Import call conversions

  • The Google Ads API can be used to import offline call conversions to track valuable customer actions originating from phone calls generated by ads.

  • Importing call conversions requires enabling conversion tracking beforehand.

  • Specific fields like consent must be populated when creating a CallConversion object, and partial_failure should always be set to true in the request.

  • You need the caller ID, conversion date time, conversion action resource name, and optionally conversion value and currency to import a call conversion.

  • Requirements for importing a CallConversion include the correct ConversionActionType, an enabled ConversionAction, conversion tracking being enabled at the time of the call, the correct customer_id in the request, and a non-negative conversion_value with a properly formatted conversion_date_time.

You can use the Google Ads API to import offline call conversions into Google Ads in order to track when ads leads to phone calls and when those phone calls lead to valuable customer actions.

Mapping to the Google Ads UI this is the same as using the Uploads conversion source followed by choosing Conversions from calls.

Create a call conversion

A few things to keep in mind when creating a CallConversion:

  • You must populate the consent field of the CallConversion object.

  • The partial_failure attribute of the UploadCallConversionsRequest should always be set to true. Follow the partial failures guidelines when handling valid and failed operations simultaneously.

  • If you encounter a TOO_RECENT_CONVERSION_ACTION or TOO_RECENT_CALL response message to an import conversion request, wait 6 hours or 12 hours, respectively, before retrying the failed rows.

  • It takes up to 3 hours for imported conversion statistics to appear in your Google Ads account.

    • If a single request contains multiple operations for the same conversion, a DUPLICATE_CALL_CONVERSION_IN_REQUEST error is returned.
  • If a user manually copies a Google forwarding number and calls it, no conversion can be recorded.

Import a call conversion

In order to associate your offline call conversions with a conversion action you need the following information: the caller ID (phone number), conversion date time, conversion action resource name and optionally the conversion value and currency to the ConversionUploadService. For more details on the different inputs see our Help Center article. The code example also describes the formats for the different inputs.

Requirements

The following requirements must be met when importing a CallConversion.

To avoid a ConversionUploadError.INVALID_CONVERSION_ACTION error, the conversion_action attribute must refer to a ConversionAction where:

  • The ConversionActionType is UPLOAD_CALLS.

  • The status of the ConversionAction is ENABLED. Otherwise, the operation fails with a NO_CONVERSION_ACTION_FOUND error.

  • The ConversionAction exists in the Google Ads conversion customer of the click's Google Ads account.

We recommend also setting the ConversionAction.category to the category that best describes your conversions.

In addition, the following conditions must be met:

  • At the time of the call, conversion tracking was enabled in the Google Ads conversion customer of the call's Google Ads account.

  • The customer_id of the UploadCallConversionsRequest must be the customer ID of the Google Ads conversion customer of the call's Google Ads account. Otherwise, the conversion import will result in a ConversionUploadError.INVALID_CUSTOMER_FOR_CALL error.

  • The conversion_value must be greater than or equal to zero.

  • The conversion_date_time must have a timezone specified, and the format is as yyyy-mm-dd HH:mm:ss+|-HH:mm, for example: 2022-01-01 19:32:45-05:00 (ignoring daylight saving time) . The timezone can be for any valid value: it does not have to match the account's timezone. However, if you plan on comparing your imported conversion data with those in the Google Ads UI, we recommend using the same timezone as your Google Ads account so that the conversion counts match.

Code example

Java

private void runExample(
    GoogleAdsClient googleAdsClient,
    long customerId,
    String conversionActionId,
    String callerId,
    String callStartDateTime,
    double conversionValue,
    Long conversionCustomVariableId,
    String conversionCustomVariableValue,
    ConsentStatus adUserDataConsent) {
  // Create a call conversion by specifying currency as USD.
  CallConversion.Builder conversionBuilder =
      CallConversion.newBuilder()
          .setConversionAction(conversionActionId)
          .setCallerId(callerId)
          .setCallStartDateTime(callStartDateTime)
          .setConversionValue(conversionValue)
          .setCurrencyCode("USD");

  if (conversionCustomVariableId != null && conversionCustomVariableValue != null) {
    conversionBuilder.addCustomVariables(
        CustomVariable.newBuilder()
            .setConversionCustomVariable(
                ResourceNames.conversionCustomVariable(customerId, conversionCustomVariableId))
            .setValue(conversionCustomVariableValue));
  }

  // Sets the consent information, if provided.
  if (adUserDataConsent != null) {
    // Specifies whether user consent was obtained for the data you are uploading. See
    // https://www.google.com/about/company/user-consent-policy for details.
    conversionBuilder.setConsent(Consent.newBuilder().setAdUserData(adUserDataConsent));
  }

  CallConversion conversion = conversionBuilder.build();

  // Uploads the call conversion to the API.
  try (ConversionUploadServiceClient conversionUploadServiceClient =
      googleAdsClient.getLatestVersion().createConversionUploadServiceClient()) {
    // Partial failure MUST be enabled for this request.

    // NOTE: This request contains a single conversion as a demonstration.  However, if you have
    // multiple conversions to upload, it's best to upload multiple conversions per request
    // instead of sending a separate request per conversion. See the following for per-request
    // limits:
    // https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/best-practices/quotas#conversion_upload_service
    UploadCallConversionsResponse response =
        conversionUploadServiceClient.uploadCallConversions(
            UploadCallConversionsRequest.newBuilder()
                .setCustomerId(String.valueOf(customerId))
                .setCustomerId(Long.toString(customerId))
                .addConversions(conversion)
                .setPartialFailure(true)
                .build());

    // Prints any partial failure errors returned.
    if (response.hasPartialFailureError()) {
      GoogleAdsFailure googleAdsFailure =
          ErrorUtils.getInstance().getGoogleAdsFailure(response.getPartialFailureError());
      googleAdsFailure
          .getErrorsList()
          .forEach(e -> System.out.println("Partial failure occurred: " + e.getMessage()));
      throw new RuntimeException(
          "Partial failure occurred " + response.getPartialFailureError().getMessage());
    }

    // Prints the result if valid.
    CallConversionResult result = response.getResults(0);
    System.out.printf(
        "Uploaded call conversion that occurred at '%' for caller ID '%' to the conversion"
            + " action with resource name '%'.%n",
        result.getCallStartDateTime(), result.getCallerId(), result.getConversionAction());
  }
}
      

C#

public void Run(GoogleAdsClient client, long customerId,
    long conversionActionId, string callerId, string callStartTime,
    string conversionTime, double conversionValue,
    long? conversionCustomVariableId, string conversionCustomVariableValue,
    ConsentStatus? adUserDataConsent)
{
    // Get the ConversionUploadService.
    ConversionUploadServiceClient conversionUploadService =
        client.GetService(Services.V22.ConversionUploadService);

    // Create a call conversion by specifying currency as USD.
    CallConversion callConversion = new CallConversion()
    {
        ConversionAction = ResourceNames.ConversionAction(customerId, conversionActionId),
        CallerId = callerId,
        CallStartDateTime = callStartTime,
        ConversionDateTime = conversionTime,
        ConversionValue = conversionValue,
        CurrencyCode = "USD",
    };

    if (adUserDataConsent != null)
    {
        // Specifies whether user consent was obtained for the data you are uploading. See
        // https://www.google.com/about/company/user-consent-policy
        // for details.
        callConversion.Consent = new Consent()
        {
            AdUserData = (ConsentStatus)adUserDataConsent
        };
    }

    if (conversionCustomVariableId != null &&
        !string.IsNullOrEmpty(conversionCustomVariableValue))
    {
        callConversion.CustomVariables.Add(new CustomVariable()
        {
            ConversionCustomVariable = ResourceNames.ConversionCustomVariable(
                customerId, conversionCustomVariableId.Value),
            Value = conversionCustomVariableValue
        });
    }

    UploadCallConversionsRequest request = new UploadCallConversionsRequest()
    {
        CustomerId = customerId.ToString(),
        Conversions = { callConversion },
        PartialFailure = true
    };

    try
    {
        // Issues a request to upload the call conversion. The partialFailure parameter
        // is set to true, and validateOnly parameter to false as required by this method
        // call.
        // NOTE: This request contains a single conversion as a demonstration.  However, if
        // you have multiple conversions to upload, it's best to upload multiple conversions
        // per request instead of sending a separate request per conversion. See the
        // following for per-request limits:
        // https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/best-practices/quotas#conversion_upload_service
        UploadCallConversionsResponse response =
            conversionUploadService.UploadCallConversions(request);

        // Since we set partialFailure = true, we can retrieve error messages (if any) from
        // the operation response.
        if (response.PartialFailureError != null)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Call conversion upload failed.");

            // Retrieves the errors from the partial failure and prints them.
            List<GoogleAdsError> errors =
                response.PartialFailure.GetErrorsByOperationIndex(0);
            foreach (GoogleAdsError error in errors)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Operation failed with error: {error}.");
            }
        }
        else
        {
            // Prints the result.
            CallConversionResult uploadedCallConversion = response.Results[0];
            Console.WriteLine($"Uploaded call conversion that occurred at " +
                $"'{uploadedCallConversion.CallStartDateTime}' for caller ID " +
                $"'{uploadedCallConversion.CallerId}' to the conversion action with " +
                $"resource name '{uploadedCallConversion.ConversionAction}'.");
        }

    }
    catch (GoogleAdsException e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Failure:");
        Console.WriteLine($"Message: {e.Message}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Failure: {e.Failure}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Request ID: {e.RequestId}");
        throw;
    }
}
      

PHP

public static function runExample(
    GoogleAdsClient $googleAdsClient,
    int $customerId,
    int $conversionActionId,
    string $callerId,
    string $callStartDateTime,
    string $conversionDateTime,
    float $conversionValue,
    ?string $conversionCustomVariableId,
    ?string $conversionCustomVariableValue,
    ?int $adUserDataConsent
) {
    // Creates a call conversion by specifying currency as USD.
    $callConversion = new CallConversion([
        'conversion_action' =>
            ResourceNames::forConversionAction($customerId, $conversionActionId),
        'caller_id' => $callerId,
        'call_start_date_time' => $callStartDateTime,
        'conversion_date_time' => $conversionDateTime,
        'conversion_value' => $conversionValue,
        'currency_code' => 'USD'
    ]);
    if (!is_null($conversionCustomVariableId) && !is_null($conversionCustomVariableValue)) {
        $callConversion->setCustomVariables([new CustomVariable([
            'conversion_custom_variable' => ResourceNames::forConversionCustomVariable(
                $customerId,
                $conversionCustomVariableId
            ),
            'value' => $conversionCustomVariableValue
        ])]);
    }
    // Sets the consent information, if provided.
    if (!empty($adUserDataConsent)) {
        // Specifies whether user consent was obtained for the data you are uploading. See
        // https://www.google.com/about/company/user-consent-policy for details.
        $callConversion->setConsent(new Consent(['ad_user_data' => $adUserDataConsent]));
    }

    // Issues a request to upload the call conversion.
    $conversionUploadServiceClient = $googleAdsClient->getConversionUploadServiceClient();
    // NOTE: This request contains a single conversion as a demonstration.  However, if you have
    // multiple conversions to upload, it's best to upload multiple conversions per request
    // instead of sending a separate request per conversion. See the following for per-request
    // limits:
    // https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/best-practices/quotas#conversion_upload_service
    $response = $conversionUploadServiceClient->uploadCallConversions(
        // Partial failure MUST be enabled for this request.
        UploadCallConversionsRequest::build($customerId, [$callConversion], true)
    );

    // Prints the status message if any partial failure error is returned.
    // Note: The details of each partial failure error are not printed here, you can refer to
    // the example HandlePartialFailure.php to learn more.
    if ($response->hasPartialFailureError()) {
        printf(
            "Partial failures occurred: '%s'.%s",
            $response->getPartialFailureError()->getMessage(),
            PHP_EOL
        );
    } else {
        // Prints the result if exists.
        /** @var CallConversionResult $uploadedCallConversion */
        $uploadedCallConversion = $response->getResults()[0];
        printf(
            "Uploaded call conversion that occurred at '%s' for caller ID '%s' to the "
            . "conversion action with resource name '%s'.%s",
            $uploadedCallConversion->getCallStartDateTime(),
            $uploadedCallConversion->getCallerId(),
            $uploadedCallConversion->getConversionAction(),
            PHP_EOL
        );
    }
}