Track Instapage form submissions as conversions in Google Ads

If you're using Instapage, you're probably running some Google Ads to drive traffic to the landing page. And you're probably wanting to send conversions back to Google Ads whenever someone submits a form on the page.

The issue is, it's weirdly hard to do. If you use Google Tag Manager then you have to write code to listen for the JavaScript event that Instapage emits when a form is submitted and sends it to the dataLayer, and then you have to build out the triggers, tags, and variables needed to pass that event through to Google Ads.

You can try doing something simple, like firing a conversion when someone lands on a thank-you page, but that has its problems as well. Ad blockers and privacy tools built into browsers like Safari will stop around 30% of these conversions from ever reaching Google. On top of that, Google now wants the lead's name, email, and phone number sent with every conversion, and none of that is available once someone's already on a thank-you page.

So what's the right way to track conversions in Google Ads from an Instapage landing page? Let's walk through it.

Why you need to send conversions to Google Ads server-side

Smart bidding strategies in Google Ads (things like Target CPA or Maximize Conversions) work by weighing up hundreds of signals about a searcher, from location and time of day to their past purchase behavior, and then deciding how much that particular click is worth bidding on (based on how likely they think the searcher is to actually convert).

The system is powerful, but it's only as good as the conversion data feeding it. Without accurate data, Google is basically bidding blind. It has no idea what a good lead looks like for your business, so it will burn your ad budget chasing people who are unlikely to convert.

This is why setting up proper conversion tracking is so important. The trouble is, the traditional ways of doing it (using tools like Google Tagt Manager to track thank you pages) don't work very well these days. Here's why:

• Ad Blockers - If a visitor is running an ad blocker, the Google Tag never loads in their browser when they visit your site, so anything they do goes completely untracked.
• Privacy Features in Browsers - Browsers like Safari limit how long cookies from the Google Tag can survive (often just a single day), so Google struggles to connect a conversion back to the original ad click unless both happen on the same day.
• Using multiple devices - Someone might tap your ad on their phone during a coffee break, then come back and fill out your form on their laptop that night. Browser-based tracking has no way to link those two moments together since they happened on separate devices.

Server-side tracking solves all these problems. Instead of relying on the visitor's browser to fire an event and just hoping nothing blocks it, server-side tracking tools like Converly sends the lead's information directly to Google's servers, completely bypassing ad blockers and privacy restrictions.

And the difference it makes is significant. Google itself reports that businesses moving to server-side tracking typically see conversions climb by 23% on average, while cost per conversion falls by roughly 10%, simply because the bidding algorithm finally has enough real conversion data to identify your best customers and serve your ads to people like them.

3 simple steps to send server-side conversions to Google Ads from Instapage

Connecting Instapage to Google Ads with server-side tracking only takes 3 steps.

Step 1: Build your Conversion Flow in Converly

Converly is a dedicated conversion tracking tool that makes it easy to send server-side conversions to Google Ads when someone submits an Instapage form.

If you've spent any time in tools like Zapier or HubSpot Workflows, Converly's conversion flow builder will feel immediately familiar. You simply pick a trigger (like someone submitting a form on your Instapage landing page), then choose an action (sending that as a conversion to Google Ads).

That's genuinely the whole setup. A couple of clicks and you've got server-side conversion tracking live in Google Ads.

Step 2: Add the Converly code to your landing page

Once you publish your Conversion Flow, Converly gives you a little snippet of code to install on your site.

In Instapage, you can drop this code into your page's Custom Scripts section, or apply it account-wide through your global tracking settings (so it covers every landing page and A/B test variation automatically). If you already manage tags through Google Tag Manager, you can install it that way instead.

Step 3: Test it works

Head to one of your live Instapage pages and submit a test form to make sure everything's wired up correctly.

Then jump back into Converly, open the Conversion Flow you built, click the 3 dots menu in the top right corner, and select View Logs.

Click into the entry that matches your test submission and you'll see everything Converly captured about it, including confirmation of whether Google Ads accepted it.

You can go even deeper here too, right down to the exact payload Converly sent Google Ads and the response it got back.

Once your test entry shows up as delivered successfully, you're all set. Most people have this running from start to finish in well under 5 minutes.

Why Converly is the best way to send conversions to Google Ads from Instapage

There's more than one way of getting Instapage form submissions into Google Ads as conversions, so what makes Converly worth using?

1. Easy to set up

Google Tag Manager is usually the first thing people try, but getting it working properly means writing code to detect form submissions, pushing the lead's name and email into the dataLayer, hashing that data with SHA-256 (Google requires it), then piecing together the right triggers, tags, and variables to make it all fire correctly.

Unless you already know your way around GTM, that's a serious time investment just to get basic tracking functioning.

Converly makes it so much easier. You simply pick your trigger (an Instapage form submission), pick your action (a Google Ads conversion), and you're finished. No custom code and no digging through documentation.

And if you use AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, it's even easier. You just connect them to your Converly account, tell them ‘Set up conversion tracking from Instapage to Google Ads’, and it will do it all for you (using our MCP or CLI).

2. Not affected by ad blockers and privacy restrictions

Any method that depends on the browser (whether it's Google Tag Manager or something as basic as tracking thank-you page visits) is going to lose conversions to ad blockers and privacy-first browsers before they even reach Google. In fact, one study covering over 7 million conversions found browser-based tracking was losing over to 30% of conversions.

But with Converly, this isn't an issue. It sends conversions straight from our server to Google's, so ad blockers and privacy restrictions can't get in the way (because the browser isn't involved at all).

3. Works across devices

It's completely normal now for someone to click your ad on their phone, then finish filling out your form later on a laptop or tablet. That's a real headache for browser-based tracking, because the original click and the eventual conversion happen on two different devices with no obvious way to connect them.

Converly solves this by passing the lead's details (name, email, and so on) directly to Google's servers. This helps Google match the conversion back to the person who clicked the ad in the first place, which means it can correctly attribute the conversion to the right campaign, ad group, ad, and keyword.

4. Sends more data

On top of basic contact details like name, email, and phone, Converly also captures technical signals such as the Google Click ID (GCLID), IP address, and User Agent, and sends all of it through to Google Ads.

This matters because millions of people share the same name, and people often have multiple email addresses (so the one they enter in your form might not be the one they used to log into their Google account when they clicked your ad).

So the more data you can send to Google (including things like the Google Click ID), the better chance it has of matching the conversion back to a real person and the original ad they clicked.

5. Supports multiple tools and platforms

Converly can detect conversions in over 100 form tools, website builders, scheduling tools, chat widgets, and more. From there, it can send conversion events out to Google Analytics, Google Ads, Meta Ads, ChatGPT Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Microsoft Ads, and a range of other destinations.

So the next time you add a new tool to your site or start advertising somewhere new, you won't have to rebuild your tracking setup from scratch. Just connect the new tool inside Converly and you're good to go.

6. Gives you a full conversion log and email alerts

With something like Google Tag Manager, you can test it thoroughly when you first set it up, but after that you're mostly just trusting it keeps working.

Converly takes that guesswork out of the picture. Every conversion gets logged, so you can see exactly what data was captured, what was sent to Google Ads, and how Google Ads responded.

You can also turn on email alerts, either for every conversion or just when something fails, so you're alerted when an issue pops up instead of noticing weeks later that your conversion numbers have dropped to zero.

3 things you can do when you properly send conversions to Google Ads from Instapage

Once Google Ads is receiving accurate conversion data from your Instapage landing pages, a lot of new possibilities open up in Google Ads:

1. Report on conversions by campaign, ad group, keyword, etc.

Rather than only seeing clicks and impressions, your Google Ads account will now show conversions, conversion rate, cost per conversion, return on ad spend, and more. And you can slice all of that by campaign, ad group, keyword, ad, country, and other dimensions.

That level of visibility makes it far easier to spot which campaigns, ads, and keywords are genuinely delivering leads for your business, and which ones you can cut.

2. Switch to smart bidding strategies like Maximise Conversions or Target CPA

Manual bidding isn't really a great strategy. You're essentially telling Google to spend up to $3 a click (as an example) and it follows that instruction regardless of who's actually searching or how likely they are to convert.

Smart Bidding is much better. You give Google a target, like $45 per lead, and it takes care of the bidding for you, factoring in signals about the searcher (device, location, age, interests, prior behaviour) and bidding higher for the people it thinks are more likely to convert (and lower for those that aren't worth it).

It's a genuinely effective way to bring in more leads at a lower cost, but it only works if your conversion tracking setup is solid. If you accurately tell Google which visitors converted and which didn't, it can learn what a good lead actually looks like for your business and will show your ads more prominently to people like them.

3. Retarget people who visited your site but didn't convert

Once your conversion data is accurate, you can also build remarketing audiences from the people who landed on your Instapage page but never filled out the form.

From there, you've got a few ways to bring them back into the funnel:

• Search - Adjust your bids up or down for this audience the next time they search for your keywords.
• Display - Show display ads to just this group as they browse other sites across the Google Display Network.
• YouTube - Serve YouTube ads to people who visited your page but didn't convert, keeping your brand front of mind and pulling them back to your site.

Wrap Up

If you are using Instapage and need to get accurate conversion tracking set up in Google Ads, then Converly is genuinely the best way to do it.

Conversions get sent directly to Google's servers, so ad blockers and privacy-focused browsers never get a chance to interfere, and Converly passes along the full set of lead details (name, email, phone, Google Click ID, IP address, User Agent, and more) so Google has what it needs to match each conversion back to a real person and the original ad they clicked.

It takes just a few minutes to set up and comes with a 14-day free trial, so give it a try today!