The best way to track FormAssembly submissions as conversions in Google Ads
See how using server-side conversion tracking to track FormAssembly submissions as conversions in Google Ads can lift your recorded conversions by 23%.
Use Attributer to capture the GCLID and other identifiers in FormAssembly, then send them back to Google Ads as a conversion (either the moment the form is submitted or later, once the lead becomes a customer in your CRM).
Google Ads can bring in a steady stream of new leads and customers, but getting conversion tracking working properly is where a lot of marketers get stuck.
Take the Google Tag Manager route and you are suddenly writing custom code to listen for form submissions, then wiring up triggers, tags, variables, and a pile of other fiddly settings.
You could take the simpler path and track thank you page visits instead, but you'll quietly lose as much as 30% of your conversions. Ad blockers, the privacy features baked into browsers like Safari, and people who click your ad on their phone but convert later on their laptop all chip away at the numbers.
So where does that leave you?
In this guide, we will walk through how to properly track conversions in Google Ads when someone submits a FormAssembly form on your site, using an approach known as server-side tracking.
Why you need to be doing server-side tracking in Google Ads
The usual ways of tracking conversions in Google Ads, like counting thank you page visits or firing events through Google Tag Manager, come with some real problems baked in. Studies have found these methods can miss as many as 30% of your conversions.
A few things are behind that:
- Ad Blockers: Ad blockers stop the Google Tag from firing on your website, so it cannot record anything those visitors do.
- Privacy Features in Browsers: Browsers like Safari ship with technology that keeps the Google Tag from following visitors for more than about a day, so if someone clicks your ad and converts 3 days later, the conversion can't be tied back to the original ad click.
- Using multiple devices: Someone might click your ad on their work computer but convert later on their home computer or phone, which means that first ad click never gets connected to the eventual conversion.
This is exactly why server-side tracking matters. Rather than leaning on something happening in the browser (like a visitor reaching a thank you page) and hoping the Google Tag catches it, you send a direct, private message to Google carrying all of the lead's details, which keeps the information safe from ad blockers and privacy settings.
And the results speak for themselves. Google's own data shows that server-side tracking usually delivers a 23% average increase in recorded conversions and a 10% reduction in cost per conversion (because Google's algorithms have cleaner conversion data to learn from and can serve your ads to the right people).
How to track FormAssembly submissions in Google Ads using server-side conversion tracking
There are two main ways to do this, and the one that suits you depends on when you want the covnersion to be sent to Google Ads.
Option 1: When a lead submits the form
Tools like Converly make it simple to send server-side conversions to Google Ads whenever someone submits a FormAssembly form on your website.
Rather than wrestling with Google Tag Manager to listen for form submissions, pull the lead's data out of the form, hash it with SHA-256, send it to the API, and so on, Converly gives you a simple visual builder for putting your conversion flow together.
You just pick a trigger (like a FormAssembly form being submitted on your site) and then choose the actions you want to follow (such as sending a conversion to Google Ads).
From there, Converly automatically detects when a form is submitted, pulls the user's name, email, phone number, and so on, hashes it with SHA-256, and sends it to Google Ads.
It also gathers a whole stack of extra detail about the user and their visit (the GCLID, GBRAID, WBRAID, User Agent, and more) and ships that over with the conversion too, which boosts the odds that Google can match the conversion on your site back to the campaign, ad, or keyword the lead first clicked.
Ultimately, you get all the benefits of server-side tracking (like that 23% average lift in total recorded conversions and 10% drop in cost per conversion) without writing a line of custom code, working out what SHA-256 is, or learning how to send events to Google's API.
Option 2: When a lead becomes a customer
If your website generates leads through FormAssembly and you pass them into a CRM like Salesforce, Pipedrive, and the like, then you can also send conversions back to Google Ads further down the sales cycle (when a lead becomes a customer, for instance).
The way to do it is to capture a bit of extra information with each form submission and carry it through to your CRM. Here is how that works:
1. Install Attributer on your website and add a hidden field
To get started, sign up for a 14-day free trial of Attributer. You will be handed a small snippet of code to install on your website.
From there, you need to add a handful of hidden fields to your FormAssembly forms, namely:
- GCLID
- WBRAID
- GBRAID
- User Agent
In FormAssembly you do this by clicking Add Content, hovering over Question, and choosing Hidden Field, then naming each one to match the fields above (full step-by-step instructions live on the Attributer Help site).
2. Attributer writes data into the hidden fields
When a visitor lands on your site from a Google Ad, Attributer captures everything Google Ads needs for server-side conversion (GCLID, GBRAID, WBRAID, User Agent, and so on) and stores it in the visitor's browser.
Then, once they fill out a FormAssembly form on your site, Attributer drops those values into the hidden fields you set up, and they get captured right along with the submission.
3. Data is sent to your CRM
Once that data comes through with the form submission, you can send it to your CRM next to the name, email, phone number, and anything else the lead typed into the form. You can use FormAssembly's native connectors (such as its Salesforce or HubSpot connectors) or a tool like Zapier.
From there, it sits on the contact or lead record in your CRM, ready for whenever you need it.
4. Send the data to Google Ads
Once a particular milestone is hit (a deal getting created, or the lead becoming a paying customer), you can push all of that data back to Google Ads to record a conversion.
Tools like Zapier and Make are perfect for this. They plug into just about any CRM and can be set to trigger the Google Ads conversion at whatever moment you want (a new deal being created, a deal closing, etc).
They also give you a simple interface for mapping the data Attributer collected (GCLID, GBRAID, WBRAID, User Agent, and the rest) across to the right fields in Google Ads.
Why sending server-side conversions to Google Ads is the best approach
At a high level, server-side tracking beats client-side tracking (i.e., tracking events that occur in the browser) for one simple reason. You end up with far more accurate results.
With client-side tracking, you're essentially relying on the Google Tag loading in the visitor's browser and tracking what they do ,which is unreliable.
On the other hand, server-side tracking sends the conversion straight to Google's servers in a way that privacy settings and ad blockers cannot interfere with.
Here are the four main reasons this approach is the most reliable way to track conversions:
1. Overcomes Ad Blockers
Traditional tracking (like tracking thank you page visits or using Google Tag Manager) depends on scripts loading in the visitor's browser, and ad blockers and privacy-focused browsers regularly stop those scripts from firing.
Recent research puts the share of internet users running some form of ad blocker at over 30%.
Server-side tracking sidesteps the whole issue by sending the conversion data straight to Google's servers, which keeps it invisible to ad blockers and makes sure every lead actually gets counted.
2. Bypasses Safari & iOS Privacy Limitations
Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) tends to wipe tracking cookies within a day or two, so you lose the link between an ad click and the conversion whenever someone does not convert that same day.
With server-side tracking, you send the lead's name, email, phone, etc to Google, and it uses those to tie the conversion back to the original ad click (no matter how much time passed in between).
3. Works across devices
A lead might first find your website on one device (say their phone) but hold off on filling out a form until they are at a computer.
Old-school browser tracking has no way to link those two sessions because they happen on separate devices. Sending identity data (like their name and email) server-side lets Google stitch those visits back together and give your ads the credit they earned for kicking off the journey.
4. Eliminates duplicate and messy data
On top of everything above, browser-based tracking is prone to other slip-ups too, like double-counting from page refreshes or dropping data because of slow load times and shaky connections.
Tracking from the server is far more precise because it only records a conversion when a form is genuinely completed (not when a thank you page loads), which keeps your conversion counts in Google Ads much closer to your actual lead numbers.
3 reports you can run when you properly send conversions to Google Ads from FormAssembly
Across 15 years of running marketing for various companies, I have poured millions into Google Ads and pulled hundreds of reports to see how it was all performing.
Here are 3 of the reports that earned their keep the most over that time:
1. Conversions by Keyword
Like most businesses, you are probably bidding on a range of keywords spread across different campaigns (perhaps for the different services you offer, like kitchen remodels versus whole-home builds).
If that sounds like you, this report shows which keywords are actually driving conversions for your business, rather than just racking up impressions and clicks that never turn into real leads.
It helps you see which keywords are pulling their weight and which are not, and by extension which ones deserve more of your budget to bring in more clicks.
2. Conversion Value by Campaign
If you are sending conversions back to Google Ads from your CRM, you can attach the value of each conversion (pulled from the value of the Deal or Opportunity in your CRM).
This matters because not every customer is worth the same. For a construction company, a new customer from a 'bathroom renovation' campaign is likely far less profitable than one from a 'whole-home build' campaign, so treating them as equals does not really make sense.
By passing a conversion value from your CRM to Google Ads, you can run reports showing you earned X in revenue from one campaign's leads and Y from another's. That makes it much easier to decide which campaigns deserve more of your budget.
3. Conversions by Geography
This one is especially handy for businesses that win most of their customers locally (think roofing companies, HVAC contractors, boutique accounting firms, and the like), because it shows how many conversions came from each geographic region.
You can look at it broadly (by Country, State, or City) or zoom right down to a specific Postcode. That lets you see whether your leads are genuinely coming from your target service areas, or whether you are burning money on clicks from suburbs too far away to serve profitably.
Armed with that, you can use Location Bid Adjustments to sharpen your results. You can tell Google to bid more aggressively in the postcodes that are most profitable for you, and ease off (or stop spending entirely) in the areas that generate clicks but never fill out your forms.
Wrap Up
Sending conversions to Google Ads can make a real difference to your results.
It gives you the data you need to make manual tweaks (like bidding higher on certain keywords or locations), and it feeds Google's smart bidding algorithms the data they need to make automated bidding adjustments on your behalf.
The catch is that it only works when the conversion data you send is accurate. If you are still counting thank you page visits or firing events in the browser through something like Google Tag Manager, you are not sending proper data, and your Google Ads performance will suffer for it.
So however you set it up and whenever you choose to fire the conversion, make sure it is going server-side to get the best results.
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About the Author
Aaron Beashel is the founder of Attributer and has over 15 years of experience in marketing & analytics. He is a recognized expert in the subject and has written articles for leading websites such as Hubspot, Zapier, Search Engine Journal, Buffer, Unbounce & more. Learn more about Aaron here.