When Google Ads conversion tracking stops working, read the conversion action's status first: Google marks it Misconfigured when a setup error or broken tag stopped recording, and Awaiting conversions when nothing arrived in the last 7 days. Then confirm the tag fires in Tag Assistant, that the action is a primary action in the goal your campaigns bid on, that enhanced conversions is on, and that nothing is counted twice.
The free campaign troubleshooter checks tracking inside its clicks-but-no-conversions and new-account playbooks. This guide collects those checks into one sequence of four questions and five causes, each sourced to Google's documentation, with the PaidSync tool that checks it and the change you can preview.
Answer yes or no to each. Every cause below says which answer points to it.
Points here when you answer No to question 2.
Complete a test conversion with Tag Assistant open. If the conversion tag does not fire, check that the Google tag loads on every page, that the conversion event fires on the confirmation page or the form's success event rather than on page load or a button click, and that the conversion ID and label match the conversion action. In Tag Manager, Google recommends a Conversion Linker tag that fires on all pages.
audit_gtm_container, list_gtm_tags, get_gtm_version_live, get_conversion_tag_snippet
Ask your assistant: “Audit my Tag Manager container. Is there a Google Ads conversion tag with the right conversion ID and label, what triggers it, and is a conversion linker firing on all pages?”
setup_google_ads_conversion builds the conversion linker, conversion tag and trigger in a new Tag Manager workspace. It has no dry run, but nothing goes live until the workspace is published, and preview_gtm_workspace opens Tag Manager's preview mode to test it first.
Points here when you answer No to question 1.
Open Goals, Conversions and read the status with its diagnostics. Misconfigured means conversions stopped recording entirely because of a setup error or a broken tag. Needs attention means there are problems to fix but recording has not stopped. Awaiting conversions means nothing was recorded in the last 7 days, which Google says typically means the action was created under 48 hours ago, campaigns are paused, or traffic is too low to trigger a conversion.
get_conversion_tracking_status, list_conversion_actions
Ask your assistant: “List my conversion actions with their status, and flag any campaign spending with zero conversions.”
update_conversion_action defaults to dry_run and shows the category, name or status change before it is applied.
Points here when you answer No to question 3.
Google reports primary actions in the Conversions column and uses them for bidding when their goal is used for bidding. Secondary actions are for observation only and appear in All conversions. If the action you care about is secondary, or your campaigns bid on a different goal, make it primary or change the campaign's goal.
list_conversion_goals, get_performance_by_conversion_actions
Ask your assistant: “Which conversion goals does each campaign optimize for, and which conversion actions are primary or secondary?”
update_campaign_conversion_goal defaults to dry_run and shows which goals would become biddable for the campaign before it is applied.
Points here when you answer No to question 4.
Enhanced conversions sends hashed first-party data, such as the email address entered at checkout, alongside your conversion tag to improve measurement. It needs the customer data terms accepted in Google Ads. It supplements a working tag and does not replace one, so fix the first three causes first.
get_enhanced_conversions_status
Ask your assistant: “Is enhanced conversions on for this account, and are the customer data terms accepted?”
Enhanced conversions is switched on, and its terms accepted, in Google Ads itself. PaidSync reads the status and has no tool that turns it on.
Points here when you answer Yes to all four questions and the causes above are ruled out.
If every check passes and the numbers still look wrong, look for one action tracked two ways, for example a Google Ads conversion tag and an imported GA4 key event for the same purchase, both set as primary. Both count in the Conversions column. Keep one as primary and set the other to secondary.
list_conversion_actions, list_ga4_google_ads_links, list_ga4_conversion_events
Ask your assistant: “Do any Google Ads conversion actions and imported GA4 key events track the same purchase or lead, and are both primary?”
update_campaign_conversion_goal defaults to dry_run and shows which goals would stay biddable before it is applied.
In the PaidSync workspace, by default, every write is approval-gated: it is held as a card before it runs, and an applied card gets a one-tap undo. On every path, Google Ads creates and most other creates are previewed with dry_run, destructive operations need confirm_destructive, and applied changes are logged, on a best-effort basis, with a 7-day before-and-after outcome. When your own assistant calls PaidSync over MCP, no card is written, so whether a person confirms first is set in your assistant.
The full model, including what is not built yet, is on the security page.
Run this check in Claude, Claude Code, Cursor or ChatGPT. Connect Google Ads once, then paste any of the questions above to your assistant.
Not sure which symptom fits? The free Google Ads audit tool scores wasted spend, structure, Quality Score and Performance Max, and the campaign troubleshooter runs its playbooks without an account.
The conversion action's status in Goals, Conversions reads Active when everything works as intended. Confirm it yourself by completing a test conversion with Tag Assistant open and watching the conversion tag fire.
Google shows it when no conversions were recorded in the last 7 days. It typically means the action was created under 48 hours ago, campaigns are paused, or traffic is too low to trigger a conversion.
The action is secondary. Google reports primary actions in the Conversions column and uses them for bidding; secondary actions are observation only and appear in All conversions.
Tracking works without it. It adds hashed first-party data such as email addresses to your conversions to improve measurement, and it needs the customer data terms accepted in Google Ads.
If you track Google Ads conversions through Tag Manager, Google recommends a Conversion Linker tag firing on all pages, so the ad click information on the landing page is stored for the conversion tag to use.
In the PaidSync workspace, by default, every write is approval-gated: it is held as a card before it runs, and an applied card gets a one-tap undo. On every path, Google Ads creates and most other creates are previewed with dry_run, destructive operations need confirm_destructive, and applied changes are logged, on a best-effort basis, with a 7-day before-and-after outcome. When your own assistant calls PaidSync over MCP, no card is written, so whether a person confirms first is set in your assistant.