Tracking Google Ads conversions in Calendly

Navigating the data from Calendly and identifying successful conversions is not as straightforward as it should be. Particularly because Calendly operates as a separate website, it doesn't inherently know where visitors are coming from, which is crucial information for tracking conversions. Furthermore, the free plan of Calendly misses important parameters like the price of booking, name of the event, and the email, which are essential for Google Ads enhanced conversions.

Conversion tracking is a vital aspect of running Google Ads. Operating in the dark about the returns on your invested budget is a recipe for failure.

How to fix the problem

We've engineered a solution that can be directly implemented in Google Tag Manager, eliminating the need for third-party software tools. It enables you to pass dynamic values for money spent by your customers to your Google Ads conversion tag. This way, for any booking, regardless of the price, the specific values will be accurately transferred to Google Ads.

Here's a glimpse of what it will look like post-implementation:

Depending on your requirements, we can guide you through the implementation of this solution or set up the conversion tracking with Google Tag Manager in Calendly as a done-for-you service. We've got you covered, whether you're looking for a DIY solution or a hands-on approach.

How to do it by yourself

Implementing the Google ads conversions with Calendly isn't a beginners task however if you want to give it a shot by yourself, we do not want to stop you. Here are the steps you can follow:

1. Understand the Challenge: Calendly is a separate website from your main site, so it doesn't inherently know where visitors are coming from. This is crucial information for tracking conversions.

2. Listen for Calendly Messages: Write code that listens for messages from Calendly, indicating that a conversion has occurred. This is particularly important as the free plan of Calendly misses important parameters like the price of booking, name of the event, and the email, which are crucial for Google Ads enhanced conversions.

3. Use an External Thank You Page: The best method for tracking conversions relies on an external "Thank You" page, which passes important information like email, booking appointment name, and appointment price to the URL.

4. Set Up a Custom HTML Tag in Google Tag Manager: This allows you to query necessary information from the URL, such as event name, date, time, email, and the name of the person who booked it.

5. Use a Custom Event as a Trigger for Conversions: Use page view and page path to identify the custom thank you page.

6. Set Up a Trigger and Use Custom Variables: This will help you track and analyze customer information for Google Ads. Learn how to name and define variables, and how to use them to create custom events and conversion tracking.

7. Properly Set Up the Data Layer: Ensure that variables are being parsed correctly.

8. Enhance Conversion Tracking Using User-Provided Data: Create a new variable and use JavaScript to split full names into first and last names. Add custom questions to Calendly to gather more information about users, which can be used to create more data layer variables and send more accurate conversion tracking to Google Ads.

9. Redirect Past Event Details and Parse Them as Data Layer Variables: This can be used to send a custom event that triggers specific tags, such as Google Analytics 4 event, Universal Analytics event, MetaPixel event, Google Ads conversion, or multiple different Google Ads conversions depending on the appointment type.