Don't use begin checkout as your primary Google Ads conversion. The algorithm optimizes for whatever you feed it, so tracking low-value actions instead of purchases makes it worse at finding real buyers. One team generated over $50 million in revenue for clients by tracking purchase conversions only.
I have a begin checkout. Should I add that as primary as well? This is a huge mistake. Seems like it would make sense, right? Like, hey, the more people I get to begin checkout, the more purchases I'll end up making. But that's not totally correct. You have to remember Google's smart bidding. Their algorithm, it doesn't know anything. You're just giving it data. So begin checkout means nothing to it. And purchase really doesn't mean anything to it as well. The algorithm is going after the lowest hanging fruit. It always does. Whatever the least resistance it can get, it goes after. In most cases what happens is you fill up your conversion data with a bunch of begin checkouts. But it's really not the ideal customer you're looking for. When if you give the machine learning nothing more than purchase data, it's going to continue to learn from that purchase data and it's going to get better at finding people who look more like the people who are purchasing from your website. We have generated over $50 million in revenue for our clients using Performance Max campaigns. We decided we're going to download our knowledge of Performance Max campaigns into a free, easy, practical course and just give it away to the community. Go grab this free course and I'll see you inside.
Google Ads Negative Keywords: The RIGHT Way to Find and Add Negatives in 2026
