Every conversion action in Google Ads has a status: Primary or “Secondary (observe only)”. A primary action teaches bidding and counts in the “Conversions” column. A secondary action only stays in your reports. You can see and change the statuses under Goals, in the Conversions drop-down, on the Summary page.
What should count as a conversion at all is covered in my guide to what counts as a conversion in Google Ads. This article is about one decision only: which status each action gets.
What it means
Conversion actions in Google Ads are grouped into conversion goals. Inside a goal you choose which actions are primary: these are used for bidding optimization and included in your reporting. The rest are secondary, and they do not directly optimize your campaign. That is how Google’s help page on primary and secondary conversion actions defines it.
A primary action lands in the “Conversions” column and steers bids, as long as the campaign uses the goal the action belongs to. A secondary action lands only in “All conversions”. There is one exception: an action inside a custom goal is used for bidding whatever its status. Some actions cannot be switched at all.
How to read and set it
The rule is simple: a primary action should be an event you would pay for as an enquiry. Here is how I sort the usual actions of a plumber, an HVAC company or a dental practice.
| Action | Primary or secondary | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Submitted contact or quote form | Primary | This is the enquiry, so bidding should learn from it. |
| Call from an ad that became a conversation | Primary | For many trades a call is the enquiry. Count only calls that turn into a real conversation. |
| Booked appointment, or a lead imported from your CRM | Primary | Closest to revenue, so bids learn from your most valuable enquiries. |
| Click on a phone number on the site | Secondary until checked | A click is not a conversation. First find out how many such clicks end in a call. |
| Page view, scroll, time on site | Secondary | This is behaviour, not an enquiry. |
| Click on an outside link or social profile | Secondary | The visitor left your site without giving you a contact. |
| Conversion created from a Google Analytics event | Secondary at first | These are secondary by default, and you can make them primary only inside Google Ads. |
Secondary actions stay visible in “All conversions”. How that column differs from “Conversions” is explained in my piece on the two conversion columns in Google Ads.
What to do
- Open Goals, expand Conversions, and choose Summary.
- Write down every action. Next to each one ask yourself: would I pay for this event as an enquiry?
- Find the goal that includes the action you want to change and click Edit goal.
- Under “Conversion action optimization”, choose Primary or “Secondary (observe only)”, then click Save.
- In the campaign settings, check that the goal holding your primary action is really used for bidding.
- For the next 7 to 14 days leave budgets, targets and other goals alone. Google’s help says frequent changes reset the learning phase of Smart Bidding.
What not to do
- Mark every action primary “just in case”. The algorithm learns from those signals, so if page views are among them, it will go looking for page views instead of customers.
- Change action statuses and the budget or target in the same week. You will not know what moved the results, and learning starts over.
- Try to switch Google Analytics conversions inside Analytics. The goal category and optimization can only be changed in Google Ads.
- Leave an action marked primary that no campaign bids on, and forget about it.
That last mistake is more common than it looks. In about two in three accounts I analyse (a 2026 snapshot of settings), an action is marked primary while no campaign goal bids on it: one goal change, and bidding starts working toward something nobody checked. This is a convenient group, accounts that came to me for an audit, so it may be messier than the market.
When this does not apply
- The action sits in a custom goal. It then affects bidding even under “Secondary (observe only)”, so the switch does not turn it off.
- The action has no such setting. For some conversion actions the choice between primary and secondary is not available.
- Tracking is not set up yet or sends no data. Start with setting up conversion tracking in Google Ads, because a status will not repair an empty report.
The step-by-step version of reading and setting this in your own account is in my book on Google Ads for business owners.
My e-book “19 Google Ads Secrets”: how to get the most out of Google Ads without draining your budget, drawn from real campaigns and tests.
See the book →Questions and answers
Can I change a status while the campaign is running?
Yes, through Edit goal. But you are changing the signal the algorithm learns from. Make it a separate step and give the system 7 to 14 days.
Where do secondary actions show up?
In the “All conversions” column. They are not part of “Conversions” and do not take part in bidding, except when the action sits in a custom goal.
Why are my Google Analytics conversions secondary?
Analytics-created conversions are secondary by default. To make them primary, use Google Ads; Analytics will not let you.