Quick answer
Measure the completed action that matters to the charity. Set donations, qualified calls, applications and genuinely useful sign-ups as primary only when the campaign should bid towards them. For standard goals, keep earlier journey actions secondary. Every action in a campaign's custom goal is used for reporting and bidding even when marked secondary, so remove weak actions from those goals. Under the current account management policy, accounts created on or after 22 April 2019 must set up at least one listed meaningful conversion type and record at least one conversion per month. Accounts created on or after 1 January 2018, and any account using conversion-based Smart Bidding, must have valid tracking and record at least one conversion per month.
Primary and secondary conversions
Google Ads calls an action primary when it is included in the Conversions column and can be used for bidding optimisation when its standard goal is selected for the campaign. For standard goals, a secondary action is observation-only. It appears in All conversions without asking the campaign to bid towards that action.
Primary does not mean important in the abstract. It means suitable for campaign optimisation. A service-information download may be useful to the charity team but still be secondary if the campaign should optimise for a completed service enquiry. See Google's primary and secondary conversion guidance. The exception is a custom goal. Every action included in a custom goal is used for reporting and bidding when that goal is applied to a campaign, regardless of whether the action is marked primary or secondary.
Account-default goals apply their primary actions across campaigns that use those defaults. Campaign-specific goals can narrow that selection. Audit both levels and the Custom goals section. Changing a weak action to secondary is not enough when it remains inside a custom goal used by a campaign. Remove it from that custom goal.
Conversion hierarchy for a charity
Use this hierarchy as a decision aid. A campaign's actual purpose decides which meaningful action belongs at the top.
Swipe the table horizontally to see all columns.
| Level | Examples | Recommended treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Primary outcome | Completed donation, ticket sale, charity-shop purchase or paid booking | Use as a bidding signal when the campaign is intended to produce that outcome. Pass an accurate transaction value and currency where amounts vary. |
| Primary lead or service action | Volunteer application, service enquiry, appointment or membership application | Use when completion is valuable and the campaign can reasonably influence it. Count one per ad interaction for lead-style actions unless repeated completions add distinct value. |
| Purpose-dependent sign-up | Newsletter, fundraising initiative, event-interest or app sign-up | Make primary only when the completed sign-up is a real campaign outcome. Keep casual subscriptions secondary and out of any campaign custom goal. |
| Secondary journey signal | Form start, donate-button click, useful document download or contact-page view | Observe through standard goals to find friction and abandonment. Remove the action from any campaign custom goal so it cannot replace the completed outcome in bidding. |
| Weak engagement diagnostic | Homepage visit, page view, scroll depth or time on site | Homepage visits and time on site must use Other and be excluded from Conversions. Remove them from campaign custom goals. Treat other engagement according to whether it represents a real mission outcome. |
Measure outcomes, not convenient clicks
Monetary transactions
Google lists donations, ticket sales, charity-shop sales, paid bookings, service payments, appointments, memberships and fundraising sign-ups. Track the confirmed transaction, not a visit to the donation form.
Lead and service outcomes
Completed volunteer applications, service-user enquiries, submitted forms, useful sign-ups, key downloads and app actions can qualify. Use the deepest reliable completion signal.
Google recommends a confirmation or thank-you page after completion. If one is unavailable, a button click can be tracked, but it is more vulnerable to recording attempts that never complete. Treat this as an implementation compromise and reconcile it with the destination system.
Pass donation and transaction values accurately
When donation, ticket or purchase amounts vary, use different values for each conversion. Google's transaction-specific setup passes a numeric value and ISO currency code when the event fires. A static default can fill gaps, but it should not silently replace the real amount on most transactions.
Test small, large, recurring and zero-cost paths. Confirm that a £25 donation arrives as 25 GBP rather than 25 USD, 2,500 GBP or a default value. Accurate values can improve reporting and value-based optimisation. Incorrect values can make the account look healthier or weaker than it is.
Follow Google's transaction-specific value instructions and retain the donation platform's own transaction record as the reconciliation source.
Calls and sign-ups need their own rules
Hotline and support calls
Google's Ad Grants guide sets a minimum call length of 30 seconds. Select the call conversions you intend to track. Some methods require Google forwarding numbers, which are not available in every country. If another call system records qualified outcomes, eligible offline conversions can be imported.
Forms and sign-ups
For lead-style actions, Google's Grant setup guide recommends counting one conversion when only one sign-up per ad interaction adds value. A newsletter subscription belongs in primary only when it is a genuine campaign outcome, not a convenient high-volume event.
Keep weak engagement as a diagnostic
Homepage visits and time spent on site must be excluded from the Conversions column and use the Other category under the Ad Grants account management policy. They may exist in the account, but must also be removed from any custom goal used by a campaign because every action in that goal becomes a reporting and bidding signal.
Meaningful content engagement is different from those two named weak actions. A completed petition, quiz, key information request or resource interaction can represent mission value when the completion is specific, accurately tracked and appropriate for that campaign. Read Google's Ad Grants account management policy before assigning any content action to conversion reporting or bidding.
Use a weak event to answer a question
- Form starts
- Compare with completions to locate abandonment.
- Donate-button clicks
- Check whether the payment platform loses users after hand-off.
- Page views
- Confirm reach to key information, not mission impact.
- Time and scroll depth
- Diagnose content use without treating attention as completion.
Sanity-check the conversion rate
Conversion rate is conversions divided by eligible ad interactions. Google's Grant guide does not set one universal healthy percentage. It says that when conversion rate is high, confirm that the result comes from strong performance for a meaningful conversion.
Sudden increase
Check whether a page view became primary or entered a campaign custom goal, a broad URL rule started firing, a tag is duplicated or the counting setting changed.
Sudden decrease
Check conversion status, consent behaviour, site releases, confirmation-page changes and any switch between Ads and GA4 sources.
Rate near or above 100%
This can occur when multiple conversions follow one interaction, but verify action-level counts before treating it as performance.
Zero recorded outcomes
Separate low volume from a broken implementation by completing a test conversion and comparing Ads with the source system.
Implementation checklist
Define the outcome
Write down what a completed donation, application, enquiry, call or sign-up means to the charity before creating tags.
Choose the measurement route
Use a Google Ads website conversion or import an eligible GA4 key event. Avoid measuring the same completion twice through both routes.
Create a reliable completion signal
Prefer a unique confirmation page after success. When none exists, track the completed action or final button carefully and test failure paths too.
Set count, value and window
Use lead-appropriate counting for sign-ups and enquiries. Pass transaction-specific values for variable donations and select a window that reflects the real decision cycle.
Separate primary from secondary
For standard goals, choose primary only for actions the campaign should bid towards and use secondary for observation. Custom goals override that distinction for every included action.
Check campaign goal coverage
Review account-default, campaign-specific and custom goals. Remove weak actions from any custom goal used by a campaign because every included action informs reporting and bidding.
Test and document
Complete each action, inspect tag diagnostics and record the trigger, source, count, value, owner and date last verified.
Reconcile every month
Compare Ads totals with donation, call, form and CRM records. Investigate sudden changes before changing bidding or declaring success.
Troubleshooting conversion tracking
The action says Needs attention or Inactive
Open the conversion status details and follow the stated action. Verify that the Google tag and event snippet or GA4 import use the intended account and completion event. Google notes that status can take up to 48 hours to update after a tag correction.
The action says No recent conversions
Google uses this status when no conversion has been recorded in the last seven days. Complete a controlled test, then compare normal traffic volume and the source system before deciding the tag is broken.
Donations are counted twice
Look for duplicate Google Tag Manager triggers, direct code plus Tag Manager, Ads tracking plus an imported GA4 event, and a thank-you URL that can reload. Keep one authoritative conversion path per outcome.
Every visit looks like a conversion
Inspect URL rules and trigger scope. A homepage or broad path match may be firing on ordinary visits. Homepage visits and time spent on site must use Other and stay excluded from Conversions. Remove weak actions from campaign custom goals and restrict the completion event to actual success.
Calls do not appear
Check the selected call conversion, forwarding-number availability, minimum 30-second duration and whether the call source supports the chosen method. Reconcile against the phone system before importing offline outcomes.
Continue the Grant review
If low delivery is the immediate issue, use the policy-to-landing-page diagnostic order before expanding keywords or geography.