Enhanced conversions for leads is a Google Ads feature that connects what happens to a lead after the form is submitted, such as a qualified call or a signed contract, back to the ad click that produced it. It does this by capturing a hashed email address or phone number when the form is sent, then matching it against the same hashed details when you later upload the outcome from your CRM.
How enhanced conversions for leads works
It runs in two halves.
- At the form. When someone submits an enquiry, the Google tag captures the email or phone number they entered, hashes it and sends it to Google with the form-submission conversion. Your site also stores the lead, in plain form, in your CRM.
- Later, from the CRM. When the lead reaches a stage that matters to you, such as qualified, quoted or won, you send that outcome to Google Ads with the same identifier, hashed. Google matches it to the original click and records the offline conversion, with a value if you include one.
Uploads can be made through Google Ads Data Manager, scheduled file uploads, the API, or connectors built into CRMs such as HubSpot and Salesforce. You can include the GCLID as well where you have it, but you no longer depend on it. Google limits how long after the click a conversion can be uploaded, so upload on a regular schedule rather than in occasional batches.
Why it matters for a UK business
Most service businesses get many more enquiries than customers. A London architect might receive plenty of form fills in a month, of which only a few are serious projects and fewer still become commissions. If Google Ads only sees the form fills, Smart Bidding chases more of whatever produced forms, including time-wasters and students asking for work experience. Feed it qualified leads and sales, and it learns which searches produce work worth having. With values attached, you can move to value-based bidding.
It is also more resilient than the older GCLID-only approach, which fails when the click ID is not captured by the form, is stripped by a redirect, or is never copied into the CRM record.
The data protection side needs the same care as enhanced conversions for web. Hashed email addresses remain personal data under UK GDPR, so your privacy notice should explain that enquiry details are shared in hashed form with Google to measure advertising. The tag needs consent under PECR, and the uploads should only include people whose data you are entitled to use this way.
Common mistakes
- Capturing the email on the form but uploading phone numbers from the CRM, so nothing matches.
- Uploading every CRM stage as a primary conversion and confusing Smart Bidding with duplicates.
- Uploading once a quarter, after many clicks are too old to match.
- Letting the CRM integration break silently when a field name changes.
- Forgetting the privacy notice and consent checks because the upload happens behind the scenes.
How to act on it
- Agree what a qualified lead means with whoever handles enquiries, and record it as a CRM stage.
- Turn on enhanced conversions for leads in Google Ads and confirm the form tag captures the email or phone field.
- Connect your CRM, or set up scheduled uploads, for the stages you care about, with values where you have them.
- Make the most valuable stage the primary conversion for bidding and keep the rest as secondary.
- Check the upload diagnostics every week until match rates settle.
Connecting enquiries to real sales is often one of the most useful changes in a lead-generation account, and it is central to the PPC management I provide.