I have a test Google Ads account and a Google Tag Manager account. I have set up my conversion tracker in the test Google Ads account and I have deployed it to my site using Google Tag Manager.
What I am trying to do now is simulate an ad click so that the data layer value on my purchase success page shows up in a report in my test Google ads account.
Here are my conversion tracker settings in the test Google Ads account:
Conversion name: myname Category: Purchase/Sale Value: Use different values. If there's no value, use $1. Source: Website Count: Every conversion Conversion window: 1 week View-through window: 1 day Include in "Conversions": Yes Attribution model: Last click
In Google Tag Manager I have setup a Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag and input the Conversion ID and Conversion Label from the test Google Ads conversion tracker - the trigger for this is set to fire on all pages. In Google Tag Manager I have also set up a Conversion Linker tag which is set to fire on all pages. And in Google Tag Manager under Variables > User-Defined Variables I have created a variable name called order_value.
I put the Google Tag Manager JavaScript on all my pages and on the purchase success page I put this above the Google Tag Manager JavaScript:
<script>
dataLayer = [{
'order_value': 131.77
}];
</script>
If I turn on Preview/debugging in Google Tag Manager I see all the expected tags and data layer values in the debug pane on my site.
Now what I am trying to do is simulate an ad click so that when I complete a purchase the data layer order_value will show up somewhere in my test Google Ads account.
I have tried going to:
mysite.com?gclid=test
in order to simulate an ad click. But when I purchase after that nothing shows in my test Google ads account(no conversion nor the data layer order_value). To clarify I specify the gclid on my home page and then I have to navigate to several other pages(cart, checkout, etc.) before I arrive at the purchase success page(which has the data layer order_value variable).
How can I get the order_value to show up in my test Google ads account when I purchase? Do you see any obvious issues with my setup? How would you approach figuring this out? Should I try something simpler first? The test Google Ads account and the Google Tag Manager account have a different primary email address - would that matter?
