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Vendor reference · Advertising

Google Ads

Google's advertising platform. Its tag reports conversions and site visits back to Google Ads for measurement, remarketing and bidding.

Google Ads at a glance

Company
Google
Category
Advertising
Tag script
https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=AW-XXXXXXXXX
Sends data to
www.googleadservices.com googleads.g.doubleclick.net www.google.com
JavaScript object
gtag dataLayer
Cookies
1 attributed to Google Ads in the TagPipes Vendor Registry
Network requests
Google Ads conversion

What Google Ads is

The Google Ads tag is the Google tag (gtag.js) configured with a Google Ads conversion ID that starts with AW-, or the equivalent Google Ads tags in Google Tag Manager. It reports conversions and site visits back to Google Ads.

Its conversion linker stores click information in first-party cookies such as _gcl_au, so conversions can be tied to the ad interaction that led to them.

What marketers use it for

Advertisers use it to count conversions from ad clicks and views and to build remarketing audiences. Conversion data also drives Google Ads automated bidding.

How to recognize Google Ads on a site

  1. Open the site in Chrome, open DevTools (F12, or Cmd+Option+I on a Mac) and go to the Network tab.
  2. Reload the page and type pagead into the filter box. Conversion and remarketing requests from the Google Ads tag go to paths that include /pagead/, on googleadservices.com, google.com or googleads.g.doubleclick.net.
  3. In the Console tab, type typeof gtag and press Enter. If it returns "function", the Google tag is on the page. Look for an AW- ID in the gtag/js request to confirm Google Ads.
  4. In Application, then Cookies, look for _gcl_au. Some cookies only appear after a consent choice or a specific action.

Cookies associated with Google Ads

Network requests

What TagPipes observed

12%

of sites scanned had Google Ads detected

TagPipes scanned 41,162 public websites between August 11, 2026 and September 13, 2026, loading up to three pages per site in a real browser as a first-time visitor, and matched what loaded against the TagPipes Vendor Registry. That is how TagPipes recognizes Google Ads: by the hosts its tag loads from and the cookies attributed to it.

Observed TagPipes scan data, not a figure published by Google. Websites of TagPipes customers are excluded and no individual site is named. Snapshot dated September 13, 2026.

Sources

What it is, what it is used for, and its scripts, hosts and JavaScript objects were checked against the vendor documentation above on . The detection rate is TagPipes scan data from September 13, 2026, not a value published by the vendor. Browse all vendors.

Know when a tag stops firing

TagPipes Auditor checks with real browsers that your marketing pixels fire with the right parameters, and alerts you when tracking breaks. Pulse checks how marketing tags behave against your consent banner.

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TagPipes monitors, configures and reports. It does not determine legal compliance and does not provide legal advice. Output is informational and reflects observed state at the time of observation. Rawsoft's expertise is technology, not law; please confirm any regulatory interpretation with your own counsel.