A useful conversion-action audit asks two different questions: Is Google Ads receiving conversion data, and is the account using the right actions for reporting and bidding?

Do not answer both from a single “conversions” total. First inspect the account-level setup and GA4 import readiness. Then pull every conversion action with recent performance. Finally, review business meaning, primary versus secondary status, counting, values, ownership, goal coverage, and tag validation.

AI makes the inventory and comparison much faster. It does not know which events genuinely represent revenue or qualified demand unless you tell it.

Google Ads can optimize perfectly toward the wrong signal. A thank-you-page view counted twice, a page-view action marked primary, or a purchase action with the wrong value can make a healthy-looking account economically useless.

Conversion settings also affect what appears in reporting. Google explains that primary actions can feed the Conversions column and bidding when their goal is used by a campaign, while secondary actions are generally observation-only and appear in All conversions. Account-default and campaign-specific goals add another layer.

That creates four common failure modes:

Start above the individual actions. Check whether auto-tagging is enabled, whether Google Ads reports conversion tracking as configured, which customer owns conversion tracking, and whether linked GA4 key events are imported or still available to import.

Use this prompt:

Why the uncertainty clause matters: an API-based review may infer a GA4 link from key events exposed inside Google Ads. If the linked property has no synced key events, “not detected” is not conclusive.

Next, retrieve the account’s conversion actions for a useful date window. Thirty days works for active accounts; use a longer comparison window when lead volume is low or sales cycles are long.

Use this prompt:

A performance report answers whether each action has received attributed activity. It does not, by itself, prove that the tag fires correctly for every path or that an action is used for bidding. In HireOtto’s current report, the core fields are action ID, name, origin, status, category, All conversions, and All conversion value, with optional daily segmentation.

Label each action as a primary business result, qualified intermediate step, micro-conversion, diagnostic event, or obsolete/test action. The name “Lead” is not enough. A form submission, booked meeting, sales-qualified lead, and closed deal have very different values.

Ask the AI to create a review queue, not to invent the classification:

Primary and secondary are optimization decisions, not quality badges. A useful newsletter signup can remain secondary if campaigns should not bid toward it. A purchase or qualified-lead action may need to be primary when it represents the campaign’s actual objective.

Google notes that Analytics-based conversions are secondary by default when created from GA4 and must be changed to primary in Google Ads when you intentionally want them used for optimization. Before changing anything, check whether the relevant goal is applied to the campaigns in question.

The counting setting should match the economics of the action. Google’s practical rule is “Every” for sales, where multiple purchases after one ad interaction can each have value, and “One” for leads, where repeated submissions from the same click usually should not inflate performance.

That rule is a starting point. A subscription renewal, phone call, file download, or repeated high-value application may need different treatment. Confirm the business definition before updating the action.

Look for three problems: valuable outcomes with no value, every conversion receiving an unrealistic fixed value, and duplicate actions with inconsistent values. Value-based bidding can only be as sensible as the values it receives.

For purchases, dynamic transaction values are normally more useful than a single default. For lead generation, a defensible expected value can be useful, but it should reflect downstream qualification or revenue – not wishful spreadsheet alchemy.

Zero conversions is a diagnostic, not a verdict. The action may be broken, newly created, seasonal, rarely triggered, excluded by the date window, or simply attached to a journey no user completed.

Google recommends using its conversion-tracking diagnostics when an action shows Inactive, Unverified, or Needs attention. A live validation still matters: use Tag Assistant or GTM preview, complete the actual conversion path, then verify receipt in GA4 and Google Ads as appropriate.

AI can identify which actions need testing. It cannot complete every signup, payment, consent, or phone-call journey for you.

Duplicates often appear when the same event is imported from GA4 and also tracked with a native Google Ads tag, or when two GTM tags fire on the same trigger. Similar names are a clue, not proof.

Compare origin, category, recent volume, value, and firing conditions. If two actions rise in lockstep, inspect the implementation before removing or demoting either one. Do not “clean up” based on names alone.

Manager accounts can own cross-account conversion tracking. That affects where actions should be created and updated. Separately, campaigns may use account-default goals or campaign-specific goals.

An action can be perfectly configured yet irrelevant to a campaign because its goal is not applied there. The reverse is worse: a campaign can optimize toward a technically active action that does not represent meaningful business value.

Google recommends reviewing affected campaigns before changing goal composition because goal changes can alter reporting and Smart Bidding behavior.

Conversion windows should reflect the buying cycle. Google’s click-through default is commonly 30 days, but the right window depends on how long customers take to act. Shortening a window reduces which later conversions are recorded; changing it applies to conversions going forward.

Treat attribution-model and window changes as measurement changes, not cosmetic edits. Record the before state, effective date, and campaigns likely to be affected.

Do not let the AI jump from “this looks wrong” to a bulk update. Ask for a proposal with one row per action:

For each flagged conversion action, show its ID, current role, evidence, proposed change, expected impact on reporting or bidding, reversibility, and any live test required. Separate definite configuration errors from business decisions. Do not execute changes until I approve specific action IDs and fields.

Common actions after approval include:

Changing a conversion action can change the training signal for automated bidding. Make consequential changes deliberately, document them, and allow for conversion lag before judging performance.

HireOtto can run the account-level conversion setup review, list conversion actions with aggregated performance, and separate imported GA4 key events from eligible events available to import. That gives the AI a grounded inventory instead of asking it to reason from screenshots or a hand-built spreadsheet.

After review, HireOtto can create supported native Google Ads conversion actions, import a linked GA4 key event, and update supported settings on existing actions. It can change fields such as category, primary-for-goal status, counting, value settings, attribution, and supported windows where Google permits the edit.

There are important boundaries. Creating a website conversion action does not install its Google tag, configure GTM, or prove that the event fires. A GA4 import requires the property to be linked and the event to exist as a GA4 key event. Some settings are restricted by action type, origin, ownership, and Google eligibility. The current conversion performance report also does not expose every configuration field, so a full decision may need additional inspection.

Use the conversion-management walkthrough and reporting guide for the exact HireOtto workflows, then follow the quickstart to connect Google Ads.

Review them during account onboarding, after tracking or CRM changes, before major bidding changes, and at least quarterly for active accounts. High-change accounts benefit from a lighter monthly check for new, inactive, or duplicated actions.

No. Primary status means the action may be used for bidding when its goal is applied to a campaign. Keep useful observation signals secondary when you do not want Smart Bidding optimizing toward them.

Not necessarily. Check traffic, date range, conversion lag, user journey, status diagnostics, and live tag behavior. Zero volume tells you what to investigate; it does not identify the cause.

You may use both for comparison or different measurement needs, but avoid making duplicate representations of the same outcome primary without understanding the effect. Validate both implementations and decide which signal should guide bidding.

AI can inspect account, GA4, GTM, and reporting evidence when those sources are connected. It cannot replace every live browser, consent, signup, payment, call, or offline-import test. Keep a human QA step.