Get Google Tag Assistant

Google Tag Assistant is a Chrome extension that checks pages tags. This tool is free and really helpful when trying to figure out where you went wrong.

The point of the tool is to find out which tags are firing on the page and which ones are not.

Check The Tags On Your Landing Page and Thank You Page

As you probably already know, Google requires the global site tag to be implemented on all pages of your site- while the specific page load tag goes just on the thank page.

Ex. Your landing page should have the global tag and your thank you page should have the global tag AND the event snippet tag.

Testing Your Ad

If you have put your tags in the right places and you still get the tag inactive message, then Google may be waiting for someone to convert on the page.

Once someone has converted on the page, your conversion tracking would actually activate, and Google would start recording these conversions.

via GIPHY

Go to your Google Ads account and click on the Ads & Extensions tab on the left side menu.

Click on the ad you are testing your conversion tracking on.

Fill out your form and hit submit. Make sure it directs to your thank you page.

Go back to your conversions section in Google and see if your tag is now recording conversions.

Note that it may take 3-5 min for this to update.

Conclusion

This particular quick fix worked for me, and often times the solution is as simple as just activating your tag by clicking your own ad and performing the conversion that you have put in place.

As a side note- if you are testing your conversion tracking by clicking the ad from your own Google Ads account, then you will not be charged for that click and the conversion will not be recorded.

This is an especially helpful tip for the industries out there that could be paying up to $20 per click.

Let me know if this tip helped you. Do you have another solution when your conversion tracking is not working or giving you the tag inactive warning?