Google Ads Outbound Link Tracking

Google Ads outbound link tracking captures the moment a user leaves your site by clicking a link to an external destination — a third-party booking platform, an external marketplace listing, a partner website, or an affiliate link — and records it as a Google Ads conversion event. For businesses where the conversion happens on a domain they don't own or control (such as booking.com, Etsy, Amazon, a third-party ticket platform, or a healthcare directory), outbound link clicks are often the closest trackable proxy for a conversion. They're not as strong a signal as a confirmed transaction, but for many businesses they represent the point at which the user's intent is clear and the likely outcome is a purchase.

Adslytics configures Google Ads outbound link tracking using GTM's link click trigger with URL-based filtering to capture only clicks to specific external destinations — not every link click on the site. We configure the trigger to fire on clicks to the relevant external domains, create a Google Ads secondary conversion action for the event, assign a conversion value that reflects the estimated revenue of a successful external transaction, and build a remarketing audience from outbound link clickers for retargeting campaigns. Every trigger is tested in GTM Preview mode by clicking the relevant links and confirming the expected tag fires under the specified conditions.