About conversion creation suggestions in Google Analytics

If you’ve linked your Google Analytics property to a Google Ads account, Google Analytics can automatically identify high-value key events and suggest creating them as conversion actions in Google Ads.

Setting up conversions from your key events allows you to unlock advanced features in the Advertising section of Google Analytics, such as cross-channel budgeting, performance reporting, and attribution model comparison.

On this page

• Before you begin
• Benefits
• How conversion suggestions work
• Eligible key events and categories
• Reviewing suggestions in Google Analytics

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Before you begin

To view and accept conversion suggestions within Google Analytics:

• You must be in the process of linking your Google Analytics property to Google Ads or your Google Analytics property must be linked to at least one active Google Ads account. Learn more about linking your Google Analytics property to your Google Ads account.
• Conversion suggestions are currently supported for properties configured with up to one iOS stream, and one Android stream.
• Your key events must show recent activity by logging active traffic within the past 7 days.

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Benefits

The following features provide benefits for your advertising workflow.

• Fast setup: Create secondary Google Ads conversion actions directly from existing Google Analytics key events in bulk with a single click.
• Safe optimization: Suggested conversions are created as secondary actions by default, meaning they won’t alter or disrupt your active campaign bidding or ad spend.
• Deeper advertising insights: Populate historical data to prepare your account for modern cross-channel planning and media budgeting tools. Learn more About cross-channel budgeting.

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How conversion suggestions work

When eligible key events are detected in your Google Analytics property, recommendation cards and conversion prompts appear throughout Google Analytics. By default, eligible key events are selected, allowing you to accept the suggested conversions or customize which actions to import.

Default conversion settings

When you accept a suggested conversion, Google Ads creates the action with standard default settings.

Setting	Default behavior
Optimization purpose	Secondary action will be used for reporting and insights, and doesn’t impact bidding.
Conversion name	Follows standard default Google Analytics-sourced naming.
Conversion value	Inherited directly from your Google Analytics event parameters.
Attribution model	Defined by your property settings.
Counting method	Follows Google Ads default rules according to the conversion category.

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Eligible key events and categories

To qualify for conversion suggestions, a key event must have received active event pings within the last 7 days.

The table below shows how Google Analytics key events map to Google Ads conversion categories.

Business goal	Key event	Google Ads conversion category
Online sales	purchase / ecommerce_purchase	Purchase
	add_to_cart	Add to cart
	begin_checkout	Begin checkout
Lead generation	close_convert_lead	Converted lead
	qualify_lead	Qualified lead
	generate_lead / contact_us / form_submit	Submit lead form
App Actions	in_app_purchase	Purchase

Note: If multiple key events of the same category exist, Google Analytics suggests the event with the highest event volume in the last 28 days.

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Reviewing suggestions in Google Analytics

You can accept or manage conversion suggestions across several touchpoints in Google Analytics, including prioritized recommendations in the Home page, established link flows when connecting Google Ads accounts, and prompts within the Advertising section such as snapshot and conversion reports sections, when conversion data is missing.

How to accept conversion suggestions

You can accept conversion suggestions from the Recommendations section of the Home page, the Google Ads links page in the Admin, and Advertising section.

Tip: You can deselect individual key events from the recommendation list to exclude them from conversion creation.

From the the Recommendations section of the Home page

1. To access the Home page, click Home in the left navigation.
2. In the “Insights & Recommendations” sections, locate the recommendation card titled “Create conversions to measure your ad performance”.
3. In the recommendations card, recommended conversions that you can create will be listed based on information from your business.
4. To save these conversion actions, click Save conversion actions.
5. In the confirmation dialog, review the conversion actions that are based on suggested key events. To create these conversion actions, click Create.

From the Google Ads links page in Admin

1. In Admin, under Product Links, select Google Ads Links.
2. Click Link and select your Google Ads account.
3. Under the Configure settings step, locate the toggle for "Create conversions to measure your ad performance”.
4. Keep the toggle enabled. This is turned on by default.
5. Hover over the suggested key event to review default conversion settings, such as secondary optimization, category type, and counting method.
6. Complete the setup and click Submit.

From the the Advertising section

1. In Advertising, go to any of the following pages:
   • Advertising snapshot
   • Conversion performance
   • Conversion management
   • Budgeting Overview
2. Recommended key events will be shown.
3. To create conversion actions, select Save conversion actions.
   • Note: If you need to add a key event that’s not on the recommended list, click Select more events. Select the events you want to include, then select Done.
4. In the confirmation dialog, review the conversion actions. To create these conversion actions, click Create or Save.

Secondary conversions and primary bidding

Accepting conversion suggestions creates Secondary conversion in Google Ads. Secondary actions track performance in reporting without impacting campaign smart bidding.

If you want Google Ads smart bidding to optimize your campaigns directly toward these conversions, you can upgrade them to Primary actions in Google Ads:

1. In your Google Ads account, go to Summary in Conversions drop-down within the Goals menu.
2. Locate the Google Analytics-sourced conversion action in your conversion goals table.
3. Click Edit settings for the desired conversion action.
4. Under Action optimization, select Primary action (used for bidding optimization).
5. Click Save and then Done.

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Related links

• Create Google Ads conversions based on Google Analytics key events
• Creating and managing conversions