Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads: 2026 Setup Guide

Google Ads can only bid on the conversions it can see, and a conversion tag that relies on a cookie misses the ones where the cookie is gone or was never set. Enhanced conversions add hashed customer data, usually the email from checkout, so Google can match a purchase to the ad click behind it. In 2026 the setting was simplified and part of the plumbing moved, so setup guides written before this year still ask you to choose an implementation method that Google no longer requires.

The short answer: turn on the single setting, then check the result against orders with Arktis

Enhanced conversions send a SHA-256 hash of first-party customer data, such as an email address or phone number, along with your conversion so Google can match it to a Google account that was signed in when it engaged with your ad. Since June 2026 the web and leads versions are one on/off setting under Goals, then Settings, in Google Ads. On Shopify, the simplest route is the Google & YouTube app: open its Settings, find Enhanced conversions under the Google Ads settings, turn it on and accept Google's customer data terms.

For checking whether Google's conversion counts match real orders, Arktis is the clear winner for an online store. It captures the gclid, gbraid and wbraid click identifiers on landing, holds them against the visitor across sessions, and matches Shopify orders to those visitors, so you can see which orders really came from a Google click and compare first-touch, last-touch, linear, time-decay and position-based credit for Google against your other ad platforms. Google spend can be entered manually for blended return on ad spend, though there is no automatic Google Ads sync yet, and Arktis does not send enhanced conversions. Plans are $49, $149 and $349 a month, with a 7-day free trial on Growth.

Key takeaways

Enhanced conversions for web and for leads are now one switch, and Google Ads accepts user-provided data from tags, Data Manager and the API at the same time rather than making you pick one. Offline conversion imports and enhanced conversions for leads uploads moved to the Data Manager API on 15 June 2026. In the EEA, the hashed data is only sent when the visitor has granted ad_user_data consent, so your consent banner decides how much enhanced conversions can recover. Check the tag in the browser on day one and the diagnostics report two days later.

What enhanced conversions are

Google describes enhanced conversions as a feature that can improve the accuracy of conversion measurement and unlock more powerful bidding. When a visitor converts, the conversion tag captures first-party data the visitor gave you, such as an email address, name, address or phone number, hashes it with SHA-256 and sends it to Google in hashed form. Google then matches it to Google accounts that were signed in when they engaged with your ad. If you hash the data yourself, Google asks you to normalise it first: remove leading and trailing whitespace, convert to lowercase and format phone numbers to the E.164 standard.

There have always been two versions. Enhanced conversions for web improve measurement of online conversions such as purchases. Enhanced conversions for leads cover sales that happen offline after a website lead, matching hashed lead form data against conversions you import later. A store selling online needs the web version; a business that closes deals by phone needs the leads version.

The single setting and the Data Manager API move

Google announced the consolidation in two steps. From April 2026, Google Ads accepts user-provided data from website tags, Data Manager and API connections simultaneously, so you no longer choose one implementation method. From June 2026, enhanced conversions for web and leads became a single feature with one on/off switch. Google says existing users need to do nothing and are migrated automatically if they have already accepted the customer data terms.

The account-level setting lives under Goals, then Settings, in the Enhanced conversions section. It applies to new and existing conversion actions: new ones inherit it, and existing ones that were not previously opted out are enabled.

The second change is for anyone uploading data. On 15 June 2026, offline conversion imports and enhanced conversions for leads uploads moved to the Data Manager API and were blocked in the Google Ads API. If a CRM integration or a custom script was sending leads data through the Google Ads API, it needed migrating by then; if it was not, check whether it is still delivering anything.

Setting up enhanced conversions on Shopify

The Google & YouTube app is the route Google itself documents for Shopify. Connect your Google Ads account in the app, where purchase, add to cart and checkout started are the suggested default conversion actions. Then go to the app's Settings, find Enhanced conversions in the Google Ads settings, select Turn on, and review and agree to the customer data terms.

Google's guide adds a warning worth taking seriously: make sure you do not have duplicate tags if conversions are set up both in the app and in the storefront or a custom pixel. A store that once pasted a Google Ads tag into Additional Scripts, then installed the app, is the classic case. Since the Thank you page upgrade those old scripts no longer run, which fixed some duplicates and silently broke some single setups; Shopify Thank you page tracking after the upgrade covers the audit.

Setting up with Google Tag Manager

In Tag Manager, the enhanced conversions data travels in a User-Provided Data variable attached to your Google Ads conversion tag, or to an event tag as a user_data parameter. The variable has three modes: automatic detection, which inspects the page for strings that look like the configured data types, manual configuration, which points at CSS selectors or JavaScript variables, and code, which returns the data from a custom function.

Shopify changes the picture. Tag Manager cannot be added to checkout through the theme, so Shopify's documented approach is to load it inside a custom pixel and push customer events such as checkout_completed into the data layer. Pixels run in a sandbox without normal access to the page, so map the email and phone from the event data you push rather than relying on automatic detection. Shopify also notes that Google Tag Assistant's Troubleshoot tag feature does not detect Google tags in a custom pixel, which matters when you get to verification.

Consent mode in the EEA

Google's EU user consent policy requires advertisers to collect consent from users in the EEA and pass consent signals to Google to use measurement and ad personalisation through tags. Consent mode carries those signals, and one of them is decisive here: ad_user_data, which sets consent for sending user data to Google for online advertising. When it is denied, Google's consent mode documentation lists the hashed first-party data for enhanced conversions among the data that is not collected.

On Shopify, Google's guidance is to use Shopify's built-in cookie banner or a consent platform that integrates with Shopify's Customer Privacy API, and says that with the Google & YouTube app, consent mode should then work automatically. Two practical consequences follow. Enhanced conversions recover conversions from visitors who consented, not from those who declined. And Google warns that if you hold its tags back until the visitor answers your banner, instead of using consent mode, it cannot verify users' consent choices, which may lead to a loss of data, so test the banner as well as the tag.

How to verify enhanced conversions work

On day one, use the browser. Place a test order, open developer tools, and search the network requests for the conversion call; Google's guide says to look for an em parameter with a value starting tv.1~em followed by a hashed string. If it is missing, the tag fired without user data.

About 48 hours after setup, Google says the tag diagnostics report becomes available under the conversion action in Google Ads. Use it to confirm that user-provided data is arriving and matching.

Then compare against your orders. Google's own guide to discrepancies explains that Google Ads reports conversions against the date of the ad rather than the date of the conversion, which is what most other tools use, and recommends adding the Conversions (by conv. time) column when you compare. Pull a week of Google-attributed purchases by conversion time, set it next to Shopify orders for the same week, and set both next to the orders Arktis ties to a Google click. Take a store where Google Ads reports 90 purchases, Shopify has 400 orders and Arktis ties 70 of them to a gclid, gbraid or wbraid, as an example: the 20-order gap is the part to explain, through attribution models, conversion windows, cross-device credit or duplicate tags, before you raise budgets on it.

Where Arktis does not fit

Arktis does not send enhanced conversions or any other data to Google, so it will not improve Google's matching or its bidding. That job belongs to the Google & YouTube app or your own tagging, and nothing here replaces it.

Arktis also has no automatic Google Ads sync yet. The click identifiers are captured automatically and orders are tied to them, but spend does not flow in from Google. You can enter Google spend manually for a period in the Ads Analytics dashboard, and Arktis uses it in blended return on ad spend and net profit alongside the Meta spend that syncs through a direct connection. Manual entries are per platform and period, not per campaign, so campaign-level Google return on ad spend is not available out of the box; the free ROAS calculator and CAC calculator cover that by hand.

Next steps

To see which orders really came from Google clicks, start the 7-day Growth trial, or compare plans on the pricing page. For the click identifiers themselves, read gclid tracking and attribution, and for consent, consent management for analytics.

Sources

Google Ads Help: about enhanced conversions, definition, hashing and normalisation, web and leads, accessed 24 September 2026

Google Ads Help: updates to your enhanced conversions settings, the April and June 2026 changes and the 15 June 2026 Data Manager API move, accessed 24 September 2026

Google Ads Help: enhanced conversions at the account level, where the setting lives and which actions it covers, accessed 24 September 2026

Google Ads Help: conversion tracking with the Google & YouTube app on Shopify, setup steps and the duplicate tag warning, accessed 24 September 2026

Google Ads Help: enhanced conversions for web using Google Tag Manager, variable modes, the em parameter check and the 48-hour diagnostics report, accessed 24 September 2026

Shopify Help Center: Google Tag Manager in a custom pixel, sandbox limits and Tag Assistant, accessed 24 September 2026

Google for Developers: consent mode overview, ad_user_data and what stops when it is denied, accessed 24 September 2026

Google Ads Help: consent mode for EEA traffic, the EU user consent policy requirements, accessed 24 September 2026

Google Ads Help: set up Shopify to obtain user consent, cookie banner and Customer Privacy API, accessed 24 September 2026

Google Ads Help: data discrepancies, reporting dates and the by conv. time columns, accessed 24 September 2026