Sample report

Findings

Each finding comes with what we saw, why it matters, the change we propose and how to reverse it. In a real report every finding also has a screenshot.

• Qualified stages are imported but not used for bidding

  What we saw. “Lead form submit” is the only Primary conversion action. “HubSpot MQL” and “HubSpot SQL” are syncing, but they are set to Secondary and sit outside the account-level goal.

  Why it matters. Smart Bidding optimizes toward Primary actions in the goal. With form fills as the only Primary action, it looks for more form fills and cannot tell which leads sales later qualified.

  Proposed change. Set “HubSpot SQL” to Primary and include it in the account-level goal. Move “Lead form submit” to Secondary. You decide the date, because bidding will relearn.

  To reverse. Set “Lead form submit” back to Primary and “HubSpot SQL” back to Secondary.

  Example conversion action list

  Conversion action	Goal
  Lead form submit	Primary
  HubSpot MQL	Secondary
  HubSpot SQL	Secondary
  Test conversion	Secondary

  Example

• The same stage is sent twice

  What we saw. “HubSpot SQL” reaches Google Ads through the HubSpot integration and through a Zapier automation that fires on the same lifecycle stage change.

  Why it matters. Google Ads counts both. SQL conversions read about twice as high as the stage changes recorded in HubSpot, which inflates the value Smart Bidding assigns to those clicks.

  Proposed change. Pause the Zapier automation and keep the HubSpot integration.

  To reverse. Turn the Zapier automation back on.

• Click IDs are on the page but not reaching HubSpot

  What we saw. The _gcl_aw cookie is set after an ad click. The demo form is built in Webflow, not HubSpot, and its hidden click ID field is empty on submit.

  Why it matters. Without the click ID, HubSpot cannot match the contact to the ad click, so later stages cannot be attributed to the campaign that produced them.

  Proposed change. Add a Tag Manager tag that reads the cookie and fills the hidden field before the form is submitted. This stays inside Tag Manager, so no website code changes.

  To reverse. Pause or delete the new tag. The form keeps working without it.

  Name

  _gcl_aw

  Value

  GCL.1700000000.Cj0KCQ…

  Domain

  .example.com

  Example

• Customer conversions still use legacy offline import

  What we saw. “Customer” is uploaded from a weekly CSV through offline conversion import. No customer conversions were recorded in Google Ads in the period.

  Why it matters. Google calls offline conversion import a legacy method and recommends enhanced conversions for leads. The weekly upload also arrives late and is easy to miss.

  Proposed change. Send the Customer stage through the HubSpot integration and retire the CSV upload once the first conversions appear.

  To reverse. Re-enable the CSV upload. Nothing is deleted.

• Consent defaults load after the Google tags

  What we saw. On pages served to UK and EEA visitors, the consent defaults are set after the first Google tag fires, and ad_user_data is not set at all.

  Why it matters. Consent signals have to be in place before any Google tag loads, or the tags run without them.

  Proposed change. Add a consent default tag that fires first and sets all four signals to denied until the visitor accepts.

  To reverse. Pause the consent default tag.

  • consent: default
  • ad_storagedenied
  • analytics_storagedenied
  • ad_user_datadenied
  • ad_personalizationdenied

  Example

• A test conversion is counted as a goal

  What we saw. “Test conversion” is a Primary action and is included in the account-level goal.

  Why it matters. It is a leftover from setup. Any traffic that triggers it adds noise to what bidding learns from.

  Proposed change. Remove it from the goal and set it to Secondary.

  To reverse. Set it back to Primary and add it to the goal.