Connect Google Ads
Tikra sends each paid online order to Google Ads as a purchase conversion, through Google's Data Manager API.
You sign in with Google once; there is no key to copy.
Details
With a plan, Google Ads can also get three store events, each into its own conversion action set to Secondary: see Store events for Google Ads below.
In short
- In Google Ads, accept the customer data terms and turn on enhanced conversions with the Google Ads API (step 1).
- In Tikra, click Connect on the Google Ads card, click Log in to Google, and choose your account and conversion action from the lists (step 2).
- To type them instead, open Enter IDs instead, enter your customer ID and conversion action ID, and click Connect with Google (steps 2 and 3).
- Turn off the store's own Google Ads purchase tracking and click Go live (step 4).
1. Turn on two settings in Google Ads
Do this in the Google Ads account that owns your purchase conversion. Tikra cannot connect until both are on.
- In Google Ads, open Goals > Conversions > Conversion settings.
- Open Customer data terms, tick the box to accept the terms and click Save.
- Open Enhanced conversions and tick Turn on enhanced conversions. If Google asks you to agree to the customer data terms, click Agree.
- As the method, choose Google Ads API, not Google tag or Google Tag Manager, and click Save.
- Wait 10 to 15 minutes before you connect. Google needs that time to apply the change.
Enhanced conversions for leads is not needed.
2. Log in, or enter the IDs
In Tikra, go to Platforms and click Connect on the Google Ads card. The window Connect Google Ads opens.
- Click Log in to Google, then Continue to Google. Choose the Google account that can use your Google Ads account and keep the permissions ticked.
- Back in the window, choose your Google Ads account and Conversion action from the lists. If the account has no purchase conversion action, click Create a purchase conversion: Tikra creates one named Tikra purchase.
- Click Connect Google Ads, then go to step 4.
Your account is not in the list, or you prefer to type: open Enter IDs instead (in some windows Enter IDs manually) and enter the IDs below. Where to find it in the window shows the same steps.
- Google Ads customer ID: the 10-digit number at the top right of Google Ads, like 123-456-7890. Use the account that owns your purchase conversion.
- Manager account ID (optional): only if the Google login you use reaches that account through a manager account. Click I use a manager account to show the field. Switch to the manager account and copy its 10-digit number from the top right. If you are a user of the account itself, leave it empty.
- Conversion action ID: in Google Ads, open Goals > Conversions > All conversions and click your purchase conversion. The ID is shown as Conversion type ID, and it is the number after ctId= in the page address. Use a Website purchase conversion action set as Primary, so your purchases show in the Conversions column.
The conversion action must be a Website conversion.
Details
If yours is another type, create a new Website conversion named Tikra purchase, with the Purchase category and the setting to use different values for each conversion, and use its ID. Google does not take orders on a conversion action in its first 6 hours.
3. If you typed the IDs: connect with Google
- Click Connect with Google. Google opens in a new window. In the Shopify admin, if the new window shows a Shopify login first, log in to this store as yourself.
- Choose the Google account that can use your Google Ads account, keep the permission ticked and click Continue.
With Connect with Google, Tikra asks Google for one Google Ads permission (Data Manager) and your Google account ID.
Details
Google's screen describes this permission broadly. Tikra uses it only to send your purchase conversions to the Google Ads account you entered, and never reads your Google Ads data. With Log in to Google, Tikra also asks for Google Ads and read-only Google Analytics access, to show you the lists and to create a conversion action when you click for one; it reads nothing else (Privacy Policy, section 5C). You can remove the permission at any time.
The card updates on its own and says Google Ads is connected. It starts in the check before sending. If Google did not open, click Open Google.
If something fails, nothing is saved and the card says why. See When the connection fails below.
4. Go live
A new connection starts in the check before sending: Google Ads gets nothing from Tikra during the check. Tikra cannot read Google Ads's own count, so the check does not end on its own.
Turn off the store's own Google Ads purchase tracking first, or Google Ads counts each purchase twice.
- In your Shopify admin, go to Sales channels > Google & YouTube.
- Open Settings.
- For the Checkout completed conversion, choose Don't measure in linked account (if your channel shows a Conversion tracking box instead, click Remove there).
Details
This stops the channel's purchase conversions, both its tag and its server-to-server sending, so Google calls it "not recommended": Google Ads then gets your purchases only from Tikra. Also remove any other Google Ads purchase tag (theme code, Google Tag Manager, a custom pixel). On WooCommerce, see Turn off the store's own tracking.
Then click Go live on the card:
- Tick The store's own Google Ads purchase tracking is off, and, when the card asks, I understand that Google Ads then gets only purchases from Tikra. The tick is about purchases. Store events go only into their own Secondary conversion actions (Store events for Google Ads below) and are turned on one by one on the Events page.
- Click Go live. Tikra sends new paid orders. If the store's own tracking was already off when you connected Google Ads, click Go live and also send the held orders instead.
On the free diagnosis Google Ads gets nothing from Tikra. Choose a plan, then go live as above.
What Google Ads gets
- Each paid online order once its ad click is 6 hours old, at the latest about 6 hours after payment. The wait is on purpose: Google Ads does not accept conversions for ad clicks less than 6 hours old. Until then the order window says "Goes out when Google Ads accepts it." with the pill On its way. After it is sent, look for the order in your conversions report in Google Ads.
- The order's value and currency, the Google click ID when the visitor came from a Google ad, and, as enhanced conversions, the buyer's e-mail address and phone as hashes and, when all of them are present, the buyer's name as hashes with the postal code and country, the buyer's browser (user agent) and, for buyers outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, the IP address. The full list is in the Data Processing Agreement, Annex 1.
- Google Ads is a marketing platform, so the buyer's consent choice applies as described in Consent. The order of a buyer who opted out of the sale or sharing of data is never sent. The order of a buyer who declined marketing is not sent either, unless your store chose My store manages consent, which also sends it to Google Ads. Google is told that consent was given only when the buyer allowed marketing; otherwise Tikra tells Google that consent was not given.
- With a plan, the store events you set up: Product view (ViewItem), Add to cart (AddToCart) and Checkout started (BeginCheckout), each into its own conversion action, only for visitors who allow marketing. See Store events for Google Ads below.
Google Ads accepts an order and checks it later, so the order window says "Sent to Google Ads ... after payment. Google checks it later." with the pill Sent: Tikra counts it as sent, and Google gives no confirmation per order.
Store events for Google Ads
Besides purchases, Tikra can send Google Ads three store events: Product view (ViewItem), Add to cart (AddToCart) and Checkout started (BeginCheckout).
Details
Each goes into a conversion action of its own, never into your purchase action, so it is a signal, not a counted sale.
- In Google Ads, create one conversion action for each event you want to send, and set it as Secondary, so it stays out of your Conversions column and bidding.
- In Tikra, click Settings on the Google Ads row, then Change details. Under Store events for Google Ads, enter the IDs in ViewItem conversion action ID, AddToCart conversion action ID and BeginCheckout conversion action ID. Leave a field empty to not send that event. If you enter your purchase action, the card says "This is your purchase action. Use a separate action for this event."
- Tick Each event has its own conversion action, set to Secondary, and no tag on my store fires it and click Save and check.
Until the box is ticked, the card says Not sending until you confirm.
Details
Secondary actions show under All conversions. In a custom goal, Google Ads uses Secondary actions for bidding too. Keep these actions out of custom goals unless you want that. If you change the Google Ads account, the store event IDs are cleared: enter them again for the new account. More in Store events.
Send a test
- Click Send test on the card.
- Then Send test.
Details
Tikra sends a test to Google Ads. Google checks it and never counts it as a real order. The card then says "Google Ads accepted a test event. Nothing was recorded as a real conversion."
When the connection fails
| The card or the window says | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Google Ads says the account has not accepted the terms for sending conversions" | Do step 1. Google can take 10 to 15 minutes to apply the change. Then connect again. |
| "Google could not find that Google Ads account or conversion action" | Check the customer ID and the conversion action ID (step 2). |
| "Google does not know that conversion action ID in this account" | Check the number after ctId= in the page address of your conversion. |
| "That conversion action is not a Website conversion" | Create a new Website conversion as in step 2 and use its ID. |
| "That conversion action was created less than 6 hours ago" | Try again 6 hours after you created it. |
| "Google says the Google account you connected has no access to that Google Ads account" | Connect with a Google account that is a user of the Google Ads account. If you reach it through a manager account, enter that manager account ID. If you are a user of the account itself, leave the manager account ID empty. |
| "Google says a required account link is missing" | In Google Ads, open Admin > Linked accounts, accept or create the link Google asks for, then try again. |
| "Google Ads asks you to declare whether the account runs EU political advertising" | Answer it in Google Ads, then try again. |
| "Nothing was connected. Log in to Google again." | You clicked Cancel, or Google did not allow this Google account. Click Log in to Google or Connect with Google again and click Continue on the Google screen. |
| "Your Google Workspace administrator blocks this connection" | Ask the administrator to allow Tikra, or connect with another Google account that is a user of your Google Ads account. |
| "This Google sign-in was started in another browser" | Click Log in to Google or Connect with Google again, and finish in the browser where Tikra is open. |
| "We did not hear back from Google." | If you finished in the Google window, reload the page. If not, click Log in to Google or Connect with Google again. |
| "Your plan does not cover another platform or another Google account" | Disconnect a platform first, or choose a plan that covers it on the Billing page. See Plans, trial, order limits and billing. |
| "Too many tries in a short time." | Wait a few minutes and try again. |
If a message says Google may still list Tikra in the Google account you just used, open https://myaccount.google.com/permissions in that Google account and remove Tikra there.
If the card says Reconnect
Google no longer accepts the access you gave Tikra, for example because it was removed in your Google account.
Details
Orders are on hold. Click Reconnect with Google, or Log in to Google again where the window offers the login, and allow access again. Tikra then sends the orders on hold, as far back as Sending orders again allows.
When the card says the terms are not accepted, do step 1, then click that same button or wait: Tikra checks again every hour.
Change the details, pause or disconnect
- Change details: enter the new IDs and click Connect with Google. Google asks you to allow access again.
- Pause (under More): orders paid while Google Ads is paused are not sent to Google Ads and do not count toward the match rate.
- Resume: Google Ads gets new paid orders again.
- Disconnect (under More): Tikra deletes the saved keys and stops sending orders to Google Ads. Orders paid while it is disconnected are not sent later. If no other store in Tikra uses the same Google account, Tikra also removes its access in your Google account.
Still stuck? Email support@tikratracking.com with your store address and your Google Ads customer ID.