Google Ads: Track Ticket Sales as Conversions

At a glance: Get your Conversion ID and Conversion label from Google Ads → paste them into the organisation editor's Marketing section → save. Optionally add an event-specific label per show.

• Conversion ID: identifies your Google Ads account. It looks like AW-123456789. You have one of these, for your whole account.
• Conversion label: identifies one specific conversion action inside that account. It's an opaque code Google generates, like AbC-9xK2pQr. You get a different one for each conversion action you create.

Important: the Conversion label is generated by Google when you create a conversion action. It is not a name you choose, and it is not your event's web address or tag. You always copy it out of Google Ads exactly as shown.

1. In Google Ads, go to Goals → Conversions. The setup wizard opens (Get started → Create conversion actions → Summary). Under Choose data sources, tick Conversions on a website and add your website URL.
   • Use your Seaty address here, not your own website. The purchase completes on Seaty. Enter https://www.seaty.co.uk (or your specific event page). If you're testing, use your Seaty test/staging address.
2. On Measure conversions on your website, choose the Google tag data source.
   • It will likely say "not installed yet". This is expected and fine. Seaty fires the tag itself; you are not installing any code on Seaty. Google's scanner can't see the tag because it only loads after the visitor accepts advertising cookies, on the order-completion page.
   • Do not use any detected Google Analytics property ("… Link") shown here. That's a separate import route, and may be Seaty's own analytics property rather than yours. Stick with Google tag.
3. On Create a conversion, choose Manually with code (not "Automatically without code"). Despite the name, you won't paste any code into Seaty. This is simply the option that reveals the Conversion ID and label for you to copy.
4. In Conversion settings:
   • Action optimisation: Primary action used for bidding optimisation.
   • Conversion name: something recognisable, e.g. "Seaty Ticket Sales" (or "Lytham Proms tickets" for a single show).
   • Goal/category: Purchase.
   • Value: Use different values for each conversion, and under "Set up using" keep Event snippet selected. The Event snippet is what exposes the label Seaty needs (the "Google tag" sub-option does not). Leave the default value as £1 GBP.
   • Count: Every (each ticket order is its own conversion).
   • Conversion windows and Attribution: leave Google's defaults (e.g. 90-day click-through, data-driven attribution) unless you have a specific reason to change them.
   • Enhanced conversions: leave this "Not configured". Seaty sends value-only conversions with no customer data, so there is nothing for Enhanced conversions to match against, and turning it on would only lead you toward adding code Seaty doesn't use. Leaving it off is correct and intentional, not a missed step.
5. Click Done. You return to the Create and measure conversions screen, where your new action is listed as Purchase → Manual event (Primary). (The "you'll need to install code we'll provide" note refers to the manual method, which Seaty handles for you.) Click Save and continue to reach the final Summary / "Get instructions and finish" step.

1. Get your values. Under "Set up your Google tag and event tags" (the Set up with a Google tag tab), find your conversion under "Measure individual conversions with event snippets" and click See event snippet. Google shows a code block containing a line like:

   'send_to': 'AW-123456789/AbC-9xK2pQr'
   

   The part before the slash (AW-123456789) is your Conversion ID. The part after the slash (AbC-9xK2pQr) is your Conversion label. You don't need the code itself, just those two values.

2. Do not "Set up" a Google tag. That section may warn "No tag found for this account" with a Set up button. Ignore it. Seaty activates the Google tag itself at runtime, so you do not install a separate one. The warning is expected and does not stop conversions recording.

3. Untick "Turn on enhanced conversions". This account-level checkbox is often pre-ticked. Untick it before finishing. Seaty sends value-only conversions with no customer data, so enhanced conversions has nothing to match, and leaving it ticked commits you to Google's enhanced-conversions data-processing terms for no benefit.

Ignore any later "verify your tag" / "tag not detected" prompts too. The tag is real; Google just can't detect it by scanning, because Seaty only fires it after cookie consent on the completion page. Conversions still record once a real order fires.

1. Open your organisation editor → Marketing section.
2. Under Google Ads:
   • Conversion ID → the part before the slash only, e.g. AW-959758564. Do not include the slash or the label here, or Seaty will reject it (the ID must be AW- followed by digits).
   • Default Conversion label → the part after the slash, e.g. exN3CN3h4rgcEOSB08kD.
3. Save.

Copy the label, don't retype it. Conversion labels are long and case-sensitive (note they often start lowercase, like ex…). A retyped, truncated, or wrong-case label looks fine but silently records no conversions. Use Google's Copy button and split the value at the slash. Seaty will flag an ID in the wrong format and warn you if the label looks too short, but it cannot check that the label is the exact right value, so always copy it rather than typing it.

Key point: Seaty fires the conversion on every completed order, no matter how the customer arrived. But Google Ads only counts it as a conversion if that customer clicked one of your Google Ads first. Google matches the sale to the ad click using the Google click ID (GCLID) stored at click time. A purchase from someone who came any other way (direct, organic, social, a test booking you make yourself) still fires the tag, but Google has no ad click to attribute it to, so it won't appear in your conversion reports.

1. Is the tag firing, with the right label? (this is the Seaty side) Open Google's Tag Assistant, add your Seaty event page's address, start a debug session, and make a test booking. You should see your AW-… tag and a conversion event fire. Check the conversion's label matches your real one exactly (and the value looks right), not just that a conversion fired. A wrong, truncated, or wrong-case label still fires a request with a value, but Google silently discards it because no conversion action matches, so "I can see a conversion fire" is not enough on its own. This check works on any purchase, including a direct test one.
2. Is Google recording attributed conversions? This only happens for purchases that followed a real click on a live Google Ad. A direct test booking will fire the tag (step 1) but will not show as a recorded conversion in Google Ads. Once your ads are running and customers click them, conversions appear in Goals → Conversions.

1. In Google Ads, create a second conversion action (as in step 1 above) named for that event.
2. Copy its Conversion label (the Conversion ID is the same as your account's, so it doesn't change).
3. Open that event's editor → Marketing → Google Ads and paste the label into the event-specific field.

To confirm an event's own label is working, make a test booking for that event and check Tag Assistant shows the event's label in the send_to (e.g. AW-…/your-event-label) rather than the organisation default. A sensible order is to test once with the field blank (you'll see the org default fire), then add the event label and test again (you'll see it switch to the event label). Events you leave blank correctly fall back to the organisation default.

The event-specific field only appears once Google Ads is set up at the organisation level, because the per-event label still relies on your account's Conversion ID. If you haven't added the Conversion ID yet, the event editor links you to where to do it.

Don't want to manage labels per event? You don't have to. Two simpler ways to see per-event performance: (1) run a separate Google Ads campaign per event, since Google attributes each conversion to the campaign that drove the click; or (2) use the Google Analytics route below, which avoids Conversion labels entirely. See Alternative: measure conversions via Google Analytics for the full steps.

1. Connect GA4 in Seaty. In the organisation editor, Marketing, Google Analytics: paste your G-XXXXXXXXXX measurement ID and save (see the Google Analytics guide). From then on, Seaty sends a purchase event to your property on every completed order, carrying the order value, currency, a deduplicating transaction ID, the ticket items, and an event_tag for the show.
2. Make purchase a key event in GA4. Make a test booking, then in GA4 open Admin, Data display, Events (use the Realtime view to see it sooner). When purchase appears, toggle it on as a Key event. Only key events can be imported into Google Ads.
3. Link your GA4 property to Google Ads. In GA4: Admin, Product links, Google Ads links, Link, then choose your Google Ads account. You need edit access to both accounts.
4. Import the conversion into Google Ads. In Google Ads: Goals, Conversions, New conversion action, Import, Google Analytics 4 properties, Web. Tick the purchase key event and import it. Set it as a Primary action if you want it used for bidding. Google records the order value and currency automatically and deduplicates on the transaction ID.
5. Report per event. Seaty stamps every purchase with an event_tag. Register it once as a custom dimension in GA4 (Admin, Data display, Custom definitions, Custom dimensions, Create: dimension name event_tag, scope Event, event parameter event_tag). After that you can break conversions down by individual show inside GA4, with no separate conversion action per event. Allow 24 to 48 hours for values to appear.

• GA-only is simpler once GA4 is connected, has no per-event label to manage, and gives per-event breakdowns through the event_tag dimension. It counts purchases from visitors who accepted analytics cookies.
• The native Google Ads tag counts purchases from visitors who accepted advertising cookies and feeds Google Ads' own attribution directly. Choose it if you do not use GA4, or you want advertising-consent measurement.
• The totals will not match exactly: a visitor who accepts analytics but declines advertising is counted by the GA-only route but not the native tag, and vice versa. Imported GA4 conversions also use GA4's attribution model rather than Google Ads' own.
• You can run both, but mark only one as the primary bidding action, or Google may double-count toward optimisation.

• send_to: your Conversion ID plus the relevant label (event-specific if set, otherwise the organisation default)
• value: the order total
• currency: GBP
• transaction_id: the Seaty order ID, which lets Google de-duplicate the conversion if the customer refreshes the confirmation page

• The purchase didn't come from a Google Ad click. Google only counts conversions it can attribute to an ad click (via the GCLID). A direct/organic/social purchase (including a test booking you make yourself) fires the tag but is not counted in Google Ads reports. This is the most common "my test didn't show up" cause, and it's not a fault. Verify firing with Tag Assistant instead (see "Check it's working").
• The Conversion ID field contains the whole send_to (with a slash). It must be only the AW- + digits part, e.g. AW-959758564. The bit after the slash is the label and goes in its own field. Seaty rejects an ID that has a slash in it.
• The Conversion label is wrong. Labels are long and case-sensitive and often start lowercase (e.g. exN3…). Retyping or truncating it means conversions silently never record. Copy it straight from Google's event snippet. Don't type it.
• No Conversion label is set. The Conversion ID on its own loads the tag but records nothing.
• You (or a visitor) didn't give advertising consent. Conversions only fire after the visitor accepts advertising cookies, so your real sales will always be higher than Google reports.
• Google shows "Misconfigured" or "tag not detected". Expected before your first real conversion. It clears once a genuine booking fires. Seaty fires the tag itself, so Google can't detect it by scanning your pages.
• Enhanced conversions got switched on. Leave it off. Seaty deliberately sends no customer data for it to use.

• Conversion ID is account-wide. One per organisation, matching your one Google Ads account. Per-event Conversion labels are supported (above), but the ID is shared.
• Both values are required. A Conversion ID with no label loads the tag but records no conversions. Seaty warns you in the editor if only one is filled in.
• The label must be copied exactly. It's Google's generated code, case-sensitive. A wrong or made-up label (including using your event web address) silently records nothing.
• Client-side only. Seaty fires conversions from the customer's browser using Google's tag, not server-to-server via the Google Ads API. Browser ad blockers and strict tracking protection can suppress some conversions.
• Google Tag Manager containers (GTM-XXX) are not supported. Paste the Conversion ID and label directly; you don't need GTM.
• Reporting lives in Google Ads. Seaty sends the conversions outward; you view and attribute them in your own Google Ads account, not inside Seaty.

• Google Analytics: measure on-page behaviour with your own GA4 property, and an alternative route to per-event conversions in Google Ads
• Marketing hub: overview of all marketing tools at the organisation level
• Facebook Pixel: equivalent conversion tracking for Meta ads