Create a Custom Event to Track Purchases After a Google Referral

NOTE: In order for this to work properly, you will need to store a cookie so that the Google referral is reflected in the confirmation page.

This is the third and final video of a series regarding view through conversions and Google referrals. Make sure to read the others:

Did a Google referral result in a purchase? We can create a custom event in Google Tag Manager to track it. Here’s how to do it…

Create the Custom Event

1. Create the tag. Use custom HTML and add the event code.

Google Tag Manager Custom Event

2. Create your trigger. In this case, we need to use a Trigger Group. This requires all selected trigger actions to happen to fire the event.

Google Tag Manager Custom Event

The first trigger event is the Google Referral. To see how I created that, check my last video.

For the second trigger event that is part of this Trigger Group, create a trigger event that is based on Page View. Have it fire using URL contains and paste the URL or part of the URL for the confirmation page after a purchase.

Custom Event Google Referral

You can probably get creative with this one to capture many different purchases — if not any purchase. But the most straightforward approach here would be to use the confirmation page for one specific product.

3. Publish the tag and triggers.

Don’t forget that you’ll need to verify this custom event in Events Manager.

Verify Custom Event

View the Data

Add the event as a column in Ads Manager.

Add Column Ads Manager

Then compare attribution settings and select 1-day view. If you want, you can also limit the reporting to First Conversion.

Compare Attribution Settings

So now you will be able to see how many people were served your ad and didn’t click, but they Googled your business within a day and were referred to your website and made a purchase.

A post by Kevin Kovach inspired me to record a series of three videos about view through conversions and Google referrals (this is the third). You can read Kevin’s post here.

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