Google Ads counts a franchise inquiry the moment the form is submitted. It has no idea whether that person had the capital, wanted an open territory or ever took your call. Enhanced conversions for leads closes that gap. Your website tag captures the candidate’s email or phone when they inquire, and later you tell Google which of those people became qualified. Google matches the two and learns which searches produce candidates worth calling.
Here is the setup for a franchisor, with every requirement linked to Google’s help pages as we read them on 31 October 2026.
What it replaces
The older method, offline conversion import, works by saving the Google click ID (GCLID) from each inquiry and sending it back to Google Ads with the conversion. Enhanced conversions for leads is, in Google’s words, “an upgraded version of offline conversion import that uses user-provided data, such as email addresses”. You can still include the click ID, and Google asks you to include GCLIDs whenever possible.
Before you start
You need three things in place, per Google’s setup page:
- Auto-tagging turned on in Google Ads.
- An inquiry form on your own site that collects email or phone.
- The Google tag on that site, set to collect form data automatically, or through Google Tag Manager.
Two notes for franchisors. If your inquiry form lives on a portal or a broker’s site, your tag never sees it, so this only covers inquiries on your own recruitment page. And Google says enhanced conversions are most helpful for advertisers with at least 20 conversions per week, including organic and ad-driven conversions. Smaller programs can still use it. It just learns more slowly.
Setup, in order
1. Configure the Google tag. Turn on automatic collection of form interactions in your Google tag settings, or set it up in Tag Manager, as described on the setup page.
2. Create a conversion action for qualified candidates. In Google Ads, go to Goals, then Summary, and create a new offline conversion action. Google recommends choosing either “Qualified lead” or “Converted lead” as your conversion goal. For a franchisor, “Qualified lead” should mean the same thing as your Qualified grade: passes your capital, territory and timing rules. Our guide to grading franchise leads is one way to define it.
3. Turn on enhanced conversions for leads. During setup, check the box to turn on enhanced conversions for leads. Google is merging this into one account-level enhanced conversions setting during 2026 and says existing users are migrated automatically.
4. Accept the customer data terms. Google requires this once per account, under Goals and then Settings, as described on the setup page.
5. Connect your CRM. You choose how qualified candidates get back to Google. The setup page lists Google’s Data Manager, the API, Zapier and direct integrations. Salesforce has its own integration, and HubSpot is supported as a third-party integration. For most franchise development teams, a direct CRM connection or Zapier means nobody has to upload files by hand.
6. Mark the new action correctly. If you are moving from the older click ID import, Google says to set the new enhanced conversions for leads action to primary and the old one to secondary, so you don’t count the same candidate twice.
How the data is matched
Email and phone are hashed before Google uses them. Google’s instructions are to normalise first (lowercase, remove spaces, phone numbers in international format) and then use hex SHA256. Direct integrations handle this for you. If a developer builds an upload, they need to follow the format exactly or matches will fail.
How far back Google reads depends on the connection. For file and spreadsheet sources, Data Manager imports conversions from the last 90 days in every run. For Salesforce and HubSpot, it imports the last 14 days on the first run and changes after that.
If you upload through the Google Ads API yourself, read this: Google says that “Starting June 15, 2026, offline conversions import and enhanced conversions for leads uploads will be migrated to the Data Manager API”. Any older custom script may already have stopped working.
Check it is working
Google has a diagnostics report under Goals, then Summary, then Diagnostics. It grades the setup as Excellent, Good, Needs attention or Urgent. Look at it a few days after the first upload, then monthly.
Google’s own implementation checklist also asks you to upload all conversions for the event, including candidates who came from somewhere other than Google Ads. That feels odd, but it is how Google measures its match rate. Send every Qualified candidate, whichever source they came from.
Where this fits
This gives Google the same signal that Meta’s qualified leads goal gives Meta. Use one definition of Qualified for both, so you can compare cost per qualified candidate across the two. The Meta vs Google vs LinkedIn comparison lists what each platform needs side by side.
Google updates these screens often. If a step in your account looks different, follow the current version of the linked help page.
Put it to work on your recruitment system
Bring your recruitment page and anonymized stage counts to a diagnostic. We’ll identify what to test and how to measure it.
Discuss your franchisor recruitment system