Pros & Cons of Google’s Enhanced Conversions

Are Google’s Enhanced Conversions as good as advertised?

Enhanced Conversions are an advanced tracking method that allows marketers to leverage first-party data to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of their digital marketing campaigns. It’s been one of the most impactful tools in Google’s belt for a few years now, and our team has had ample opportunity to understand what it does well — and what it does not so well.

Setting up Enhanced Conversions is not exactly a simple process, especially if you don’t eat, sleep, and breathe in Google Ads, so it’s understandable if you’re on the fence.

If you’re looking to weigh the pros and cons, we’ve got you covered!

Pros of Google Enhanced Conversions

• Take advantage of Google’s latest AI targeting capabilities. The conversion data captured by Google fuels the platform’s AI-powered tools, such as modeled conversions and bidding optimization, to help you drive better campaign performance. 
• Supercharge once unreliable targeting methods. Broad match keyword and PMax campaign types generate a lot of waste when only using Google’s in-platform conversions. Enhanced Conversions allow you to train the algorithms to target first-party success metrics, helping to eliminate spam leads.
• Future-proof your campaigns. Enhanced Conversions protects against cookie deprecation by targeting against CRM data instead of cookie data.
• Go a step above standard offline conversion import (OCI). OCI is limited to last-click attribution, whereas Enhanced Conversions is a data-driven attribution model, allowing for a clearer attribution landscape.
• Make your marketing dollars go further. Based on our anecdotal experience, we’ve seen decreases in cost per lead (CPL) by as much as 30% in campaigns using Enhanced Conversions tracking.

Cons of Google Enhanced Conversions

• Implementation is not so simple. Depending on the setup of your CRM or data privacy limitations, Enhanced Conversions can be difficult to properly implement.
• Your data may require a human touch. Ensuring the accuracy of the data may sometimes require manual adjustments to upload documents.
• Better quality may not mean more quantity. Based on our anecdotal experience, we’ve seen slight decreases in lead volume among test campaigns.

Are Enhanced Conversions Worth It?

No solution is perfect. We’ve seen Enhanced Conversions succeed in eliminating wasted spend, but sometimes at the expense of lead volume. So if volume is the name of the game for you, this may not be the right solution. But it may be worth implementing for the sake of having secondary conversions and gathering data based on your first-party success metrics.

If you need more information before making a decision, we’re happy to continue this conversation.