Google Ads for Pour Now

A simple setup guide for brands and agencies

1. Why use Google Ads conversion tracking

Conversion tracking is how you tell Google Ads which clicks turned into intent, so the platform can bid toward the people most likely to act and stop spending on the ones who never do. Feed it the right signal and Smart Bidding gets sharper over time. Starve it, and you are optimizing blind.

For Pour Now, the signal that matters is the retailer click: a shopper clicking through from your Listing to buy at a retailer. That click is your conversion. Section 5 explains why it is also the ceiling of what Google can measure, and why the way you deploy your Listing changes how cleanly it gets attributed.

Everything below is codeless and built in Google Tag Manager, using Google's own built-in tags. There is no script to paste.

2. Embedded or Link: where your tracking lives

You can deploy a Listing two ways, and for Google Ads the choice matters more than it does for most platforms, because Google attributes a conversion using a click ID (the gclid) that it appends to your ad's landing page URL.

As a Link (the hosted find.pour.now page). The Listing is its own page, hosted by Pour Now. When your ad points at the Link, the gclid lands directly on the Listing, your tags run on the top-level page, and attribution is clean. This is the recommended target for Google Ads campaigns.

Embedded on your site (iframe). The Listing runs inside your page as a frame served by Pour Now. Two things work against Google here: the gclid lands on your parent page, not inside the frame where the tags run, and Google specifically advises against firing conversion tags from within an iframe. You can still load the pixel and fire the click, but click-level attribution will be softer unless the gclid is forwarded into the embed.

The practical rule: for Google Ads, send campaign traffic to the hosted Link. You enable tracking the same way either way, at the Listing level, and build it in Google Tag Manager. Section 3 walks through it.

3. How to set up Google Ads conversion tracking

First, create the conversion action in Google Ads so you have the two values GTM needs. In Google Ads, go to Goals, Conversions, Summary, then New conversion action, Website. Choose to set it up with Google Tag Manager, set the category to Other, set Count to One (one conversion per click), name it Pour Now Retailer Click, and copy the Conversion ID and Conversion Label. The Conversion ID is the same across your account, the Conversion Label is unique to this action. Make sure auto-tagging is on, which it is by default, so Google appends the gclid.

Then enable Google Tag Manager at the Listing level: Listings, three dots, Tracking, enable Google Tag Manager, paste your GTM container ID, save. Everything below is built in that container.

3A. The foundation (Conversion Linker)

This is the tag that makes attribution work. The Conversion Linker reads the gclid off the landing page URL and stores it in a first-party cookie, so that when the retailer click fires later, Google can tie it back to the ad click that brought the shopper in.

In GTM, go to Tags, New, Tag Configuration, and choose the built-in Conversion Linker tag.
Set the trigger to All Pages.
Name it Google - Conversion Linker and save.

That is the whole foundation. Because this is a built-in Google tag, there is no community template to vet and no third-party author to trust.

3B. The retailer click (the conversion you optimize on)

This is the event that matters: a shopper clicking through from your Listing to a retailer. The trigger condition is identical on every Pour Now Listing, so it is written for you below and there is nothing to read off the page.

Turn on the Click variables first: Variables, Configure, enable the Clicks group.

Build the trigger:

Triggers, New, Click - All Elements, fire on Some Clicks.
Add one condition. Set it to Click Element matches CSS selector, and paste this exactly: button.bg-dynamic-cta-bg, button.bg-dynamic-cta-bg *
Name it Click - Retailer CTA and save.

That selector matches every retailer button on the Listing, including the label and icon inside it, so one click is one conversion no matter where on the button the shopper taps.

Add the conversion tag on that trigger:

Tags, New, the built-in Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag.
Enter the Conversion ID and Conversion Label from your conversion action.
Trigger it on Click - Retailer CTA.
Name it Google Ads - Retailer Click and save.

Now every retailer click reports as a conversion in Google Ads. Back in Google Ads, set that conversion action as Primary so your campaigns optimize toward it.

4. Best practices that drive success

One conversion for any retailer click. Retailers show "Shop Now" or "Add to Cart" depending on how they fulfill, but the shopper action is identical: a click through to buy. The selector in section 3 already fires one conversion on any retailer button, so your signal stays whole instead of fragmented.

Optimize toward the retailer click, not a purchase you cannot see. Since Google cannot see the sale on the retailer's site (section 5), do not point bidding at a purchase goal you have no data for. Use the retailer-click action as your primary conversion and let Maximize Conversions or a target CPA optimize against it.

Use the same GTM container as your other pixels. You do not need a separate container for Google Ads. If you already run Meta or TikTok through GTM on this Listing, add the two Google tags above to that same container, hung off the same Click - Retailer CTA trigger. One container per brand, reused across every Listing, keeps your data consistent and your setup simple. See the companion guide on centralizing tracking for the full pattern.

QA before you publish, and expect a reporting lag. In GTM Preview, click a retailer button and confirm the conversion tag fires once. Use Google Tag Assistant to verify it on the page. One thing that trips people up: Google only counts a conversion for visits that arrived from a Google ad with a gclid, so an organic test click will fire in Preview but will not appear as a conversion in Google Ads. New conversion actions also sit at "unverified" or "tag inactive" until real ad-driven data comes through, which can take up to 24 to 48 hours. That delay is normal, not a broken setup.

Stay consistent. Use the same conversion action and tag names across every Listing so your reporting and bidding stay clean.

5. Important: where the tracking can and cannot see

The purchase happens on the retailer's own website (H-E-B, Total Wine, and so on), which is not a property you can place your tags on. So Google cannot see whether the shopper completed the purchase. The retailer click is the furthest Google can measure, which is exactly why you treat that click as your conversion.

Attribution also depends on the gclid reaching the Listing. When your ads point at the hosted Link, it does, and tracking is clean. In the embedded iframe case the gclid lands on the parent page instead, so attribution softens unless that value is forwarded into the embed. For Google Ads specifically, the hosted Link is the better target.

Pour Now closes the rest of the loop. Your analytics show Purchase Intent (Shop Now), Purchase Action (Add to Cart), and estimated GMV by retailer. So the model is simple: optimize your Google campaign on the retailer click, and read the downstream sales picture in Pour Now.

6. Troubleshooting

Conversions are not recording. Check, in order: that you published the container, that the Conversion Linker is firing on All Pages, that Google Tag Manager is enabled at the Listing level, and that the Conversion ID and Label match your conversion action exactly. A mismatched Label is a common cause.

It fires in Preview but Google Ads shows nothing. Google only counts conversions for ad-driven visits carrying a gclid. A direct or organic test will fire the tag without ever showing as a conversion in Google Ads. Test by clicking your own live ad, and allow up to 24 to 48 hours for the conversion status to update.

The gclid never arrives. Confirm auto-tagging is on in Google Ads, and that your ads point at the hosted Link rather than an embedded page where the gclid lands on the parent. If you use any redirects or click trackers, make sure they pass the gclid through to the Listing.

Conversions are doubled. The tag is firing twice, usually because Google Ads tracking is attached both in Pour Now's direct fields and in GTM, or because two containers are loading. Keep it in one place, and use GTM.

Do not use Meta's GTM partner integration or duplicate Google tags. Running multiple tag solutions on the same page causes conflicts. Consolidate on a single GTM container and let it own the tags.

For help on the Pour Now side, contact help@pour.now.