Why it happens
A site or theme change dropped the tag
A site or theme change dropped the tag
Redesigns, CMS migrations and checkout upgrades remove snippets quietly. If clicks held steady and conversions fell off a cliff on one day, look at what shipped that day.
The Tag Manager trigger broke
A renamed form, a changed success URL or a new single-page flow stops the trigger matching. The tag loads, the conversion event never fires.
Consent mode blocks it
If ad_storage is never granted, or the banner loads after the tag, most visitors are not tracked.
The conversion happens on another domain
Calendly, Typeform, a marketplace or a hosted checkout. Your tag is not on that page, so nothing fires unless the tool passes the conversion back.
Auto-tagging is off or the gclid gets stripped
A redirect that drops URL parameters breaks attribution even when the tag fires. The gclid has to survive to the landing page.
How to fix it, step by step
Pin down when it stopped
In Google Ads go to Campaigns, add a Conversion action segment, and set a date range around the drop to see which actions went to zero and on which day.
Test the real flow
Open Tag Assistant, connect your site and complete a conversion end to end. Confirm the Google tag loads and the conversion event fires with the right ID and label.
Check Tag Manager
In Google Tag Manager click Preview, repeat the conversion and see whether the trigger fired. Confirm the live version is the one with your Google Ads tag.
Check auto-tagging and redirects
In Google Ads go to Admin, then Account settings, and confirm Auto-tagging is on. Click your own ad and confirm gclid is still in the address bar after every redirect.
Republish and watch
Ship the change and watch the action. Status can take up to 48 hours to return to Active.
Steps checked against Google Ads Help: How Google Ads tracks website conversions; Google Ads Help: Troubleshooting conversion tracking status; Google Ads Help: About auto-tagging; Tag Manager Help: Preview and debug containers.
Sprites diagnoses this
Sprites diagnoses it
Sprites finds the day tracking stopped and what changed around it, before you start digging through tags.
What Sprites does
- Splits conversions by conversion action, day by day, and locates the drop.
- Lines the drop up with the account change history, so an account change and a site change stop looking the same.
- Lists every final URL clicks were sent to and flags the ones off your domain.
- Compares Conversions with All conversions, so a settings change does not pass for a broken tag.
What it doesn't do
- It does not edit your site, your tag or Google Tag Manager.
- It does not run Tag Assistant or watch the tag fire.
Questions
Why are my Google Ads conversions not tracking?
In most accounts the tag stopped firing after a site change, a Tag Manager trigger stopped matching, consent mode is blocking it, or the conversion happens on a domain your tag is not on.
How do I test if Google Ads conversion tracking is working?
Click Troubleshoot next to the conversion action, or complete a real conversion with Tag Assistant connected and check the conversion event fires with the right ID and label.
Can I get back conversions that were not tracked?
Not from the tag. If your CRM stored the gclid for those leads, an offline conversion import can add them back.
Does consent mode stop conversion tracking?
It can. When ad_storage is denied the tag sets no ad cookies, and with basic consent mode it does not load at all. Advanced consent mode sends cookieless pings that Google uses for modeled conversions.
See where it breaks
Connect your accounts. Sprites reads them side by side and shows you exactly where the numbers split.