How the conversion feed works

Ad platforms such as Google Ads and Meta credit a conversion only when their own tag sees it and can link it to the ad click. The conversion feed lets Trace tell them about the ones their tag missed.

This article shows how that works. The conversion feed in detail has the full rules, the windows table and how to switch each platform on.

Why a tag misses a conversion

A tag records a conversion with a cookie it sets in the visitor’s browser. Browsers limit those cookies: Safari keeps one that a tag sets itself for up to 7 days. A visitor who clicks your ad, leaves, and buys ten days later can look like a stranger to the tag, so the platform never credits the ad.

Trace keeps the ad click with the visitor’s journey. When that visitor converts later, Trace knows which ad they clicked, whether or not the tag still does.

The path of one conversion

The path of one conversion. Two checks can stop it, and in both cases nothing is sent.

The visitor clicks your ad. The link carries a click reference from the ad platform.
Trace keeps the click with the visitor’s journey.
The visitor converts: a purchase or a lead, possibly days later.
Trace checks whether your own ad tag recorded the conversion. If it did, Trace sends nothing, so the platform never counts it twice.
Trace checks the rules: the visitor’s consent, the platform’s window, and whether the platform is switched on for your site. If any of them says no, nothing is sent. The ad still appears in the journey in Trace’s own reports.
Otherwise Trace sends the conversion to your ad account in a daily batch.

How long after the click

Each platform credits a conversion only for a set time after the click. Trace never sends outside it.

Each bar is how long after the click that platform will still credit a conversion. The cookie bar is the longest Safari keeps a cookie that an ad tag sets itself. The example conversion on day 20 is made up.

Inside the window: Trace sends the conversion, if every other check passes.
After the window: Trace does not send it. The platform would not credit the ad, so there is nothing to gain. Trace’s own reports still show the ad in the journey.
Never after 90 days: Trace never uses a click reference more than 90 days after the click, whatever a platform allows.

The exact numbers for each platform are in the table in the conversion feed in detail.

The checks

Every conversion goes through these checks. A no at any one of them means it is not sent.

Trace runs all five checks for every conversion. The order is only for reading. A conversion is sent only if:

a paid click on this platform started the journey;
your own ad tag missed the conversion;
the visitor’s consent allows it, by rules that differ by region (the detail article sets them out);
it is inside the platform’s window;
the platform is switched on for your site, and allowed for it.

What stays in your hands

It is off until you switch it on. Each platform has its own switch on Integrations, off by default in every region. Switching a platform off stops sending at once.
It adds, and never changes. Trace does not change your tags, your consent tool, or any conversion you already have. On Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising it adds one conversion of its own, kept out of your Conversions column and bidding unless you choose to include it.
It sends no names, emails or IP addresses. The conversion feed in detail lists every field it sends.
It follows the visitor’s consent. How consent flags work explains how Trace reads consent. The feed adds the Marketing answer, which analytics consent never replaces.