Enhanced conversions for leads vs GCLID import: what it is and when to use each

Google describes enhanced conversions for leads as an upgraded version of offline conversion import. The idea is the same: a lead fills in a form, the sale or the qualified appointment happens later in a CRM, and that outcome is sent back to Google Ads so bidding can learn from it.

What changes is how the upload is matched to the ad. When the form is submitted, the Google tag captures contact details the visitor typed, such as email address or phone number, hashes them and sends them to Google. Later, when the lead converts, the upload carries the same details, hashed the same way. Google matches the two, and can also match against signed-in Google accounts, to connect the outcome to the ad interaction.

• ✓

  The identifier that makes the match

  A GCLID import matches on the click ID (gclid, or gbraid or wbraid on some iOS traffic) that your form saved with the lead. Enhanced conversions for leads matches on hashed contact details, and Google asks you to keep sending the click ID as well where you have it.

• ✓

  What happens on the website

  A GCLID import needs the click ID stored in a hidden field and carried into the CRM. Enhanced conversions for leads also needs the Google tag, or Google Tag Manager, to read the contact fields on the form page when the form is submitted.

• ✓

  What leaves the website

  With a GCLID import, nothing but the tag’s normal conversion ping leaves the form page. With enhanced conversions for leads, hashed contact details leave the form page at submission, and leave again with the upload.

• ✓

  How late you can upload

  Google will not import a GCLID click conversion uploaded more than 90 days after the click. It documents a shorter window for enhanced conversions for leads. Check the current limit before you schedule the upload.

• ✓

  What you have to agree to

  Enhanced conversions sits under Google’s customer data terms and customer data policies, which you accept in the account before the tag will send user-provided data.

The two are not rivals. The usual setup captures the click ID exactly as before and adds the hashed contact details on top, so a conversion can match on either.

Start from the leads you already have, not from the feature list.

• ✓

  GCLID import alone is enough when

  The click ID reaches the CRM on nearly every paid lead, the upload runs daily, and the diagnostics show few unmatched rows. Adding a second identifier to a path that already matches changes little.

• ✓

  Enhanced conversions for leads earns its place when

  Click IDs go missing: leads come through a booking widget, a chat tool or a second visit, the sales cycle crosses devices, or a redirect strips the URL. Hashed email or phone can match a conversion the click ID lost.

• ✓

  Neither works until

  The outcome is defined, recorded with a date in one system, and tied back to the original lead. Enhanced conversions improves the match; it cannot fix a conversion nobody has defined.

• ✓

  Be careful, or skip it, when

  The business is health related, the site cannot show a clear disclosure and consent path, or the form collects contact details the business has not told the visitor it will share. See the sections on consent and health below.

Google accepts email address, phone number, first and last name, and street address as user-provided data. Email and phone do most of the matching; most lead forms already ask for at least one of them. Before hashing, each value is normalized so the same person always produces the same hash.

1. 01

   Trim and lowercase

   Remove spaces at the start and end, and convert text to lowercase.

2. 02

   Format phone numbers as E.164

   A plus sign, the country code, then the number, with no spaces or punctuation.

3. 03

   Apply the email rules Google lists

   For example, Google’s API documentation removes the periods before the domain in gmail.com and googlemail.com addresses. Check the current normalization rules for each field.

4. 04

   Hash with SHA-256, hex encoded

   The Google tag can normalize and hash values it collects on the page for you. For an upload through the API or a file you build yourself, you normalize and hash before sending.

email in:   " Lead@Example.com "
email out:  "lead@example.com"

phone in:   "(800) 555-0200"
phone out:  "+18005550200"

Google’s customer data policies require advertisers to disclose that they share customer information with third parties for ad measurement, to obtain consent for that sharing where the law requires it, and to comply with applicable privacy law. Which laws apply to a given business, and what consent they require, is the business’s and its counsel’s determination.

• Accept the customer data terms in the Google Ads account; the tag does not send user-provided data until they are accepted.
• Where a consent banner runs, Google’s tag only sends user-provided data when the relevant consent mode parameters are granted. For visitors in the European Economic Area, Google requires consent signals to be passed for ad measurement and personalization.
• Say so in the privacy notice, in plain words, before the form is submitted.
• Test the denied path, not only the granted one. A tag that sends hashed email after a visitor declined is the failure that matters.

Consent mode parameter names and regional rules change. Check the current consent mode reference in Google’s documentation when you build or audit the setup.

Read Google’s policy before turning it on. Google’s customer data policies list health or medical information, including purchases of medical services, among sensitive categories, and say that conversions related to sensitive categories cannot be used for measurement in enhanced conversions. The policy covers enhanced conversions for web and for leads.

For a practice, that usually points back to a plain GCLID import with a neutral conversion name, a time and a value, which sends no contact details from the form page at all. Whether and how the practice can use either method is its own and its counsel’s decision, made against the current policy text.

1. 01

   Keep the click ID capture exactly as it is

   Hidden fields for gclid, gbraid and wbraid stay on every form, and the upload keeps sending them.

2. 02

   Accept the terms and choose the method

   In the conversion settings, turn on enhanced conversions for leads and choose the Google tag, Google Tag Manager or the API. Check the current menu path in Google Ads Help; it moves.

3. 03

   Capture the contact fields on submit, not on page load

   Point the tag at the form’s email and phone fields only. Automatic detection can pick up the wrong field; name them explicitly where you can.

4. 04

   Add hashed contact details to the upload

   The same normalized and hashed email or phone, alongside the click ID, the conversion time with its time zone, and the value.

5. 05

   Read the diagnostics

   Google Ads has a diagnostics report for enhanced conversions for leads. Check it after the first uploads and weekly after that.