Connect Google Ads
Google Ads has no key to paste. Whence sends your sales through the Google Ads account you connect, then you give it two IDs from Google Ads and send a test. Plan on about 10 minutes.
What Whence sends to Google Ads
With your visitor’s marketing consent only, from the server:
- Purchase only, to one conversion action, with its value, currency and order ID. Google Ads receives conversions, not funnel steps.
- Matching details: the Google ad click (gclid, or gbraid / wbraid on iOS), hashed email and phone, a hashed name with country and zip when all four are known, and the browser.
- Consent is declared to Google as granted, since Whence only sends when the visitor agreed.
A sale with no Google click and no email or phone is not sent (“Not sent: no key to match a person”). Each sale carries a stable transaction ID, so a sale sent twice is counted once. See Deduplication.
Connect your Google Ads account
Whence refuses to save the setup until this account is connected.
Step 1: Open Connections
Open Setup > Connections. In Advertising, click Connect (1) on the Google Ads tile.
Step 2: Continue with Google Ads
The Connect Google Ads window explains the three steps. Click Continue with Google Ads (1).
Step 3: Sign in to Google and accept
Google asks you to sign in. Pick the Google account that owns your ad campaigns and accept every permission. Whence never sees your password, only a revocable token.
Back in Whence, the tile shows Waiting for first data, then Connected after the first read of your campaigns. The same connection shows your spend on the Ads screen.
In Google Ads
Step 4: Copy your customer ID
Your Google Ads customer ID sits at the top of your Google Ads account, next to the account name (for example 123-456-7890). Copy it. If you reach this account through a manager (MCC) account, also note the manager account ID.
Step 5: Find your conversion action ID
In Google Ads, open Goals > Conversions > Summary and click your “Import from clicks” purchase action. The conversion action ID is the ctId number in the page address. Copy it.
In Whence
Step 6: Open Google Ads in Conversions
Open Marketing > Conversions and click Set up (1) on the Google Ads row.
Step 7: Paste your IDs and send a test
- Step 1, Connect Google Ads, has an Open Connections link (1) if you skipped steps 1 to 3.
- Paste your Google Ads customer ID and Conversion action ID (2).
- Click Save and send a test (3).
Step 8: Check More options
Open More options only if you need one of these:
- Manager account ID (optional) (1): only if you reach this account through a manager (MCC) account.
- Upload method (2): leave it on Data Manager API (recommended). The Google Ads API method only works for developer tokens Google already allowlisted.
The same block holds Test mode: every sale is then checked by Google without being recorded, until you turn it off.
Test the connection
Google Ads has no test events. Whence asks Google to check the whole request without recording it, then shows “Google validated the event (not recorded, request …).” Once the setup is saved, Details on the Google Ads row has Send a test event and Recent activity, as for the other platforms.
Common errors
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Connect your Google Ads account in Whence first (Connections > Google Ads), then save again. | No Google Ads account is connected. | Follow steps 1 to 3, then save again. |
| Your Google Ads connection does not allow sending conversions yet. Reconnect Google Ads in Whence (Connections > Google Ads), then save again. | Your connection predates conversion sending. | Disconnect and connect again, and accept every permission. |
| Google Ads is not connected anymore: reconnect it in Whence. | The tile shows Expired. | Click Reconnect on the tile. |
| Google Ads customer ID doesn’t look right. Check the format. | The customer ID is 10 digits. | Paste it again, with or without dashes. |
| The conversion action does not exist in this Google Ads account. | The ctId or the customer ID is wrong. | Check both in Google Ads (steps 4 and 5). |
| The conversion action was created too recently. Google accepts events a few hours later. | Google is not ready for this action yet. | Wait a few hours and send a test again. |
| The order came before the platform recorded the ad click, so it was refused. Nothing to do if it stays rare. | A timing refusal from Google. | Nothing, unless it happens often. |
| No Google click ID on this order. | With the Google Ads API upload method, only sales with a Google click can be sent. | Leave Upload method on Data Manager API. |
In Shopify admin, the Whence app has the same setup: turn on the Google Ads switch under Conversions sent to your ad platforms, fill in the same fields, click Save, then Send test event.