Enhanced Conversions for Leads vs Offline Conversion Import

Use enhanced conversions for leads, with the gclid kept on every row that has one, when at least a fifth of your closed sales reach the CRM without a usable click id, nine sales in ten close inside the hash window (63 days minus your upload lag), and a hashed email or phone may leave. If any of the three fails, offline conversion import on the click id stays the base.

Google calls offline conversion import "a legacy feature" and recommends "upgrading to enhanced conversions for leads using the Google Ads Data Manager", yet says the upgrade "is not a separate feature that you need to migrate to" (Google). It is the rows you already upload plus a hashed email or phone, with a second half in the Google tag on your lead form.

What is the difference between enhanced conversions for leads and offline conversion import?

Sources checked on October 2, 2026.

When should you use which?

The hash credits a buyer who clicked on a phone and filled in the form on a laptop, a gclid lost between form and CRM, and a caller who can match only through a signed-in Google account. So the deciding number is the share of sales without a usable click id:

• Enhanced conversions for leads, gclid on every row that has one: 20 percent or more of sales lack a usable click id (my cutoff, not Google's), the p90 lag fits the hash window, and a hashed email or phone may leave.
• Click id as the base, hash as a supplement: the p90 falls between the hash and click windows and the other two conditions hold. Sales past the hash window go up on the gclid alone; Google does not document how it treats a row carrying both past day 63.
• Click id alone: under 20 percent lack one. Shrink that share first by capturing the click id on the phone path and sending CRM outcomes back by click id.
• An earlier CRM stage: the p90 falls past the click window. Upload the latest stage whose own p90 fits, and report closed revenue outside Google Ads, the join closed-loop marketing analytics rests on.
• Click id, conversion time and value only: a hashed email or phone may not leave (the HIPAA-conscious note below).

Google adds that enhanced conversions "are most helpful for advertisers who receive at least 20 conversions per week (including organic and ad-driven conversions)" (Google). Below that, I treat the expected gain as a ceiling until the first weeks show real matches.

How many days do the 63-day and 90-day windows really leave?

Fewer than either number suggests:

1. The action's click-through window. A new conversion action starts at a 30-day click-through window unless you change it, and it goes up to 90 days depending on the conversion source. It ends at the conversion, not the upload: under a 7-day window, "any conversion that happens more than 7 days after the ad interaction won't be recorded." A sale it already dropped "won't be retroactively counted" when you widen it, so set 90 days the day you create the action.
2. 63 days for a hashed row, counted to the upload. Rows "uploaded more than 63 days after the associated last click won't be imported" (import guidelines).
3. 90 days for a click-id row, same page, same count.

Settle days (how long a closed sale keeps changing in your CRM), the upload interval and a margin to rerun one failed upload count against the two upload limits only. My rule, in days from click to sale:

hash window  = min(63 - settle days - upload interval - margin, action window)
click window = min(90 - settle days - upload interval - margin, action window)

Compare your p90 lag, the day by which nine sales in ten have closed, against both. Take it per CRM stage from an export with click date and close date; where no click id survived, the lead's creation date stands in, which understates lag for late callers. The median hides the slow tail, so I decide on the p90 and recompute it quarterly. Measure settle days by snapshotting closed sales on a schedule until they stop changing, as why Google Ads and GA4 conversions don't match does for ad numbers.

HIPAA-conscious note: when a hash may not leave

A hash is still an identifier. Google compares it "to hashed customer data of signed-in Google Accounts" (Google), so to Google it names a person as precisely as the address would. Where contact data may not leave, as with patients, the upload carries only the click id, conversion time and value: the patient conversion tracking system I delivered sends Google nothing else. Whether a hash may leave is for your privacy notice and counsel to settle; this is not legal advice. More in HIPAA-conscious conversion tracking.

The switch itself is the risk, because it starts the tag half without any upload: "the associated Google tag will automatically capture relevant form interaction events on your website" (Google). So I check four places:

1. "Turn on enhanced conversions" in Goals, Settings, Customer data use is unchecked. Accounts that had agreed to Google's customer data terms were moved to the new unified status automatically (Google), so look rather than assume.
2. No conversion action has it turned on at its own level.
3. "Turn on conversion-based customer lists" stays off.
4. The Google tag's "Allow user-provided data capabilities" is off; then "no products or accounts that use that Google tag will receive data from this feature" (Google).

None of the four touches the click id, conversion time and value.

How do I set up the path I chose?

The steps are in how to set up enhanced conversions for leads. Three decisions from this comparison go into them:

1. Set the action's click-through window to 90 days when you create it.
2. Key each row on the order id you dedupe and adjust on, and send the value you actually collect. If you send the hash, log which order ids went out hashed: as far as I can see, Google's diagnostics report shows setup issues and impact metrics but not which buyer matched.
3. Mark the new action secondary at first. Google's checklist says "for the first 2-3 weeks"; I wait at least one full sales cycle and rehearse the first upload.