The conversion feed sends your ad platforms the conversions their own tag missed. This article is the full reference. How the conversion feed works shows the idea in three diagrams, and is the place to start.
What it does and why
Ad platforms credit a conversion only when their own tag saw it and could link it to the ad click. Browsers cut the life of the cookies tags set, so a visitor who comes back days later can look new to the tag. Trace keeps the click with the visitor’s journey. For a visitor who allowed it, Trace tells the platform about the conversion its tag missed.
It does not replace your tag, and it never changes it. It adds conversions the tag did not record, and it sends nothing the tag did.
What is sent, and what never is
For each conversion Trace sends:
- The click reference: the code the ad platform put in your ad’s link.
- The time of the conversion.
- The value and currency: the value Trace holds for the conversion, lowered by any refund Trace knows about (Shopify refunds today). See How is conversion value calculated?
- A reference so the platform does not count it twice: your order number when it is a plain reference (letters, digits and the characters # - _ . / : up to 64 characters long), otherwise a number from Trace’s own record of the conversion. An email address or free text in the order number field is never sent.
- The type: Purchase or Lead, for platforms that ask for one.
- The consent status, for the platforms that have a field for it (Google).
- Your site’s home page address, for Meta and TikTok, which require a page. It is always the home page, never the page the visitor was on.
Two things go to one platform each:
- Meta only: the visitor’s browser type (the user agent), which Meta requires with a website event. Trace keeps it only for a visitor who said yes to Marketing, and sends it only with a Marketing yes. It is kept for no more than 7 days.
- Limited Data Use: on a US or Other site Trace sets the platform’s own Limited Data Use option where it has one (Meta, TikTok and Reddit). TikTok says that option needs the visitor’s IP address, which Trace never sends, so it may have no effect there.
Trace never sends:
- a name, an email address, a phone number or a postal address;
- the IP address;
- a hashed version of any of those;
- a Trace visitor or journey number;
- the pages the visitor viewed, the referrer, a search term or a product.
Trace keeps a record of what it has sent, with no visitor identifier, for 90 days. It uses the record so a retry never sends a conversion twice.
Consent, by region
Your site’s country, set when you add the site, decides which rules apply. A site with no country set is treated as UK and EU.
| Platform | UK and EU | United States and Other |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads (both switches) | A Marketing yes when the visitor converted, and still when Trace sends. | Sent unless the visitor refused Marketing or opted out, or the browser sent Global Privacy Control. A visitor who has not answered is sent with consent marked unspecified; a yes is marked granted. |
| Meta, Microsoft Advertising, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit, X | A Marketing yes when the visitor converted, and still when Trace sends. | The same Marketing yes. These platforms have no field for consent, so nothing in the data would tell them a visitor agreed. Trace sends only visitors who said yes. |
On every site, in every region:
- Analytics consent is never enough. The feed needs the visitor’s answer to Marketing.
- Global Privacy Control stops it. If any visit in the journey carried the signal, nothing is sent.
- A refusal stops it. A visitor whose Marketing answer is no is never sent, wherever they are.
- A withdrawal before sending stops it. The yes has to stand at the conversion and again at sending.
- An answer to the old single choice banner never counts. Only a Marketing answer on the per category banner counts, or the Marketing answer of another consent tool when every consent tool on the page grants it. How consent flags work lists the tools Trace reads.
Asking visitors again
A platform you switch on is a new recipient, so visitors who agreed before it was switched on have not agreed to it. On a site that uses Trace’s cookie banner:
- the first time you switch a platform on, the banner asks visitors who said yes to Marketing to choose again, and only answers given after that count;
- the Marketing category names the platforms, for example “This includes telling Google Ads when you buy or get in touch after clicking one of their ads.”;
- switching a platform off and on again does not ask again.
On a site that uses another consent tool, you confirm instead that its Marketing category tells visitors that conversions are sent to the platform. For Google Ads and a tool that uses the IAB TCF, that means Google (vendor 755) is listed for purposes 1, 3 and 4.
Never counted twice
- Trace reads your tag. The tracking tag notes the conversion calls your site’s own tags make to Google Analytics, Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft Advertising, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit and X. If your tag recorded the conversion, with the same order number or within 30 seconds of it, Trace does not send it.
- No tag seen, nothing sent. If Trace has not seen a platform’s tag on your site in the last 30 days, it cannot tell what that tag recorded, so it sends that platform nothing. The same happens if you load the tracking tag with
tags=0. - Every send carries a reference. The platform uses it to match a duplicate: Google’s transaction id, Meta’s event id, and the equivalent on the others. Without one, nothing is sent.
- Each conversion is sent once. A retry never sends it again.
- Google and Microsoft Advertising get an action of Trace’s own. Trace adds a secondary conversion action, “Trace: conversions your tag missed”. It sits outside your Conversions column and bidding, and Trace never promotes it. You can compare it with your tag’s action and promote it yourself if you choose.
- TikTok gets leads only. TikTok’s tag hides some later calls from Trace, so on a site where Trace sees a TikTok tag, Trace never sends a TikTok purchase, in case the tag recorded it unseen. Leads follow the normal rule.
Two gaps to know about. A Microsoft Advertising goal that records by page address alone is invisible to Trace, and so is a LinkedIn conversion set up by page address. On Microsoft, Trace’s goal stays out of Conversions, so at worst All conversions counts one twice. On LinkedIn, do not switch the feed on if you use page address conversions.
The windows
A platform credits a conversion only within a set time of the click, and some refuse a conversion that is old when it arrives. Trace sends nothing outside either limit. It also never uses a click reference more than 90 days after the click.
| Platform | Click to conversion | Age of the conversion when sent | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | 90 days | No separate limit | Trace creates its action with a 90 day window. |
| Microsoft Advertising | 90 days | No separate limit | Trace creates its goal with the longest window Microsoft allows. |
| 90 days | No separate limit | Your Conversions API conversion must credit 90 days. | |
| 28 days | 7 days | Reddit’s default window. | |
| Meta | 7 days | 7 days | Meta rejects an event more than 7 days old. |
| TikTok | 1 day | 7 days | Trace cannot see your window, so it uses the shortest TikTok offers. TikTok publishes no age limit, so Trace uses 7 days. |
| X | 1 day | 7 days | The same as TikTok. |
These are the limits Trace applies today. A platform can change its own.
What if the conversion happens after the platform’s window?
It is not sent. The platform would not credit the ad for it, so sending it gains you nothing. Trace’s own reports are not affected: the conversion is still attributed and the ad still shows in the journey, as it does for every conversion.
The journey has to hold the click
Trace sends a conversion only when it is in the same journey as the click. Trace adds a later purchase to the visitor’s latest journey if it was active in the last 30 days, which is the default. After a longer gap the purchase starts a new journey with no ad click, and nothing is sent for it. Won sales from your leads, below, is the exception.
Switching it on
Open Integrations for the site. Under Send conversions your tag missed there is a card for each platform, named Send conversions your tag missed to Google Ads, and so on. Every card starts off, in every region.
- Connect the ad account. If the card says Off. Connect this ad account first., connect it on this page. The platform sections below say how.
- Give Trace permission to send. If the card says Off. Give Trace permission to send conversions to this account first., choose Give Trace permission to send.
- Say whether your site is in a sensitive category. Use Is your site in a sensitive category? (see below).
- Tick each statement under Before switching on, confirm:.
- Choose Switch on.
Only editors and owners of the site can switch a platform on or off. Trace records who confirmed and when. Switch off stops sending at once.
Once a platform is on, its card shows On since and the date, and Trace sends to it in the daily batch.
The confirmations
Which statements you see depends on your site and the platform.
- Your privacy notice names the platform. For example: “Our privacy notice says we send Google Ads the conversions of visitors who allowed marketing cookies.” Every site confirms this.
- Your banner covers the platform. On Trace’s banner: it will name the platform in its Marketing category and ask again. On another consent tool: its Marketing category tells visitors that conversions are sent to the platform.
- Your Do Not Sell or Share notice (US and Other sites only). Your site shows a “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” notice and link, and honours it.
- The platform’s terms (Meta and TikTok only). You have accepted the platform’s terms, including the joint controller arrangement they create for collecting and measuring conversions, and your privacy notice covers it.
- Your site’s category. That it is in no sensitive category, or, if it is, that you have read the platform’s policy and sending keeps to it.
You decide whether to send. Switching a platform on is your instruction to Trace to send these conversions to it, and you are responsible for what your privacy notice and banner tell visitors.
Sensitive categories
Choose a category in Is your site in a sensitive category? if your site offers any of these: health, medical conditions or treatment; medicines, pharmacy or medical devices; sexual or reproductive health; mental health; addiction or recovery; religion or beliefs; politics or campaigning; sexual orientation or gender identity; race or ethnicity; trade union membership; debt, credit repair or financial hardship; criminal records or legal trouble; gambling; adult or sexual content. The choice is No, none of these otherwise.
What is sent holds no sensitive detail, but the fact that a conversion happened on such a site says something about the visitor. Each platform has its own policy for that, and Trace follows it.
| Platform | For a site in a sensitive category |
|---|---|
| Google Ads | Warns you, names Google’s customer data policy and asks you to confirm that sending keeps to it. |
| Microsoft Advertising | Warns you, names Microsoft’s policy and asks you to confirm. |
| Meta | Not allowed. Meta’s Business Tools Terms forbid sharing sensitive information. |
| Not allowed. LinkedIn says its tag must not be used where sensitive data is collected. | |
| TikTok | Not allowed. TikTok’s data terms forbid sharing health or financial information. |
| X | Not allowed. X’s conversion tracking policy forbids it. |
| Not allowed. Trace has not found a Reddit policy that allows it, so it treats it as not allowed. |
Where a platform is not allowed, its card says “This platform’s own terms do not allow sending conversions from a site in a sensitive category, so Trace does not send them either.” Changing the category switches every platform off, so each is switched on again under its own rule. Trace follows the policies as it read them; you remain responsible for checking your own.
What each platform needs
Tokens you paste are stored encrypted and never shown again.
Google Ads
Connect Google Ads on Integrations, then choose Give Trace permission to send. This is a second Google permission screen. Switching on creates the secondary action “Trace: conversions your tag missed” in your account, which is the only change Trace makes there. If you also switch on won sales, it creates “Trace: won sale” too.
Meta
Connect Meta Ads, then paste the Dataset id and Conversions API token from Meta Events Manager into the card. Trace sends the standard Purchase or Lead event, with the order reference as the event id.
In Campaign Manager, create a conversion with Direct API as its data source and a 90 day click through window, generate its access token, then paste the Ad account id, Conversion id and Access token. Trace reads the conversion with the token and refuses one that is not a Conversions API conversion, is switched off, or credits fewer than 90 days.
Microsoft Advertising
Choose Connect Microsoft Advertising and sign in, then enter the Customer id and Account id: the numbers after cid= and aid= in the account’s address. Switching on creates the offline conversion goal “Trace: conversions your tag missed”, kept out of your Conversions column and bidding. That needs your account’s Include in Conversions feature; without it, switching on fails and says why. After a goal is created, Trace waits two hours before the first send, as Microsoft asks.
TikTok, Reddit and X
For each, create the access in the platform’s Events Manager and paste it into the card.
- TikTok:
Pixel codeand Events API access token. - Reddit:
Pixel idand Conversion access token. - X:
Pixel id, Event id, API key, API key secret, Access token and Access token secret. X needs Ads API access for its own developer app, which you request from X and which can take up to 3 business days.
Pinterest and Snap are not supported
Both refuse an event that carries only a click reference. Pinterest needs a hashed email, or the IP address and browser details together. Snap needs a hashed email or phone number, or the IP address and browser details. Trace never sends a hashed identifier or an IP address, so every event would be refused. Trace still records their click references, so your reports are not affected.
Won sales from your leads (Google Ads)
Google Ads has a second switch, Send won sales from your leads to Google Ads. When a visitor who sent a lead after a Google ad click buys later, and your site or store tells Trace about the sale, Trace sends the sale against that click, up to 90 days after it. It goes to its own secondary action, “Trace: won sale”. A refund lowers the value Google holds. The same consent rules and the same confirmations apply.
The holdout, and what to expect
By default, for the first 28 days after you first switch a platform on, Trace sends about half of the conversions that pass every check and holds the other half back. The same half is held back every time. After 28 days, everything that passes is sent.
The holdout is there to measure the gain. Comparing the platform’s count with and without the held back half shows whether sending changed anything, which the platform’s own number cannot. Until then:
- Treat any gain as an estimate. Trace measures it for each customer and does not promise one.
- Trace does not show you which conversions were held back.
- The report Conversions after an ad click on Integrations shows, for Google and Meta, how many conversions followed a paid click, how many had Marketing allowed, and how many your tag recorded and missed.
Your privacy notice
Under Settings, then Site, Privacy notice holds the notice Trace writes for your site. Once a platform is switched on, the text you copy gains a section called Advertising Platforms. It goes again when you switch the last platform off.
The section says that Trace sends a record of each consented conversion, with its ad click reference, to the platforms you connect. It then gives one line for each platform switched on:
- what it is sent: the click reference, the time, the value and currency, and your order reference;
- the platform’s role: Google acts as a separate controller under its own advertising terms; in the UK and EU, you and Meta are joint controllers under Meta’s Business Tools Terms; TikTok is a joint controller in the UK, EEA and Switzerland; others use the record under their own terms;
- how long it keeps it: LinkedIn deletes it after 180 days, and for the others the line says their own terms decide;
- for Meta, that the browser type is sent, because Meta requires it.
On a UK or EU site it also says “Only visitors who said yes to marketing cookies are included.” On a US or Other site it says visitors who said no, or opted out of sale or sharing, are never included. It ends by saying your name, email address, phone number and IP address are never sent, and nothing is sent if you refuse marketing cookies, if your browser sends Global Privacy Control, or more than 90 days after your click.
Copy it into your privacy page, then choose Verify. You also need to confirm that your notice names the platform before you can switch it on, so publish it first.