Count conversions on legitimate visits only

Smart Bidding takes every conversion you report and learns from it. If a bot fills in your lead form, that submission counts as a conversion too. The campaign then starts looking for more visitors like it. You stop that by sending a second conversion. It only counts when ClickPatrol classified the visit as legitimate.

This article shows the steps in Google Tag Manager for a Google Ads conversion action, a GA4 key event, and a Meta Pixel event. Keep your existing conversion as it is. Run the new one next to it.

How this works#

The ClickPatrol tag classifies an ad visit, then stores the result in a first-party cookie called cp_class. That cookie sits on your own domain. Every later page in the visit can read it, and the thank-you page can too.

• When the value starts with 1.L., the visit was classified as legitimate.
• When the value starts with 1.S., the visit was classified as suspicious.
• Without a cookie, ClickPatrol did not classify the visit. That is normal for organic and direct visitors, because ClickPatrol only classifies ad traffic.

In Google Tag Manager, read the cookie as a variable. Add it as a condition to the trigger of your conversion tag. The conversion fires only when the value starts with 1.L..

Before you begin#

• The official ClickPatrol tag runs on All Pages. If it does not, start with the Google Tag Manager article.
• Your container's ClickPatrol template is up to date. Older versions do not write the cp_class cookie. If GTM shows an update for the template under Templates, apply it.
• The ClickPatrol parameters are on your ads. For Google Ads, this is the tracking template ClickPatrol sets when you connect the account. For other channels, see the setup article for that channel.
• The same GTM container already runs your current conversion tag, with a trigger that fires on the completed lead or purchase.

Step 1: Create your cp_class variable#

1. In Google Tag Manager, go to Variables. Under User-Defined Variables, click New.
2. Select 1st Party Cookie as the variable type.
3. Enter cp_class as the Cookie Name.
4. Name the variable CP Class, then save.

Step 2: Create a trigger for legitimate visits only#

1. Open the trigger your conversion tag uses today. Examples are a thank-you page view and a form submission.
2. Copy it. Name the copy something like Lead - legitimate.
3. Set the copy to fire on Some events, and add the condition CP Class starts with 1.L.. Keep the conditions the original trigger already had.
4. Save.

The original trigger stays untouched. Your existing conversion keeps firing on it.

Step 3: Add the new conversion tags#

Google Ads conversion action#

1. In Google Ads, create a new website conversion action, for example Lead (legitimate). Copy its conversion ID and label.
2. In GTM, create a Google Ads Conversion Tracking tag that uses that ID and label.
3. Attach the Lead - legitimate trigger, then save.

Set the new action as secondary to start. For a week or two, you can compare it with your original action while campaigns bid the same way. When you want a campaign to bid on legitimate leads only, make the new action primary for that campaign and set the original to secondary there. Do not make both primary in the same campaign. The same lead would then count twice in the Conversions column.

Expect fewer conversions on the new action than on the original. Because of that, a target CPA copied from the old action will be too strict. Base the target on what the new action reports.

GA4 key event#

1. In GTM, create a Google Analytics: GA4 Event tag, with an event name such as generate_lead_legitimate.
2. Attach the Lead - legitimate trigger. Then save.
3. In GA4, open Admin, then Key events. Create a key event with the same name.

When you import GA4 key events into Google Ads, import this one instead of creating the Google Ads tag above. Do not use both for the same campaign.

Meta Pixel event#

When your Meta Pixel runs in GTM, give the same legitimate-only trigger to your Lead or Purchase event tag. The base pixel can keep firing on All Pages. To gate the whole pixel, see Clean traffic pixel trigger.

If you also send an event server-side through the Meta Conversions API, or through a platform app outside GTM, that event does not pass this trigger. Meta still receives that event from suspicious visits. Gate it in the system that sends it, or send the event from GTM only.

Forms that sit on the landing page#

The cp_class cookie is written when ClickPatrol returns its result on the landing page. If a visitor submits a form on that same page before the result is back, the cookie is not there yet. The legitimate conversion does not fire.

For forms on the landing page, you can use a Trigger Group instead. Add your form trigger and a Custom Event trigger for ClickPatrol_Legitimate to the group. The group fires once both have happened on that page, and the order can be either way. ClickPatrol pushes ClickPatrol_Legitimate again on each later page of a legitimate visit, so this also works for multi-page forms.

Check your setup#

1. In GTM, click Preview and open your site with ?source=f added to the URL. This forces a test classification.
2. In Tag Assistant, check which ClickPatrol event fired, along with the value of CP Class under Variables.
3. Complete a test conversion.
4. If CP Class starts with 1.L., both your original and your new conversion tag should be under Tags Fired. If it starts with 1.S., only the original should fire.
5. Open the site again in a private window, without the parameter, and convert. Only the original conversion should fire, because the visit was not classified.

Limits to remember#

• 24-hour window. A classification is valid for 24 hours. A visitor who clicks your ad and converts on a later day, without clicking an ad again, is not counted on the legitimate action. The original action still counts them. That is why you keep both.
• Ad traffic only. Organic, direct, and email visitors never get a cp_class cookie. The legitimate action only covers visits from ads with ClickPatrol parameters.
• Same browser. The cookie lives in one browser. A visitor who clicks on mobile and converts on desktop is not counted.
• Consent. When your consent banner blocks the ClickPatrol tag until consent, visitors who decline are never classified. They are not counted on the legitimate action.
• Legitimate is not the same as qualified. The classification tells you the visit came from a real visitor. It does not say whether the lead fits your business. If your sales team scores leads, those scores remain the stronger signal.

Related articles#

• Conversion tracking: pass confirmed conversions to ClickPatrol itself.
• Clean traffic pixel trigger: fire a whole pixel, but only on legitimate visits.
• GA4 - Events: pass the ClickPatrol events to GA4.