How To Track Google Ad Conversions On Safari

The anonymous data held within Google’s conversion tracking is widely regarded to be compliant with GDPR, yet Apple recently announced that the newest version of their Safari browser would include Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0 – preventing 3^rd party cookies and therefore the tracking of Google campaign performance within Safari. However, fear not, as Google have a workaround.

If you advertise directly with Google you may have already received an email from them (see the foot of this article for a copy). Below, we explain exactly how you can implement Google’s workaround and ensure that your Google Ad conversions continue to be tracked accurately.

YOU WILL NEED TO ACTION ONE OF THE FOLLOWING 3 SOLUTIONS:

1. Link your AdWords account and your Analytics account. An article with steps to link the accounts can be found here. Note that this solution only works for AdWords conversion tracking and not Floodlight tags.

2. In the case you are using Google Tag Manager to fire the AdWords conversion tag, all you will need to do is add the Conversion Linker tag (see below) and for it to fire on all pages. This tag enables the storing of ad click information in a 1^st party cookie instead of a 3^rd party cookie, which is not blocked by browsers such as Safari.

3. Update your Google Analytics code to the Global Site Tag. Follow the instructions given within the email sent by the Google Ads Team. We have added them below for your convenience: 
   1. Log into the new Google Ads experience (the Conversions page)
   2. Click the website conversion action name for which you want to update the tag
   3. Expand the “Tag setup” panel at the bottom of the page
   4. Follow the instructions on this page to install both tag snippets:
      a. The global site tag should be placed on all pages of your website so it can set new cookies on your domain, which will store information about the ad click that brought a user to your site. You only need one global site tag across your entire website, even if you track multiple actions.
      b. The event snippet tag should be installed on the conversion page(s)

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Copy of the email being sent directly to Google Advertisers;

Dear Google Ads Advertiser, You’re receiving this message because of recent changes that impact your Google Ads account (Customer ID: XXX-XXX-XXXX) To keep up with changes in browser technology and how cookies are handled, please replace the legacy conversion tags on your website as soon as possible with the global site tag (gtag.js), which is the best way to measure conversions. What’s changing? Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0 for Safari was announced in June, and when it launches, some or all of the conversion tags that you are currently using on your site(s) will be unable to measure conversions on Safari. Gtag.js measures conversions in a way that is consistent with the prior public recommendations for ad attribution. If you don’t take any action, you will no longer be able to measure conversions on Safari. Next steps To continue measuring conversions on all browsers, update the conversion tags on your website as described below. The tags consist of a global site tag and an event snippet that are available in the new Google Ads experience. Here are the steps you should follow to create and implement the new tags: 1. Log into the new Google Ads experience (the Conversions page) 2. Click the website conversion action name for which you want to update the tag 3. Expand the “Tag setup” panel at the bottom of the page 4. Follow the instructions on this page to install both tag snippets:   a. The global site tag should be placed on all pages of your website so it can set new cookies on your domain, which will store information about the ad click that brought a user to your site. You only need one global site tag across your entire website, even if you track multiple actions. b. The event snippet tag should be installed on the conversion page(s) Follow the steps in this checklist to get the full benefits of the site-wide tag. This update should take less than a day of your webmaster’s time and is an important step toward understanding the performance of your ads. As with your existing conversion tracking tags, please ensure you’re providing users with clear and comprehensive information about data collection, and obtaining consent from users where legally required. Learn More If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your account team or contact us at any time.   Sincerely,   The Google Ads team