Enhanced Conversions 'Needs Attention' in Google Ads: Fix It

What this means

Enhanced conversions sends hashed first-party data (email, phone number, name and address) with your conversion tag. Google matches that data to signed-in Google users to recover conversions that cookies miss, which improves reporting and Smart Bidding.

The enhanced conversions diagnostics report for web tags uses four statuses:

• Excellent: active and fully optimized.
• Good: active, but more user data would increase matches.
• Needs attention: active, but there are errors (such as missing information) to fix.
• No recent data: nothing recorded in the last 7 days.

Google doesn't show diagnostic alerts when a conversion action has fewer than 20 conversions in the past 7 days, and says enhanced conversions work best with at least 20 conversions per week. Lower-volume stores may see limited diagnostics.

Why it happens

Google's diagnostics name specific alerts. The ones e-commerce stores hit most:

• Missing user data fields: the enhanced conversions data isn't sent on some conversion pages, for example on mobile checkouts, accelerated checkouts, or alternative thank-you pages.
• Missing user-provided data: the fields are sent but empty, often because a CSS selector or JavaScript variable can't find the email on the page in some browsers.
• Incorrect data formatting: emails without "@", phone numbers without a country code, or hashing errors. Error codes such as e0 (formatting validation failed), e2 (hashing failed) and e3 (page not served over HTTPS) appear in the diagnostics.
• Missing required address fields: if you send address data, Google needs first name, last name, postal code and country together.
• Incorrect address format: country must be a two-letter ISO code (for example US, or GB rather than "UK").
• Low number of matched conversions: you're only sending one match key.
• Automatic method only: you rely on Google detecting the data automatically rather than sending it explicitly.
• Customer data terms not accepted: enhanced conversions isn't in use until you accept them in conversion settings.

How to fix it

1. Open the diagnostics. Go to Goals > Conversions > Summary, select the purchase conversion action, and open its Diagnostics tab. Note each alert and which share of conversions it affects (coverage).
2. Accept the customer data terms in Conversion settings if prompted. Data sent before acceptance isn't processed.
3. Shopify stores: if you use the Google & YouTube app, turn on enhanced conversions in the app's conversion settings for the connected Google Ads account. It passes order customer data through Shopify's Customer Events, which is more reliable than scraping the thank-you page. If you use a custom pixel, read email, phone and address from the checkout_completed event data rather than page elements.
4. WooCommerce stores: prefer passing data explicitly from the order object (billing email, phone, name, postcode, country) into the Google tag or data layer, rather than CSS selectors. Most well-supported Google tag plugins and GTM templates can do this.
5. Google Tag Manager: set up a User-Provided Data variable mapped to data layer values (not "automatic" detection), and attach it to the Google Ads conversion tag.
6. Normalize formats. Lowercase and trim emails. Use E.164 phone numbers (for example +15055551234). Send two-letter country codes and correct postal code length.
7. Send more match keys. Email alone works, but adding phone and full address improves the match rate.
8. Confirm HTTPS on every page where the conversion fires.
9. Test with Tag Assistant. Place a test order and check that the conversion hit includes user-provided data. Diagnostics typically update within about a day.

For the bigger picture of a clean tracking stack, see our Google Ads conversion tracking guide for e-commerce.

How long until it's resolved

Coverage figures can refresh within hours of new data, and match rate updates within about 24 hours. The status usually moves from "Needs attention" to "Good" or "Excellent" a few days after a fix, once enough corrected conversions come in. Diagnostics use the past day of data, or the past 7 days if a single day isn't enough.

How to prevent it

• Pull customer data from the order, not the page. Page layouts change; order data doesn't.
• Retest after checkout changes, new payment methods (wallets and accelerated checkouts often skip fields), or theme updates.
• Keep one implementation per conversion action so you're not mixing automatic and manual data.
• Review diagnostics monthly alongside your conversion statuses.

Enhanced conversions is one of the most valuable tracking upgrades for stores using Performance Max and Smart Bidding. Mercantads can implement and validate it for your store. Contact us or see our Performance Max management.