Google Ads allow you to advertise on Google to promote your Lightspeed eCom (E-Series) online catalog and store to potential and existing customers. When advertising, you want to measure how well your ads are doing to understand whether you are moving in the right direction or if you need to adjust your shopping campaigns to get more customers and sales.

To track ad conversions in your Google Ads account, you need to get two pieces of code from Google and add them to the Online tab in Retail POS (X-Series). This way, Google will track the behavior of users who come to the eCom catalog and online store store from your ads. Thus, you will see how many visitors end up placing an order in your eCom store.

Step 1: Creating a conversion action in Google Ads

To measure the ad conversion, you should first create a conversion action in your Google Ads account. Once it’s set up, you can get the Google tag code and the event snippet code that should be added to Retail POS for tracking.

To create a conversion action and get the Google Ads codes:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account or create it if you don’t have one.

2. Click the Goals icon, then go to Conversions > Summary.

   In the previous Google Ads interface, click Tools & Settings > Measurement > Conversions in the top right corner.

3. Click + New conversion action.
4. On the opened page, click Website, then paste your store/website address and click Scan.
5. Scroll down to the Create conversion actions manually using code block and click + Add a conversion action manually.

6. Fill out the conversion action details:

   • Category: select Purchase.

     You can track only purchase actions in your eCom online store.

   • Conversion name: use the name that helps you understand which action/campaign the conversion relates to.
   • Value: select Use different values for each conversion.
   • Count: select Every.

   You can keep the default values for other settings on the page or modify them if you wish.

7. Click Done, then click Save and continue.
8. You will be redirected to the instructions page, where you need to copy two pieces of code: your Google tag (gtag.js) code and the event snippet code. You can save these codes to a text document on your device or open the Online tab in Retail POS in another browser tab and paste them right away.

9. Click Set up next to Google tag:

   

10. On the opened tab, copy your Google tag code:

    

11. Close the tab to go back to the instructions page, then click See event snippet next to the conversion you’ve just created:
    

12. On the opened tab, copy the event snippet code:

    

13. Click Done.
     

Now, you have the Google tag code and the event snippet code. Next, you need to paste them to your Retail POS.

Learn more about creating conversion actions and setting up Google tag.

Step 2: Adding Google Ads codes to your eCom store

After you create a conversion action and copy the Google tag code along with the event snippet code, you need to paste them to your Retail POS. This way, they will be added to your eCom online store.

To add Google Ads codes to your eCom store:

1. In Retail POS, navigate to Online > Settings > General > Tracking & Analytics.

   

2. Scroll down to Tracking codes for Google Ads.

   

3. Paste the Google tag code into the Google tag field, and then paste the event snippet code into the corresponding field.

   When you paste the codes into the fields, they will look cut off. After you save the changes, eCom will process the codes and save the necessary part.

4. Save the changes.

That’s it! You’ve added Ads codes to eCom. Now, in your Google Ads reporting, you can view how many clients reached the “Thank you for your order” page in your online store.

Please note that after you set up your tag, Google only considers it verified once the first order is placed in your online store to trigger the tag. You can speed up the process by placing a test order. Your conversion will then be verified within 3 hours after the order is placed. 

You can check whether the tag works correctly on the tagassistant.google.com website. You can also add the Tag Assistant Companion, a free browser extension, to get more detailed data. Note that adblockers, if you use any, may prevent tags from working correctly.