How to adjust your conversions

The value of a conversion can often change after a customer converts.

This article will walk you through the process of adjusting your Google Ads conversions, either to restate the value of the conversion or to retract it completely from your reports.

Before you begin

• To adjust your conversions, you should already be tracking your conversions with an order ID. The order ID is what allows you to uniquely identify your conversions. Learn how to use an order ID with your conversions.
• If a manager account is tracking your account's conversions, any conversion adjustments will have to be uploaded from the manager account. Learn how to upload conversions for multiple accounts from a single file.
• To comply with Google Ads guidelines, new conversions and conversion adjustments can’t be uploaded in the same file. Instead, they must be uploaded separately.

Instructions

Follow the instructions below to prepare and import your conversion adjustment data.

Step 1: Prepare your data for import

1. Double-check your data before import! Incorrect adjustments can't be changed after you’ve imported the file and you'll need to fix the incorrect adjustment value in the file and re-import it. Additional notes to keep in mind:
   • Retracting removes a conversion completely from your reports.
   • Trying to adjust a retracted conversion won't work (no error message will appear).
   • If you do retract an import conversion, you’ll need to “undo” it. 
   • Website conversions cannot be added back to reports after removal.
2. To get started, download a conversion adjustment template: Excel, CSV, or Google Sheets. Alternatively, download directly from Google Ads:
   Note: If you’re using Hotel campaigns, you need to download specific template parameters for your conversions or add the parameters to an existing template. Learn more about preparing your data for import for Hotel campaigns.
   1. In your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon .
   2. Click the Conversions drop down in the section menu.
   3. Click Uploads.
   4. Click the plus button
   5. Click View templates.
   6. Find the templates for "Conversions adjustments," and select a template format to download.
3. Follow these guidelines for uploading spreadsheets:
   • Don't remove any of the columns in the spreadsheet, or your import will fail.
   • Make sure your data doesn't include additional columns or any personal information like phone numbers and email addresses.

4. Use one of the following formats to enter the time zone:
   • Enter your time zone ID from this list. This method is recommended to avoid errors during daylight savings time transitions.
   • Enter your GMT offset by indicating + or - and then the 4 digit time difference. (For example, New York is offset by -0500, and Berlin by +0100). If you use Greenwich Mean Time, then simply enter +0000.
5. Next, add a new row for each conversion, filling in the columns as follows:
   • Order ID: a unique ID for the conversion. This should be the same ID recorded with your original conversion. Learn how to Use a transaction ID to minimize duplicate conversions.
     • Note: We recommend to use the order ID for adjustments, but if you’re unable to use an order ID you can alternatively use the Google Click ID (GCLID) that led to the offline conversion you previously uploaded and the conversion time. The GCLID should be the same timestamp as when the offline conversion was created. If the parameter provided with the conversions was GBRAID, you can use only the order ID.
   • Conversion Name: the name of the conversion action (for example, "room reservations" or "online sales") that you are using to track the conversion. It's important that you use the exact same spelling and capitalization that you did when you created this conversion action in your Google Ads account.
   • Adjustment Time: the date and time that the value of the conversion was adjusted or when you learned about the change to the conversion. See the table below for a list of acceptable date formats (for example, MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss). You can add a timezone to the conversion time by using one of the last 4 formats listed. Replace "+z" with the GMT offset by indicating + or - and then the 4 digit time difference. Or, replace "zzzz" with the time zone ID from this list. The adjustment time must have occurred after the conversion time and before the upload time. Besides that, the exact hour and minute are as important.

• Adjustment Type: a value that tells Google Ads whether you're adjusting the value of a conversion ("RESTATE") or withdrawing it completely ("RETRACT").
• Adjusted Value: a number representing the new value of the conversion.You don't have to enter an adjusted value for conversions you withdraw; their value is automatically subtracted from your account's total conversion value. If the adjustment value you enter brings down the value of conversion to 0, the conversion is automatically withdrawn from your reports.
• Adjusted Value Currency: the currency of your conversion adjustment. You'll use this if you report adjustment values in more than one currency, or have multiple accounts that are billed in different currencies. Use 3-character ISO 4217 currency codes, such as USD for United States dollars, and JPY for Japanese yen. If you don't specify a value, the currency will default to the currency you've selected for the conversion in Google Ads. If you submit an adjustment in a currency that's different from the currency of the original conversion, it will be converted using daily foreign exchange rates.

6. Save the changes to your file.

Step 2: Import your conversion adjustments

Once your conversion sheet is ready, you can upload it in the same way conversions are uploaded. Advertisers that need to update conversions programmatically should use the scheduled uploads feature. Learn more about importing conversions

About uploading multiple adjustments

It's possible that a conversion may need to be adjusted more than once. For example, when 2 or more items in an order are returned at different times. If you have more than one adjustment for a conversion in your spreadsheet, the adjustment with the earlier adjustment time will be processed first.

However, if a conversion is retracted or an adjustment drops the value of the conversion down to 0, the conversion will be removed from your reports and Google Ads won't process any subsequent adjustments to it.

Undo a conversion retraction

If you've retracted a conversion or restated the value to 0, unfortunately, there's no way to undo this specific action. However, a workaround is available if you utilize the "every conversion" setting and would like to "unretract" offline conversion imports.

Here's how it works:

• Re-Upload with Adjusted Timestamps: To "undo" a conversion retraction, you can re-upload the same conversion data with slightly different timestamps (for example, add a few seconds to each one).

Google Ads will then treat these re-uploaded conversions as "new" because they occurred at a different time. As a result, they will be added to your conversion reports.

Related links

• Understand the impact of conversion adjustments
• About conversion adjustments
• Different ways to track conversions