Cross Account Conversion Tracking in Google Ads (Adwords)
Google Adwords let you track conversions across multiple adwords accounts via cross account conversion tracking.
So if you are a business conglomerate which uses multiple adwords account and you wish to simplify conversion tracking and consolidate data across all of your adwords accounts then consider using ‘cross account conversion tracking’.
Get my best selling books on Attribution Modelling
- Learn to implement attribution modelling in your organisation
- Understand the customer purchase journey across devices
- Determine the most effective marketing channels for investment
Click book covers to find out more
Advantages of using Cross Account Conversion Tracking
Following are the key advantages of using ‘cross account conversion tracking’:
#1 Cross account conversion tracking minimise duplicate conversion counts, where same conversion is counted multiple times in different adwords accounts. Thus you get more accurate conversion data. This is the biggest advantage of using ‘cross account conversion tracking’
#2 Cross account conversion tracking makes ‘cross account attribution’ possible within Google Adwords.
For example with the help of Cross account conversion tracking, you can determine how your: campaigns, ad groups, ad and keywords within one account assist conversions within another account. Thus ‘cross account conversion tracking’ provides holistic view of your advertising.
#3 Cross Account Conversion tracking helps in consolidating your data across all of your adwords accounts. For example, you can measure the performance of your keywords across all of your adwords accounts.
#4 You can use one ‘Google Adwords conversion tracking tag’ for multiple adwords accounts.
Without ‘Cross account conversion tracking’ you would have to use account specific conversion tracking tags and may need to set up sames conversions multiple times, one for each account.
In other words, you would need to add multiple conversion tracking tags to your website, one tag for each adwords account. This makes account specific conversion tracking complex to implement and maintain.
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Requirements for setting up Cross Account Conversion tracking
#1 You use two or more adwords accounts and these accounts belong to the same company.
#2 You use ‘My client Center’ account (also known as Google Adwords Manager Account) to set up ‘cross account conversion tracking’.
In the context of ‘My Client Center’ account, there are two broad categories of Adwords conversions:
#1 Account specific conversions
#2 Cross account conversions
Note: Google Adwords does not provide cross MCC account tracking. So if your adwords accounts are managed by different ad agencies via different MCC accounts, then you would first need to bring all of your Adwords accounts, under one MCC account before setting up cross account conversion tracking.
Setting up Cross Account Conversion Tracking
Follow the steps below:
Step-1: Sign in to your My Client Center (MCC) account and then click on the ‘Accounts’ tab in the top navigation:
Step 2: Click on the three dot icon in the upper right hand corner:
Step-3: Click on the ‘Conversions’ link:
Step-4: Click on the ‘+Conversion’ button:
Step-5: Select your ‘conversion source’. I selected ‘website’:
Step-6: Define your conversion action, like you usually do, by entering the:
- Conversion Name
- Conversion Category
- Conversion Value
- Conversion Count
- Conversion Window
- View through Conversion Window
- Include in Conversions
- Attribution Model
Step-7: Click on the ‘Create and Continue’ button.
Step-8: Copy-paste the Global Site Tag between the <head></head> tags of every page of your website.
Note: The global site tag is used to add visitors to your basic remarketing lists
Step-9: Copy paste the event snippet in between the <head></head> tags of the page(s) you’d like to track, right after the global site tag:
One of the best place to put the ‘event snippet’ is on the ‘thank-you’ page (the page which is shown to a user after he/she has completed your desired action).
Note(1): The Event snippet is used to track actions that should be counted as conversions.
Note(2): Google recommends to leave your old account specific conversion tracking tag(s) intact for as long as the number of days in your chosen conversion window. Otherwise you could lose the conversions generated from the ad clicks which occurred before you set up ‘cross account conversion tracking’.
Step-10: Click on the ‘Next‘ button. You will now see the following confirmation message:
Step-11: Click on the ‘Done’ button to complete your cross account conversion set up. You can now see your ‘cross account conversion’ set up:
Note: Test your new conversion setup and make sure that the conversion action status read ‘Recording Conversions‘. This may take couple of hours.
Step-12: Navigate back to the ‘Accounts’ tab by clicking on the ‘arrow’ button:
Step-13: Click on the ‘Management‘ tab and then select the Adwords account(s), you want to share your new ‘conversion’ with:
Step-14: Click on the ‘Edit’ drop down menu and then click on ‘Change manager’:
Step-15: Select your conversion account:
Note: Conversion account is that Adwords account where conversions were created.
Step-16: Navigate back to the conversion action, we created earlier. You should now see a lock icon next to it:
The lock icon means the conversion is now shared across accounts and is a cross account conversion.
If you navigate to the other Adwords account with which you shared the ‘Form Lead’ conversion, you will see the same conversion listed there:
You have now successfully shared your conversion with managed accounts.
Disabling Cross Account Conversion Tracking
When you disabling cross account conversion tracking, it stops the sharing of your ‘cross account conversions’ with one or more managed accounts.
If you want to disable ‘cross account conversion tracking’ for a particular adwords account then follow the steps below:
Step-1: Sign in to your My Client Center (MCC) account and then click on the ‘Accounts’ tab.
Step-2: Open the Adwords account for which you want to disable the ‘cross account conversion tracking’.
Step-3: Click on the three dot icon in the upper right hand corner:
Step-4: Click on the ‘Conversions’ link:
Step-5: Click on the ‘Settings’ link under ‘Conversions Actions’:
Step-6: Set the ‘Conversion Account’ to this account and then click on the ‘Save’ button:
You will then following message:
Step-7: Click on the ‘Change Account’ button. This action will disable the ‘cross account conversion tracking’ in the selected adwords account and the account will be able to record ‘account specific conversions’ again.
You will now no longer see the cross account conversion listed:
Step-8: Add the account specific conversion tracking tag again to your website.
Note: Google recommends to leave your old cross-account conversion tracking tag intact for as long as the number of days in your chosen conversion window. Otherwise you could lose the conversions generated from the ad clicks which occurred before you set up the ‘account specific conversion tracking’.
Get my best selling books on Attribution Modelling
- Learn to implement attribution modelling in your organisation
- Understand the customer purchase journey across devices
- Determine the most effective marketing channels for investment
Click book covers to find out more
Other Articles Related to Attribution Modelling in Google Ads
- Guide to Attribution Modelling in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Which Attribution Model to use in Google Ads (Google Adwords)?
- Cross device attribution reports in Google Ads (Google AdWords)
- How to change Attribution Model in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Data Driven Attribution Model in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Setting up Data Driven Attribution Model in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Store visit conversion tracking in Google Ads (Google AdWords)
- Understanding the Analytics behind Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Understanding View-Through conversions In Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Assisted Conversions Report in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Understanding Conversion Paths in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Understanding Search Attribution Reports in Google Ads (Adwords)
- How to test Attribution Model in Google Ads (Adwords)
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Google Adwords let you track conversions across multiple adwords accounts via cross account conversion tracking.
So if you are a business conglomerate which uses multiple adwords account and you wish to simplify conversion tracking and consolidate data across all of your adwords accounts then consider using ‘cross account conversion tracking’.
Get my best selling books on Attribution Modelling
- Learn to implement attribution modelling in your organisation
- Understand the customer purchase journey across devices
- Determine the most effective marketing channels for investment
Click book covers to find out more
Advantages of using Cross Account Conversion Tracking
Following are the key advantages of using ‘cross account conversion tracking’:
#1 Cross account conversion tracking minimise duplicate conversion counts, where same conversion is counted multiple times in different adwords accounts. Thus you get more accurate conversion data. This is the biggest advantage of using ‘cross account conversion tracking’
#2 Cross account conversion tracking makes ‘cross account attribution’ possible within Google Adwords.
For example with the help of Cross account conversion tracking, you can determine how your: campaigns, ad groups, ad and keywords within one account assist conversions within another account. Thus ‘cross account conversion tracking’ provides holistic view of your advertising.
#3 Cross Account Conversion tracking helps in consolidating your data across all of your adwords accounts. For example, you can measure the performance of your keywords across all of your adwords accounts.
#4 You can use one ‘Google Adwords conversion tracking tag’ for multiple adwords accounts.
Without ‘Cross account conversion tracking’ you would have to use account specific conversion tracking tags and may need to set up sames conversions multiple times, one for each account.
In other words, you would need to add multiple conversion tracking tags to your website, one tag for each adwords account. This makes account specific conversion tracking complex to implement and maintain.
Get the Free E-Book (52 Pages)
Requirements for setting up Cross Account Conversion tracking
#1 You use two or more adwords accounts and these accounts belong to the same company.
#2 You use ‘My client Center’ account (also known as Google Adwords Manager Account) to set up ‘cross account conversion tracking’.
In the context of ‘My Client Center’ account, there are two broad categories of Adwords conversions:
#1 Account specific conversions
#2 Cross account conversions
Note: Google Adwords does not provide cross MCC account tracking. So if your adwords accounts are managed by different ad agencies via different MCC accounts, then you would first need to bring all of your Adwords accounts, under one MCC account before setting up cross account conversion tracking.
Setting up Cross Account Conversion Tracking
Follow the steps below:
Step-1: Sign in to your My Client Center (MCC) account and then click on the ‘Accounts’ tab in the top navigation:
Step 2: Click on the three dot icon in the upper right hand corner:
Step-3: Click on the ‘Conversions’ link:
Step-4: Click on the ‘+Conversion’ button:
Step-5: Select your ‘conversion source’. I selected ‘website’:
Step-6: Define your conversion action, like you usually do, by entering the:
- Conversion Name
- Conversion Category
- Conversion Value
- Conversion Count
- Conversion Window
- View through Conversion Window
- Include in Conversions
- Attribution Model
Step-7: Click on the ‘Create and Continue’ button.
Step-8: Copy-paste the Global Site Tag between the <head></head> tags of every page of your website.
Note: The global site tag is used to add visitors to your basic remarketing lists
Step-9: Copy paste the event snippet in between the <head></head> tags of the page(s) you’d like to track, right after the global site tag:
One of the best place to put the ‘event snippet’ is on the ‘thank-you’ page (the page which is shown to a user after he/she has completed your desired action).
Note(1): The Event snippet is used to track actions that should be counted as conversions.
Note(2): Google recommends to leave your old account specific conversion tracking tag(s) intact for as long as the number of days in your chosen conversion window. Otherwise you could lose the conversions generated from the ad clicks which occurred before you set up ‘cross account conversion tracking’.
Step-10: Click on the ‘Next‘ button. You will now see the following confirmation message:
Step-11: Click on the ‘Done’ button to complete your cross account conversion set up. You can now see your ‘cross account conversion’ set up:
Note: Test your new conversion setup and make sure that the conversion action status read ‘Recording Conversions‘. This may take couple of hours.
Step-12: Navigate back to the ‘Accounts’ tab by clicking on the ‘arrow’ button:
Step-13: Click on the ‘Management‘ tab and then select the Adwords account(s), you want to share your new ‘conversion’ with:
Step-14: Click on the ‘Edit’ drop down menu and then click on ‘Change manager’:
Step-15: Select your conversion account:
Note: Conversion account is that Adwords account where conversions were created.
Step-16: Navigate back to the conversion action, we created earlier. You should now see a lock icon next to it:
The lock icon means the conversion is now shared across accounts and is a cross account conversion.
If you navigate to the other Adwords account with which you shared the ‘Form Lead’ conversion, you will see the same conversion listed there:
You have now successfully shared your conversion with managed accounts.
Disabling Cross Account Conversion Tracking
When you disabling cross account conversion tracking, it stops the sharing of your ‘cross account conversions’ with one or more managed accounts.
If you want to disable ‘cross account conversion tracking’ for a particular adwords account then follow the steps below:
Step-1: Sign in to your My Client Center (MCC) account and then click on the ‘Accounts’ tab.
Step-2: Open the Adwords account for which you want to disable the ‘cross account conversion tracking’.
Step-3: Click on the three dot icon in the upper right hand corner:
Step-4: Click on the ‘Conversions’ link:
Step-5: Click on the ‘Settings’ link under ‘Conversions Actions’:
Step-6: Set the ‘Conversion Account’ to this account and then click on the ‘Save’ button:
You will then following message:
Step-7: Click on the ‘Change Account’ button. This action will disable the ‘cross account conversion tracking’ in the selected adwords account and the account will be able to record ‘account specific conversions’ again.
You will now no longer see the cross account conversion listed:
Step-8: Add the account specific conversion tracking tag again to your website.
Note: Google recommends to leave your old cross-account conversion tracking tag intact for as long as the number of days in your chosen conversion window. Otherwise you could lose the conversions generated from the ad clicks which occurred before you set up the ‘account specific conversion tracking’.
Get my best selling books on Attribution Modelling
- Learn to implement attribution modelling in your organisation
- Understand the customer purchase journey across devices
- Determine the most effective marketing channels for investment
Click book covers to find out more
Other Articles Related to Attribution Modelling in Google Ads
- Guide to Attribution Modelling in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Which Attribution Model to use in Google Ads (Google Adwords)?
- Cross device attribution reports in Google Ads (Google AdWords)
- How to change Attribution Model in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Data Driven Attribution Model in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Setting up Data Driven Attribution Model in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Store visit conversion tracking in Google Ads (Google AdWords)
- Understanding the Analytics behind Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Understanding View-Through conversions In Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Assisted Conversions Report in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Understanding Conversion Paths in Google Ads (Google Adwords)
- Understanding Search Attribution Reports in Google Ads (Adwords)
- How to test Attribution Model in Google Ads (Adwords)
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Himanshu Sharma
Certified web analyst and founder of OptimizeSmart.com
