> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://cascader.io/blog/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Google Ads wants a conversion URL, but your bookings happen on a booking platform. What should you count? - URL: https://cascader.io/blog/google-ads-conversion-goal-third-party-booking-platform/ - Published: 2026-10-25T14:00:37.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T14:00:37.000Z - Description: For salons, studios and clinics that take bookings on a third-party platform: what to select at the conversion-goal step, without typing in a made-up URL. - Author: Rick Hecker - Tags: Cascader Answers, Google Ads, Tracking Last verified October 2026 If Google Ads won't finish your Search campaign until you give it a conversion URL, and your bookings finish on a booking platform you don't control, you can't skip that step, and you don't need to fake it. Here is what the screen is. Google's [Create a Search campaign](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9510373?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) guide says at least one conversion goal is required to create a Search campaign, even if you choose to create it without a goal's guidance. When you pick a goal that has no tracking behind it, Google [prompts you to set up conversion tracking](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10995481?hl=en&ref=cascader.io). The quickest method it offers is a page-load conversion. That method asks for the address of a page, typically a confirmation or thank-you page, and counts a conversion each time someone loads it. When the booking finishes on someone else's platform, that page isn't yours to name. Typing in a made-up one is the fake; "Why not type any address," further down, shows what it creates. Your work is safe while you sort this out, in the workflow Google's guide describes. The same guide says a campaign in progress is saved as a draft automatically, shown at the top of the Campaigns page and reopened with "Resume and continue." The guide is written for accounts that have already been created and signed into, and Google warns that new Google Ads users may experience an updated workflow, so if your account is brand-new, that workflow, draft saving included, may differ. What the step needs is a goal that describes something you can genuinely count. When bookings finish on a platform you don't control, there are three honest candidates. The first is the booking itself, if the platform reports it to Google. The second is a completion signal the platform sends to analytics you own. The third is a click on the booking button on your own website. Which of these exist for you decides what you select at the goal step, where the ads should send people and how the campaign should bid. If you have none of them, anything else the goal step offers faces the same test: a goal that describes something you can genuinely count. The worked example throughout is Treatwell, a salon booking platform; the checks apply to whichever booking platform you use. ## What to select at the goal step ### First, look for "Appointments booked" Google Ads has a conversion type called Partner bookings for appointments taken through its scheduling partners. Google's [About Partner bookings](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/17199940?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) page describes how it works. Someone uses the Book or Schedule button on your ad and goes straight to your booking partner's page. When they book, the partner sends Google a confirmation, and nothing has to be installed on the partner's site. The conversion action is called "Appointments booked," and Google makes it available to eligible accounts without an opt-in. Treatwell is on Google's list of [Google Ads booking partners](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/15400753?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) and on the [Reserve with Google partner list](https://www.google.com/maps/reserve/partners?ref=cascader.io). Those lists name platforms, not accounts, so check yours. If any of your treatments could be medical, settle one question before you select anything. Google says it doesn't allow appointment booking links or goals for healthcare campaigns, and that healthcare advertisers who see the option shouldn't select or use it. Treatwell's support article [What is Reserve with Google and how does it work?](https://support-expert.treatwell.com/en/articles/3924450-what-is-reserve-with-google-and-how-does-it-work?ref=cascader.io) lists "medical aesthetics or invasive cosmetic treatments" among the services Google typically doesn't support, and adds that Google ultimately decides eligibility. Ask Google Ads support whether your campaign counts as healthcare for this goal. Use the routes further down until you have an answer. If that question doesn't apply, go to Goals, then Summary, and choose All conversions from the Conversions dropdown. Look for "Appointments booked." If it's there, select it, choose Edit, then Enable. Set it as a primary action, which is Google's term for an action used for bidding optimization; a secondary action is recorded but not bid on. Then add it as a goal in the campaign, because Google notes that it isn't applied to individual campaigns automatically; for how to bid on it, see row 1 of the table under "Bid for what you can count." Treat its count as partial. Google describes it as bookings that begin with the Book or Schedule button on the ad, so a booking by someone who clicked an ordinary ad link to your booking page may not appear. If it's missing, ask your platform whether its Google booking connection is live for your listing and whether it reports to Google Ads. For Treatwell, that connection is Reserve with Google: Treatwell's [Treatwell Connect features](https://www.treatwell.co.uk/partners/resources/blog/6-treatwell-connect-features-you-might-not-know-about/?ref=cascader.io) article says Connect works with it, so people can book from Google Search or Maps. ### If you have a website: count the booking button, and name it for what it is If you have a site with a booking button on it, count clicks on that button. Create the action from the Goals menu, outside the campaign flow. Here is the whole job: 1. Leave the campaign. In the workflow Google's guide describes, the draft is saved. 2. In the Goals menu, open Summary and select "+ Create conversion action." Google first asks for your website's domain and scans it for a Google tag. 3. Pick the category closest to the action, and choose "Manually using code" as the method. That is Google's method for button clicks, and its steps don't ask for a page URL. 4. Name the action Booking button click (not a booking). 5. Install it. The site needs the Google tag; the setup offers to activate one if you don't have it. Following Google's [Track clicks on your website as conversions](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6331304?hl=en&ref=cascader.io), put the event snippet right after the Google tag and add the `onclick` call to the Book button's own code. You, or whoever runs the site, need to be able to edit it. 6. Go back to the Campaigns page, choose "Resume and continue," and select the goal this action belongs to. 7. Set bidding to Maximize Clicks, with a maximum CPC limit if you want a ceiling on what one click can cost. The name does a job that no number can: anyone reading the Conversions column later sees what it measures. The method fits the task, because Google's [setup guide](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16560108?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) says the code route is required for tracking button clicks and the URL route is for page loads. Step 5 can be put off. Google's setup lets you choose to set up the tag later, and an action whose tag never goes on the site records nothing. That is a placeholder by another name. The bidding choice in step 7 matters most, because a click on Book is a step toward a booking, not a booking. In an r/PPC thread, [How would you handle this conversion tracking challenge?](https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC/comments/1u5f5ma/how%5Fwould%5Fyou%5Fhandle%5Fthis%5Fconversion%5Ftracking/?ref=cascader.io), several practitioners warn about making the widget-opening click the primary conversion: bidding then chases people who open the widget rather than people who book. On r/localseo, in [Should I stop optimizing for booking provider…](https://www.reddit.com/r/localseo/comments/1v8xo20/should%5Fi%5Fstop%5Foptimizing%5Ffor%5Fbooking%5Fprovider%5Fand/?ref=cascader.io), a poster who runs Google Ads for their wife's spray-tanning studio reports suspecting exactly that. They describe days when three or four booking-link conversions turned into no bookings. With click bidding, the count stays a gauge, and you aren't asking Google to find more of it. If your booking tool can report completed bookings to your own analytics (see "Ask the platform to report the booking itself" below), that is the better goal. Either build it first and let the draft wait, or launch with the button click and add the booking goal when it's working. ### If you have neither With no website and no "Appointments booked," there's nothing you can install between the ad and the booking. A goal may still be honest if it describes something you can genuinely count. Linking your Business Profile to Google Ads as a location asset (Assets, then Location) makes Google Ads automatically create local actions conversions, according to Google's [About Local Ads](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3246303?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) page. That page lists "Get directions" as biddable in Search. If your campaign's goal step offers it, it counts something real: a person asking for the way to your door. It isn't a booking, so read it the way you'd read the button click, as a gauge of intent, and bid for clicks. If the goal step offers nothing that describes something you can genuinely count, a Search campaign isn't honestly open to you yet. Don't reach for a URL to get past the step. You have two ways forward: - Build a page of your own (see "Send the ads to your own site or to the booking page?" below). The button-click goal then becomes available. - Use Performance Max with your Business Profile as the landing page. Google's [Use your Business Profile as a landing page](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14325369?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) says this needs a verified Business Profile and that only Performance Max campaigns associated with one are eligible. Its buttons can include appointments through integrated booking partners, tracked as local conversions, but Google says the available buttons may vary by business vertical, location and account configuration. Google also calls the profile no replacement for a website. If your treatments could be medical, put the same healthcare question to Google Ads support about the booking button there. ### Why not type any address You may have seen the suggestion to create a page-load conversion and type any address into the URL box to get past the step. Look at what that creates. A page-load conversion counts when someone loads the page you named, so a page nobody visits gives you an action that never fires. According to Google's [Using conversion goals to guide new campaigns](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10995481?hl=en&ref=cascader.io), a goal created during setup can become an account-default goal. Account-default goals are added to the new campaign and to every other campaign using the account's default goals. And if the campaign ever bids on conversions, Google says Smart Bidding relies on the primary actions to optimize. Here that would be an action that can't happen. Google's [Circumventing systems](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/15938075?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) policy bans attempts to "circumvent or interfere with Google's advertising systems and processes," and suspensions under it come without prior warning. Where an honest goal gets you through the same step, there's no reason to find out how that policy would read a placeholder. ## Ask the platform to report the booking itself A completed booking reported to analytics you own is a stronger signal than any click. It needs the platform to take part, because your tag can't reach its pages. Google's [Troubleshoot your sitewide tagging](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9148089?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) says conversion tracking on a third-party domain won't work long term unless the third party implements sitewide tags. Some booking tools document a way in. Salonized, salon software that [integrates with the Treatwell marketplace](https://salonized.com/en/features/treatwell?ref=cascader.io), sets it out in [How do I integrate Google Analytics with Salonized?](https://support-expert.treatwell.com/en/articles/4488541-how-do-i-integrate-google-analytics-with-salonized?ref=cascader.io). There are three steps: 1. Paste your GA4 Measurement ID into Salonized under Settings, Online bookings, Style and sharing, Tracking. 2. In your GA4 data stream, open Configure tag settings, then Configure your domains, and add salonized.com with "Matches exactly." 3. Mark the `booking_completed` event as a key event in GA4. From there it can be [imported into Google Ads](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16560108?hl=en&ref=cascader.io). Salonized also describes a [Success URL](https://support-expert.treatwell.com/en/articles/1074647-how-can-i-set-up-a-success-url-for-my-bookings?ref=cascader.io): its support team can send finished bookings to a thank-you page on your own site. That is the honest version of the URL box. A page-load conversion on a thank-you page that loads only after a booking counts real bookings. If your bookings run through another platform, ask its support for those two things by name: a place to enter your GA4 Measurement ID, and a success URL. For bookings through Treatwell Connect or the Treatwell marketplace, that means Treatwell support. Before you bid on an imported booking event, check that Google Ads credits it, not just GA4\. In an r/PPC thread, [Google ads not showing appointment conversions from Fresha.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC/comments/1815j79?ref=cascader.io), advertisers describe booking events showing in GA4 while Ads credited none, with the visits recorded as direct traffic. The original poster later traced their own case to the wrong booking link. Confirm that bookings from ad clicks reach the conversion summary in Google Ads before you switch bidding to them. ## Send the ads to your own site or to the booking page? You may have been told that sending ads straight to a third-party booking site can get you suspended with no way back. Google's [Destination requirements](https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6368661?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) set out what a landing page must do: work, be crawlable, match the domain in the ad's display URL and offer original content, among other things. For violations of that policy, Google says a warning comes at least seven days before any suspension. Google's own Partner bookings feature sends people from the ad straight to a partner's booking page. If you do use the booking page, make it the final URL itself, with a display URL on the same domain. Google treats redirects from the final URL to a different domain as a destination mismatch. There are still good reasons to prefer your own site, and they're about measurement and money, not suspension. Your site is the only place in this chain where you can tag the booking button. Treatwell's [pricing page](https://www.treatwell.co.uk/partners/pricing/?ref=cascader.io) says bookings through the "Book Now" button on your own website carry no commission, though a small processing fee applies when a client pays online in advance. Its features article says a new client's first booking through the marketplace carries commission, and that clients who find you on Google are sent to your marketplace page and "work the same way." Before you send paid traffic to your page on a booking platform, ask the platform which kind of booking an ad click there counts as; for Treatwell, which of those an ad click to your Treatwell page counts as. If you build a page, make it a page about the business: the treatments, prices, who performs them, where you are, and the booking button. Google's destination requirements list "destinations that are solely designed to send users elsewhere" as insufficient original content. A bare doorway that only forwards people to the booking site carries a risk of its own. ## Bid for what you can count If columns extend beyond the page, scroll sideways. With a keyboard, focus the table and use the arrow keys. | What your setup has | Goal to select at the setup step | What one count means | Bidding it supports | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | "Appointments booked" in All conversions, and treatments clear of Google's healthcare bar, with or without a site | "Appointments booked," set as primary | A booking made after someone used the Book or Schedule button on your ad. Bookings from other ad clicks may be missing. | Maximize Clicks until it records bookings. Then conversion bidding: Maximize Conversions, or Target CPA once you know your cost per booking. | | Your own site, and a booking tool that reports completed bookings to your GA4 or redirects to your thank-you page | The imported booking event or the thank-you page load (the button click meanwhile, if you launch first) | A completed booking, once you've seen bookings from ad clicks reach the Google Ads conversion summary | Maximize Clicks until that check passes, then conversion bidding | | Your own site, and a booking tool that does neither | Booking button click (not a booking) | A visitor heading to the booking tool. Not a booking. | Maximize Clicks. The count is a gauge, not a target. | | No site, no "Appointments booked," and a Business Profile linked as a location asset | "Get directions," if the goal step offers it | A person asking for directions. Not a booking. | Maximize Clicks. The count is a gauge, not a target. | | None of the above, and nothing else at the goal step that describes something you can genuinely count | No honest Search goal | (none) | Build a page and move to row 2 or 3, or use Performance Max with your Business Profile | If your treatments could be medical, treat row 1 as closed until Google Ads support has answered. Rows can stack. When a booking signal, whether "Appointments booked," the imported booking event or the thank-you page load, becomes the bidding goal and you also track your site's button, make the booking primary and the button click secondary before you switch to conversion bidding. Google's About Partner bookings page offers exactly that choice: "Primary action used for bidding optimization" or "Secondary action not used for bidding optimization." Google's Set up your web conversions guide calls them biddable and observation-only. Google's [Determine a bid strategy based on your goals](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472725?hl=en&ref=cascader.io) suggests focusing on conversions when you want a direct action and are using conversion tracking. It suggests Maximize Clicks for new campaigns without enough conversion data. A button-click count doesn't turn into a booking count by getting bigger, so if clicks are all you have, stay on click bidding. Whatever Google Ads shows, the booking platform holds the actual bookings. Treatwell's features article, for example, says its reports show which marketing channels bring in bookings. They also split marketplace bookings from bookings made through your own "Book now" buttons and website. Ask your platform whether its reports can separate the bookings your ads brought in. If they can't, reports that split bookings by source, as Treatwell's do, still show whether bookings through your site move when the ads run. Either way, read them next to the Ads numbers. The time to revisit bidding is when a real booking signal arrives. That means "Appointments booked" switched on and recording, or a booking event you've watched reach the Google Ads conversion summary from ad clicks. Until then, a click-bid campaign with an honestly named goal is a legitimate way to run.