Google Ads, GA4, and tag
Once Google Ads and GA4 are connected, three tabs configure how conversions and analytics events reach Google: Ads, GA4, and Tag.
Ads: conversion tracking
Section titled “Ads: conversion tracking”Under Settings → Google → Ads, choose the Ads account conversions should send to, then turn on the events you want tracked.
- Select your account from Ads account. Changing accounts clears the conversions below, since they belong to the previous account.
- Turn on events in Core funnel and Optional funnel events. You don’t need to create a conversion action in Google Ads first, turning an event on creates or reuses a matching one automatically.
| Shopify event | Google Ads action | Funnel |
|---|---|---|
| Checkout Completed | Purchase | Core: drives Smart Bidding |
| Checkout Started | Begin Checkout | Core |
| Product Added to Cart | Add to Cart | Core |
| Product Viewed | View Item | Optional |
| Cart Viewed | View Cart | Optional |
| Collection Viewed | View Collection | Optional |
| Payment Info Submitted | Add Payment Info | Optional |
| Checkout Address Info Submitted | Add Shipping Info | Optional |
Purchase is created as your primary conversion action, so it drives Smart Bidding; every other event starts secondary, so it reports without affecting bidding. You can change an event’s bidding role from the Bidding column once it’s on.
Enhanced Conversions sends hashed shopper identifiers (email, phone, first and last name, address) with each conversion, so Google can still match a conversion to an ad click after third-party cookies are gone. Hashing happens before anything leaves your browser or Máximo’s servers, raw values are never stored. Turn it on from the Match keys & identity card.
Offline & in-store conversions import POS, phone, and subscription-renewal orders into Ads server-side, matched by hashed customer data rather than a click. This needs its own dedicated conversion action in Google Ads, go to Google Ads → Goals → Conversions → New → Import, create an “Import from clicks” action, then select it under Offline conversion action. Keep it separate from the action your storefront tag uses. See Offline events for what counts as an offline order.
Ga4: analytics events
Section titled “Ga4: analytics events”Under Settings → Google → GA4, connect a property and choose which events send.
- Select your GA4 property, then its Data stream. Máximo reads the measurement ID from the stream and creates a Measurement Protocol credential for it, you don’t need to find or paste either value yourself.
- Turn on Send events to GA4: this is the master switch for both delivery paths below.
- Optionally link the property to your Ads account under GA4 ↔ Ads link, which enables auto-tagging and lets Ads import GA4 conversions.
Each event’s row in the Events table lets you choose where it’s delivered:
- Off: the event doesn’t reach GA4.
- Browser: sent client-side from the storefront tag.
- Server: sent server-side from Máximo.
- Browser + server: available for Purchase only. GA4 deduplicates purchase by
transaction_id, so sending it both ways is safe. No other event can be sent both ways, GA4 has no deduplication for anything else, so it would be double-counted.
Checkout-funnel events (Purchase, Begin Checkout, Add Payment Info, Add Shipping Info) let you choose browser or server; earlier browse events (page views, product views) stay browser-side, where GA4’s richer session data comes from.
User-provided data (GA4’s name for enhanced match) attaches hashed email, phone, and address to server-side events so Google can match conversions for signed-in shoppers. It requires user-provided data collection to be enabled on your GA4 property, and GA4 to be turned on first.
Tag: the storefront embed
Section titled “Tag: the storefront embed”Google’s tag (gtag.js) doesn’t need a separate block in your theme. It’s one part of the single Máximo theme app embed that also carries Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest tracking, the same embed covered in Enable tracking. If that embed is active in your theme, the Google tag is already present; Settings → Google → Tag controls what it does once it’s there:
- Google tag: turns client-side Google delivery (
gtag.js) on or off inside the shared embed. Turning this off doesn’t affect Meta, TikTok, or Pinterest, and it doesn’t turn off Máximo’s marketing consent gate on server-side Google events. - Send GA4 page views: sends a GA4 page-view event on every page load.
- Conversion linker: decorates outbound links with click IDs so conversions can be tracked across domains (for example, to a checkout on a different domain).
- Consent Mode v2: on automatically. When the Google tag is on, Máximo defaults Consent Mode to denied before the tag loads, then updates it from Shopify’s Customer Privacy API. See Consent for the two-layer Google model and the signal map.
- Advanced mode in Europe: in the EU/EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, Máximo’s Google tags wait until the shopper consents. Turn this on to load them right away there and send Google cookieless pings it uses to model conversions. It’s a legal decision, so check with your counsel.
- GMC offer ID format: shown here for reference so your conversion data lines up with your Merchant Center feed; change it from Merchant Center.
If the tag shows on · not sending, it means it’s enabled but has nothing to send yet, select a Google Ads account or turn on a GA4 property first.
Next steps
Section titled “Next steps”- Event delivery: see delivery health for what you’ve configured here.
- Pixel presence: confirm the tag is actually loading on your storefront.