Count only the bookings that actually got paid.

What you need

Step 1 — The thank-you page

1. 01

   Create a page with the slug thank-you.

2. 02

   On WordPress, use inline styles only (style="..."). WordPress strips <style> blocks and the CSS ends up printed as text on the page.

3. 03

   Content: a "booking received" message, "check your email and spam folder", the driver details, flight tracking, a WhatsApp button (a normal wa.me link) and a button back to the home page.

4. 04

   No tracking code on the page itself. Everything is fired by Tag Manager.

5. 05

   Set it to noindex so it never shows up in search results:

A thank-you page left indexable can end up in Google — it has happened on a live client site, with impressions in Search Console, before noindex was added.

6. 06

   If you use a caching plugin or delay JavaScript (for example WP Rocket's "Delay JavaScript execution"), check that Tag Manager still fires on /thank-you/. On the client site where this was built, nothing needed excluding — but always test.

Step 2 — Create the conversion in Google Ads

1. 01

   Find your Ads tag ID (AW-…): Tools → Data manager → Google tag → Manage → copy the ID AW-XXXXXXXXXX.

2. 02

   Goals → Conversions → + Create conversion action → Website → set it up manually:

3. 03

   In the setup instructions choose "Use Google Tag Manager" and copy two values:

Step 3 — Google Tag Manager

Before creating the Ads tags, create and publish the Google tag for your AW ID. Without it, Google Ads keeps saying the tag "has not been installed yet".

The trigger

The tags

When you're done: Submit → Publish. Before publishing, check that "Ads – Booking" really appears in the tag list — a tag can fail to save the first time.

Bonus: phone and WhatsApp clicks (same container)

Give each trigger one single condition: with two conditions both must be true at once and it never fires. These triggers feed two Ads tags (Phone click and WhatsApp click, category Contact) and two GA4 events (phone_click and whatsapp_click).

WhatsApp chat plugins (Social Chat and similar) don't create a click on a link, so Tag Manager can't see them. Use a floating button built with a plain <a href="https://wa.me/...">.

Step 4 — Mark the key events in GA4

Events only appear in GA4 after the first time they're received, and that can take up to 24 hours. Then: Admin → Data display → Events → switch on "Mark as key event" for booking_complete, phone_click, whatsapp_click and purchase.

Step 5 — Test it

1. 01

   In Tag Manager click Preview and enter your website URL. If the connection with Preview is lost when you reach /thank-you/, open that page with ?gtm_debug=x added to the URL.

2. 02

   Make a real booking with Stripe in test mode: card 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future date, any CVC.

3. 03

   In Tag Assistant, when you land on /thank-you/, both Ads – Booking and GA4 – Booking complete must show as fired.

4. 04

   In GA4: Reports → Realtime. You should see booking_complete (and purchase if the form sends it).

5. 05

   In Google Ads the conversion may show "Misconfigured" or "No recent conversions" for days. That usually just means there haven't been real visits to /thank-you/ yet — it doesn't mean it's broken. Check it under Goals → Conversions → All conversions, filtering by date.

Which conversions should drive your bidding

Limits, and what to improve next