Google Tag

Every Google Ads account has exactly one Google tag (AW-<id>), and its website conversion actions are the events a site fires through it. Zernio exposes that tag under the platform-neutral tracking tags API on your googleads connection, so you can read its code and conversion labels, switch conversion tracking on, set auto-tagging, create and edit its website conversion actions, see conversion counts and install it on a connected Shopify store or WordPress site. This is the site tag; the campaign's click-URL tracking template is a different thing, on URL tracking tags.

Ids

events holds the account's WEBPAGE conversion actions: GA4-imported and upload actions are not fired from a page. On GET .../tracking-tags/{tagId} only enabled ones appear; the /events list also returns removed (archived) ones. siteEvent is set when the action's category maps to a storefront event: PAGE_VIEW to page_view, ADD_TO_CART to add_to_cart, BEGIN_CHECKOUT to initiate_checkout and PURCHASE to purchase.

Read the tag

GET /v1/accounts/{accountId}/tracking-tags lists one tag per customer on the connection without calling Google, so it costs no quota. GET .../tracking-tags/{tagId} reads the tag's settings and conversion actions and adds the gtag.js base code.

import Zernio from '@zernio/node';

const zernio = new Zernio();

const { data } = await zernio.trackingtags.getTrackingTag({
  path: { accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2d', tagId: '1234567890' }
});

Response (200):

{
  "platform": "googleads",
  "tag": {
    "id": "1234567890",
    "name": "Google tag (Acme Store)",
    "platform": "googleads",
    "kind": "tag",
    "status": "active",
    "ownerAdAccountId": "1234567890",
    "siteTagId": "AW-16799533812",
    "code": "<!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->\n<script async src=\"https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=AW-16799533812\"></script>...",
    "events": [
      {
        "id": "7012345678",
        "name": "Purchase",
        "type": "PURCHASE",
        "status": "ENABLED",
        "siteEventId": "AbC-D_efG123hIjK",
        "siteEvent": "purchase"
      }
    ]
  }
}

status is inactive while the account does not track conversions. Reads go through Zernio's Google read cache, so repeated reads do not call Google each time.

Conversion counts

GET .../tracking-tags/{tagId}/stats returns one row per conversion action with conversionActionId, conversionActionName, category, allConversions and allConversionsValue. The window defaults to the last 30 days; startTime and endTime (Unix seconds) are applied as whole days in the account's time zone, so an edge can shift by a day. aggregation is Meta only and answers 400 here.

Switch the tag on and set auto-tagging

POST /v1/accounts/{accountId}/tracking-tags with adAccountId (the customer id) and name is idempotent on Google. An account that already tracks conversions gets its existing tag back and nothing is created. Otherwise Zernio creates a WEBPAGE conversion action named name (category DEFAULT), which is what turns Google's conversion tracking on, and returns the tag.

PATCH .../tracking-tags/{tagId} takes autoTagging (true or false): gclid auto-tagging, the only tag-level setting the Google Ads API lets Zernio write. Every other tag field answers 400.

Conversion events

The tag's events are its WEBPAGE conversion actions, managed on /tracking-tags/{tagId}/events:

const { data: created } = await zernio.trackingtags.createTrackingTagEvent({
  path: { accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2d', tagId: '1234567890' },
  body: { name: 'Add to cart', siteEvent: 'add_to_cart', countingType: 'every', primary: false }
});

Response (201), with the conversion label read back from Google:

{
  "platform": "googleads",
  "event": {
    "id": "7012345699",
    "name": "Add to cart",
    "type": "ADD_TO_CART",
    "status": "ENABLED",
    "siteEvent": "add_to_cart",
    "siteEventId": "XyZ-1a_bC2dEfGh3",
    "primary": false,
    "countingType": "every",
    "clickWindowDays": 30,
    "viewWindowDays": 1
  }
}

DELETE .../events/{eventId} removes the action, which on Google is an archive (state: "archived"): Google keeps it as REMOVED with its history, and PATCH with enabled: true restores it. An action is always created enabled. The same actions are also reachable as website tag actions.

What the API cannot do

Install on a store

POST .../tracking-tags/{tagId}/install with a storeAccountId installs the tag. What it fires depends on the conversion actions:

• Shopify: Google counts only events that have their own conversion action, so the store sends a conversion only for page_view, add_to_cart, initiate_checkout and purchase, and only when the account has an enabled WEBPAGE action of the matching category with a label (the primary-for-goal action wins, then the lowest id). Product views, searches and payment info are never sent: Google has no category for search or payment info, and pointing product views at the page-view action would count every product page twice. A tag with no mapped action installs but sends nothing. See the event mapping.
• WordPress: the gtag.js base code (its config call is the page view) plus the PAGE_VIEW conversion snippet when the account has one. The official fallback is Google's Site Kit by Google plugin.

Install calls read the tag first, so re-install after you add or relabel conversion actions: the store keeps the labels it was installed with.

Related

• Pixels and tracking tags: the cross-platform model and capability matrix.
• Conversions: server-side uploads and conversion goals.
• URL tracking tags: the campaign's tracking template and final URL suffix.
• Get tracking tag and Install on a store: every field.