conversion Tracking Matters

The path from ad click to final sale rarely happens in a single session, or even a single day. For most businesses, the real value of marketing happens offline through sales calls, in-person meetings, contract negotiations, and store visits. These touchpoints often occur days or weeks after the initial ad interaction, so Google has no way to tie them to the conversion that originally brought the lead in.

This disconnect between online leads and offline sales creates several problems. Without a connection between conversions and conversion outcomes, Google Ads can only optimize for leads based on quantity, not quality. That means your automated bidding strategies can’t target your most valuable customers, and you can’t accurately measure your return on ad spend (ROAS).

Luckily, offline conversion tracking with Google Ads is possible.

What You’ll Need to Set Up Offline Conversion Tracking

Let’s think back to our example of a lead who clicked an ad on Monday, requested a quote online on Tuesday, and signed a $50,000 contract three weeks later. In order to track that journey from first click to final sale, there are four things you’ll need to have first:

1. Google Click ID (GCLID) tracking enabled in your Google Ads account — this generates the unique identifier that will get attached to the lead’s initial click on Monday.
2. A system for capturing and storing the GCLID when your lead converts — this is what will connect Tuesday’s quote request to Monday’s ad click.
3. A process for tracking offline conversion events — this is what you’ll use to record the $50,000 contract that’s signed three weeks later.
4. A way to connect offline conversions back to the original GCLID and send it back to Google — this tells Google “that Monday click resulted in a $50,000 sale” so that Google’s algorithm can optimize your ads to find more valuable leads like this one.

There are two ways to go about setting these things up. The first is a manual implementation, which requires significant development resources to build custom tracking systems and maintain data connections. The second is using a dedicated lead tracking platform like WhatConverts that handles components 2-4 automatically.

This guide will cover both approaches. We'll start with the simpler path using WhatConverts, then provide detailed instructions for teams who prefer to build their own tracking infrastructure. Regardless of which method you choose, the first step remains the same: enabling GCLID tracking in your Google Ads account.

Navigate to Settings > Account Settings in Google Ads and make sure auto-tagging is enabled. This automatically adds the GCLID parameter to your ad URLs when someone clicks.

Method 1: Using WhatConverts

Step 1: Set Up Lead Tracking

With auto-tagging enabled in Google Ads, the next step is to implement a system that can maintain the connection between leads and their unique GCLIDs. With WhatConverts, you can do this by simply adding a single tracking script to your website (which you can do with our super simple WordPress plugin or, if your site doesn’t run on WordPress, with Google Tag Manager). That’s it!

Once that tracking script is installed, WhatConverts will automatically capture the GCLID and use it to create a lead profile, where it will tie that unique identifier to dozens of other valuable pieces of information it collects on that lead.

Hang on—how does a piece of web code track offline calls?

WhatConverts uses Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) to track phone calls and tie them to the ad click that brought each caller to your website. With DNI, you’ll have a handful of rotating tracking phone numbers that replace your normal phone number on your website. Each visitor sees a different number, so when they place a call, the WhatConverts platform can tie the phone call to the GCLID of the person that landed on the page displaying that particular tracking number.

Step 2: Configure Lead Management

After your tracking is in place, you’ll need a way to record which leads convert into sales. In WhatConverts, you can do this by simply adding that information to the profile in the Lead Manager. You can mark leads as qualified, add quote values, and update final sales amounts. The platform centralizes all of this information, keeping it connected to that original GCLID throughout the entire lead journey.

Step 3: Connect to Google Ads

The final step is to connect that final sales conversion to the original GCLID and send that information back to Google. In WhatConverts, you can do this using our native Google Ads integration, which will automatically send back this enhanced conversion data using a configured set of rules. You can set these rules to send conversions when they meet certain conditions (like when lead status is set to qualified) or have sales values over a certain amount. This ensures Google’s automated bidding systems always have fresh data to work with, optimizing your campaigns for actual sales value rather than just lead volume.

Method 2: Manual Setup

Step 2: Capture and Store the GCLID

When someone clicks your ad and lands on your website, you need to capture and store the GCLID along with their lead information. This is typically done by:

1. Adding hidden fields to your lead capture forms
2. Setting up URL parameter tracking in your CRM
3. Implementing custom JavaScript to store the GCLID in a cookie

The key is maintaining the connection between the lead's contact information and their GCLID throughout your sales process.

Step 3: Capture and Store Lead Data

Once you’re tracking GCLIDs, you’ll need to set up a system to track the rest of the information you gather on your leads—things like contact details, interaction history, conversion events, and sales values—and document them alongside the corresponding GCLID for that lead.

To do this, you can either build a custom database or you can modify your existing CRM. Your system should be able to track different types of conversion events and values and consistently tie each new piece of information back to the GCLID that corresponds with that lead and interaction.

This guide outlines a few ways you can capture information using CSS selectors or custom JavaScript variables. (Note, however, that this only applies to form submission leads—phone and chat leads will require separate data collection methods.)

Step 4: Set Up Offline Conversion Tracking in Google Ads

Now you need to set up the conversion action in Google Ads that will receive your offline conversion data:

1. In Google Ads, go to Tools & Settings > Measurement > Conversions
2. Click the + button to create a new conversion action
3. Select "Import" as the conversion source
4. Choose "Other data sources or CRMs"
5. Select "Track conversions from clicks"
6. Configure your conversion settings:

• • Name your conversion action descriptively (e.g., "Closed Sale")
  • Set the proper attribution model
  • Define your conversion window
  • Choose how to count conversions
  • Assign a conversion value if applicable

The conversion window is particularly important for offline conversions. Make sure it's long enough to capture your typical sales cycle – Google allows up to 90 days.

Step 4: Upload Your Conversion Data

Google Ads requires specific formatting for offline conversion imports. Your file needs to include:

1. GCLID (Google Click ID)
2. Conversion Name (matching what you created in Step 3)
3. Conversion Time
4. Conversion Value (optional but recommended)
5. Currency Code (if including value)

All timestamps must be in UTC format and fall within your defined conversion window.

Once your file is prepared:

1. Go to Tools & Settings > Measurement > Conversions
2. Click "Upload conversions"
3. Select your conversion action
4. Choose your upload method (single upload or scheduled uploads)
5. Upload your file
6. Review any errors and correct as needed

For best results, upload conversions as soon as possible after they occur. This gives Google's automated bidding algorithms fresher data to work with.

Send Conversions Quickly and Consistently

Regardless of which method you use, the success of your offline conversion tracking will depend heavily on how consistently you send enhanced conversions back to Google. The Ads bidding algorithm needs recent data to optimize properly, so you want to send conversions as close to when they actually occurred as possible.

That’s why we recommend that WhatConverts users log in every day to mark new leads as qualified and add the appropriate quote values, so that the platform can send qualified conversions back to Google Ads on a daily basis.

Making the Most of Your Google Ads Investment Through Offline Tracking

Regardless of which implementation path you choose, the effort invested in offline conversion tracking pays off through more efficient ad spend and better-qualified leads. You'll finally be able to show Google's algorithms exactly which ad clicks turn into valuable customers, allowing for truly data-driven campaign optimization. And when it comes time to report on your progress, you’ll be able to tie your campaigns to the specific sales they brought in.

Ready to start tracking offline conversions the easy way? Sign up for a free 14-day trial of WhatConverts to see how simple it can be to connect your offline sales data with your Google Ads campaigns.