The secret to higher quality lead gen

Are your lead gen campaigns still optimizing for clicks instead of closed-won revenue? If sales is flooded with low-intent form fills, your data framework could be the bottleneck to higher quality leads at scale. Here’s how to fix your pipeline.

In this edition of Ads Decoded live from Rethink ROI in NYC, Steven Chang, Natalia Bohm, and I break down what "data strength" actually looks like in practice, and how to feed Google AI the signals it needs to find your best prospects.

We discuss:

• How and why you need to share fresh data for effective lead gen campaigns. 
• Centralizing first-party data workflows with Data Manager.
• The new Lead Intent Scoring pilot.
• Informing Smart Bidding with Journey-Aware Bidding.
• The crawl, walk, run roadmap for lead gen marketers to get everything set up.

Catch the full episode below, and read on for a deeper look at my takeaways.

Quality leads start with clean data

Tag health is the baseline requirement for feeding Google AI accurate signals. And sharing fresh, high-quality first-party data is the next essential layer for lead gen success. For more robust and easier tagging and data sharing, we recently announced several updates: 

• Easier tag management: Manage all your measurement settings for Google properties, including Google Ads and Google Analytics, in one place as Google tag now integrates the advanced capabilities of Tag Manager, reducing code bloat and improving site speed. No need to login to a separate interface from the account you’re working in. 

• Point-and-click conversion setup: In this new unified tagging environment, you can map custom conversion events just by clicking through your site like a prospective customer would.  In Chrome, Google Tag Manager will automatically create the conversion event. No coding or IT sprint queues. Currently in beta for purchase conversions in Google Ads. 

• Unify your first-party data: Once your tagging is in place, it’s time to identify and connect your first-party data source. Data Manager in Google Ads (under Tools) - and soon Google Analytics and DV360 - is designed to make this process easier. Sync your offline and app data and first-party customer lists for targeting, bidding and measurement through one door.

Data Manager API, available for Google Ads, Google Analytics and DV360, is now based on the IAB Tech Lab’s Event and Conversions API (ECAPI) standard, which means creating just one single, secure setup to connect, manage and activate audiences and measurement across major ad platforms.

• Confidential matching in Data Manager (built-in data security): Connects your offline first-party data with Google data inside secure, isolated hardware "vaults" (known as Trusted Execution Environments, or TEEs). Your customer records remain fully encrypted throughout the matching process, unseen by anyone—including Google. 

Pro tip: This work isn’t always easy and often takes getting buy-in from stakeholders. A new Data Strength Uplift metric calculates the additional conversions recovered by your first-party data setup to help you prove the direct impact of your teams’ efforts. You’ll find this on the Goals page and in Data Manager.

How to maximize observable conversions

Conversions that can’t be tracked due to things like ad blockers or browser restrictions not only can’t be measured and reported on, they can’t be used to inform Smart Bidding strategies to help you find more of your best customers. 

Here are two more key ways to shore up your tagging setup to recover more conversions:

• Upgrade your tags to first-party context: Google tag gateway (GTG) enables your Google tag to serve from your own domain via CDN or CMS and route your conversion data through your website’s own server. No retagging needed. We now have direct integrations with a growing list of CDNs including, Akamai, Cloudflare, GCP, Duda, Fastly, and Webflow. This can drive uplift in observable conversions (14% on average*), and tags set up with Google tag gateway for advertisers get confidential computing by default.

• Enable enhanced conversions:  Enhanced conversions automatically sends first-party data via Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET) from your website tags or your imported offline events to match ad interactions to conversions. We’ve unified the setup workflow in Google Ads – no more separate pathways for web and leads – and are launching enhanced conversions in Google Analytics and DV360.

Pro tip: Google Tag gateway is recommended even when you’re using server-side Google Tag Manager (sGTM). In fact, they're designed to work together. By using GTG to load Google tags within a first-party context and routing data collection through an sGTM server container, you can unlock measurement performance and complete first-party governance over your data pipeline. See our guidance on how best to combine GTG and sGTM.

*Individual results may vary. Source: Google Internal Data, Global, Finance, July -Dec 2024 vs Jan-June 2025

Prioritize high-value leads

When sales reps spend time vetting low-intent leads and delay outreach to high-probability prospects, it can drive up acquisition costs and hurt campaign ROI. 

To help solve this operational disconnect, we’re introducing Lead Intent Scoring in Google Ads, currently available in pilot. 

Lead Intent Scoring analyzes inbound user signals at the time of submission along with your historical CRM conversion patterns to assign each lead to a predictive intent tier: High, Medium, or Low. This classification provides pre-submission intent signals that CRMs cannot generate independently.  The pilot currently applies to advertiser-hosted forms, Google Lead Form ads, and call ads and is strictly a sales tool at this stage. 

But, what about bidding? Like Natalia says, once you have your first-party data pipeline set up, you then want to make sure you're bidding towards those conversions in your campaigns. This isn’t always straightforward for lead gen advertisers with longer conversion cycles and sparse sales data.

Journey-Aware Bidding (in beta for Search campaigns with tCPA) is a backend update designed to help advertisers with long sales cycles where offline conversion data is often too sparse to effectively train Smart Bidding algorithms in real time.

How it works: When you map your customer journey from online form fills and import lower-funnel qualified and converted leads via Data Manager, Journey-Aware Bidding analyzes and learns from both biddable and non-biddable conversion goals and models the likelihood of deep conversion for bid optimization.

Pro tips: A "Low" lead intent score does not mean a lead should be discarded. Use your CRM routing rules to assign High-intent leads to immediate sales team outreach and consider routing Low- and Medium-intent leads to automated email nurture tracks.

For more on when choosing a Smart Bidding strategy with lead gen goals, check out our previous episode on mastering lead quality in the AI era:

The crawl, walk, run roadmap for lead gen marketers

As Stephen and Natalia emphasized, don’t try to execute everything at once. Focus on a staged rollout:

Crawl: Tag health & hygiene

Run a full tag audit – get help with Tag Assistant. Upgrade your standard tag to Google Tag Gateway to recover lost observable conversions.

Walk: Signal ingestion

Activate Enhanced Conversions. Set up your primary CRM or offline pipeline in Data Manager. For Data Manager API users, new diagnostics make it easier to identify issues to validate payloads.

Run: Value optimization

Align Smart Bidding to lower-funnel conversion milestones (SQLs/Revenue) to deliver high quality leads to sales. Import offline conversions and map your customer journey to leverage Journey-Aware Bidding. Use Demand Gen and Search campaigns together to keep your qualified pipeline full. 

Be sure to subscribe and catch up with all the previous editions of this newsletter here: https://goo.gle/4eodWkh.

Ginny

Learn more about the products and features in this edition → https://goo.gle/473UWCF