Google Ads conversion tracking for your event
Google Ads conversion tracking for your event
DistantRace can attribute paid registrations that start from Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft, or a UTM-tagged link. For Google Ads, it reports conversions in two ways:
- An automatic browser tag on the registration thank-you page
- A scheduled CSV feed that Google Ads imports daily
Both methods work for competitions and challenges. This page covers the browser tag; see Conversion feed and attribution exports for the daily feed.
Open Marketing tracking #
Path: Console → your competition or challenge → Settings → Marketing tracking
Marketing tracking is its own tab next to Advanced Settings.
- Organization users with the ADMIN role can edit the fields and manage the feed.
- Support-level users see the fields as read-only and do not see the feed section.
Enter the conversion settings #
Ask your marketing agency for these values from the Google Ads conversion action tag:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Google Ads conversion ID | The ID in the format AW-XXXXXXXXX |
| Google Ads conversion label | The string after the slash in the tag's send_to value |
| Conversion name for exports | The conversion action's name in Google Ads, matched exactly; the default is Registration |
The conversion ID and label must be set together. If you do not want to use the browser tag, leave both fields empty.
For your marketing agency
Provide the organizer with the conversion ID, conversion label, and exact conversion action name from the same Google Ads conversion action. The export name is also used by the CSV export and scheduled feed.
When the browser tag fires #
DistantRace fires the tag automatically on the registration thank-you page only when:
- The order was paid online
- The order contains a registration
- The participant accepted marketing cookies
The reported conversion value is the registration fee only. Merchandise and add-on products are excluded. DistantRace sends the order code as the transaction ID.
If one order contains registrations for several of your events that share the same Google Ads destination, DistantRace combines their registration fees into one conversion.
When the browser tag does not fire #
The browser tag does not fire for:
- Bank-transfer orders that are still awaiting payment
- Race-day or on-site registrations
- Add-on or after-sale purchases
- Merchandise-only orders
Paid bank-transfer registrations can still reach Google Ads through the conversion feed.
No callback to an embedded website #
DistantRace does not send a JavaScript callback to the website that embeds registration when an order completes. Browser cross-origin policies make such callbacks unreliable. Conversion reporting is available only through the thank-you-page tag and the feed.
For an embedded registration form, use the dedicated snippet described in Embedding registration with ad-click tracking.
Attribution data DistantRace captures #
DistantRace captures only this allowlist:
- Ad click IDs:
gclid,wbraid,gbraid,fbclid,msclkid - UTM parameters:
utm_source,utm_medium,utm_campaign,utm_term,utm_content - The landing page path and capture time
The data is captured server-side and held in the visitor's session for at most 24 hours. It is bound to the organization whose page the visitor landed on, so one organization's campaign cannot be attributed to another organization's order. The first capture attached to an order wins.
Attribution data does not contain names, email addresses, or other personal details.