If you use PayPal to process transactions on your eCommerce site, you may have difficulty tracking conversions in Google Ads and Google Analytics. This occurs when PayPal does not redirect the user back to your website after clicking the “Pay” button to make their purchase. The transaction is processed on PayPal’s third-party domain, meaning Google Ads and Analytics may not recognize it as a completed conversion on your own site.
Fortunately, there’s a feature in PayPal you can easily activate to correct this issue. It’s called Auto Return, and you can enable it by following the steps below:
1. Log in to your PayPal Business account at paypal.com.
2. Go to the Profile menu and select “Profile and settings”.
3. Choose “My selling tools”.
4. In the “Selling online” section, find “Website preferences” and click the “Update” button located to the right.
5. In “Auto Return for Website Payments”, click the “On” button.
6. In the “Return URL” field, enter the full URL of the page to which you want to redirect users after their payment is processed. This will most likely be the order confirmation or thank you page that contains your eCommerce tracking code to record conversions in Google Ads and Analytics. Be sure to include http:// or https:// in the URL.
7. Add “?utm_nooverride=1” (without quotations) to the end of the URL so that transactions are credited to the original source instead of PayPal.
8. Click “Save” at the bottom of the page.
Now your Google Ads and Analytics accounts will be able to accurately track conversions when payment is processed through PayPal.