Connecting your Google Ads account tells the CRM how to talk to Google Ads. It doesn't tell it when — that's a separate step called conversion mapping, done from Marketing → Conversion Actions, and skipping it is the single most common reason someone connects Google Ads correctly and then sees no conversions arrive at all.
Why this is a second, separate step
Google Ads doesn't have a generic "a sale happened" event — every conversion you report has to match a conversion action you've already defined inside your Google Ads account, with its own name, category and value settings. Your CRM's pipeline, meanwhile, has its own stages — Contacted, Qualified, Won, Lost, or whatever you've customised them to. Nothing in either system knows the other exists until you draw the line between them, stage by stage.
Step 1: Create the conversion action in Google Ads first
In Google Ads, go to Tools & Settings → Measurement → Conversions → New conversion action → Import → Other data sources or CRMs → Track conversions from clicks. Name it something that describes the outcome, not the mechanism — "Lead Won" or "Sale Closed" reads clearly a year from now; "CRM Conversion 1" does not. Set the conversion window generously — offline sales cycles are often weeks long, and a 30-day default window will silently miss a genuine sale that closed on day 35.
Once created, open the conversion action and copy its resource name — a string that
looks like customers/1234567890/conversionActions/987654321, usually visible in the URL or
the action's details panel. This is the one field in the next step that isn't self-explanatory: it is
Google's internal identifier for this exact conversion action, not its display name, and the CRM needs
the identifier to upload to the right place.
Step 2: Add the conversion action in the CRM
Back in the CRM, go to Marketing → Conversion Actions → Add conversion action and fill in:
- Name — matching what you called it in Google Ads, so the two systems are easy to cross-reference later.
- Resource name — the identifier you copied above, pasted exactly.
- Category — leave as default unless Google Ads assigned a specific category (Purchase, Lead, etc.) to the action; match whatever it shows there.
- Default value and Currency code — optional. If every conversion of this type is worth roughly the same amount, set a default value here; per-lead deal values (if you're tracking them on individual leads) will use the lead's own value instead when one is set.
Save, and repeat for every distinct outcome you want Google Ads to know about — most companies need just one ("Won"), but nothing stops you creating more, for example separate actions for a qualified lead versus a closed sale.
Step 3: Map pipeline stages to conversion actions
Go to Marketing → Conversion Actions → Mapping. You'll see one row per pipeline stage you've defined, each with a dropdown. For any stage that should report to Google Ads — typically just your "Won" stage — pick the matching conversion action from the dropdown. Leave every other stage's dropdown on "None"; there is no requirement to map every stage, and mapping stages you don't want reported (like "Contacted") will send Google Ads a false signal about what actually constitutes a result.
Save. From this point on, moving a lead into a mapped stage triggers the upload automatically — nobody has to remember to do anything manually per lead.
Only map the stage that represents a genuine result. Google Ads' bidding algorithms learn from whatever you report as a conversion and optimise toward getting you more of it. Map "Contacted" instead of "Won" and you're training Google to find you more people who pick up the phone — not more people who buy. This single mistake quietly undoes the entire point of connecting the integration; see why Google Ads conversions don't match your sales for the fuller version of this problem.
Confirming it's actually working
Move a real (or test) lead into your mapped Won stage, then check Marketing → Google Ads Conversions in the CRM — a successful upload should appear there shortly after. In Google Ads itself, uploaded conversions can take up to a few hours to show against the campaign in reporting, even once the CRM confirms the upload succeeded; that lag is on Google's side, not a sign anything is broken.
If a lead moves into the mapped stage but nothing appears, the most likely causes are an expired or incorrect refresh token (see why your Google Ads refresh token keeps failing) or a lead that never carried a gclid to begin with — Google Ads can't credit a conversion to a click it has no record of. See what a gclid is and why it matters if you're not sure whether your leads are capturing one.