Google Ads API v24 adds native lead-gen conversion types for three funnel stages — generate lead, qualify lead, and close (convert) lead — across Google Analytics 4, Firebase Android, and Firebase iOS. As PPC Land reported in its rundown of the release, v24 adds support for lead gen conversion types across three platforms and three funnel stages. On the surface it is a developer-facing schema change. In practice it hands B2B SaaS advertisers a cleaner way to represent their sales funnel inside Google Ads — and to point Smart Bidding at qualified and closed leads instead of raw form fills.
The reason this is more than plumbing is that B2B SaaS lives and dies on the difference between a lead and a customer. A single, undifferentiated “lead” conversion tells the bidding algorithm nothing about whether that lead was your ICP or a tire-kicker. Distinct stage types let you encode the funnel — capture, qualification, close — so both your reporting and your bidding can operate on the stage that actually matters. This guide explains what changed, why it maps so neatly onto a SaaS pipeline, how to wire the three stages to your CRM, and which stage Smart Bidding should optimise toward.
What v24 actually introduced
The concrete change is a set of new ConversionActionType enumerations. Where earlier versions gave you broad lead conversion actions, v24 splits lead events into three explicit funnel stages — generate lead, qualify lead, and close (or convert) lead — and provides each across three platforms: GA4, Firebase Android, and Firebase iOS. That is nine new typed conversion actions in total, giving the API a first-class vocabulary for funnel progression. The point, as PPC Land put it, is to let developers map conversion events to distinct stages of a lead pipeline rather than treating lead events as one undifferentiated conversion action.
Before v24, teams that wanted stage-aware conversions had to improvise: custom conversion actions named by hand, values hacked in to distinguish qualified from raw, or downstream logic that reconstructed funnel stage after the fact. That worked, but it was brittle and inconsistent across accounts. A native taxonomy removes the guesswork — the stage is part of the conversion type, not a naming convention you hope everyone follows. For agencies and in-house teams managing many accounts, that standardisation is the quiet win: the same three stages mean the same thing everywhere, which makes reporting and bidding comparisons across campaigns and clients trustworthy.
Why this maps cleanly onto a SaaS funnel
The three stages line up almost exactly with how B2B SaaS already thinks about pipeline: capture, then qualification, then close. Generate-lead is the top-of-funnel event — a demo request, trial signup, or content download. Qualify-lead is the moment sales or your scoring model confirms the lead fits your ICP, the MQL-to-SQL transition. Close-lead is closed-won revenue. Because the API now speaks in those stages, you can stop collapsing them into one number and start optimising and reporting on the stage that reflects real value. That directly addresses the tension we cover in cost per lead versus cost per SQL: the stage you measure is the stage you get more of.
This also sharpens the long-running advice to stop rewarding volume. A bidding algorithm fed only generate-lead conversions will buy the cheapest form fills it can find, because that is the goal you set. Feeding it qualify-lead or close-lead conversions changes what “good” means, which is the entire argument behind optimising for SQLs instead of leads. v24 does not invent that strategy — it makes it easier to implement correctly, because the qualified and closed stages are now typed conversions you can select as your optimisation target rather than bespoke actions you have to build and maintain.
Mapping the three stages to your CRM
The implementation discipline is to define each stage identically in Google Ads and in your CRM, then fire the matching conversion type when a lead crosses that boundary. When a lead is captured, record the Google Click ID (GCLID) against it and count a generate-lead conversion. When the lead is qualified in your CRM — sales accepts it, or your scoring threshold is met — send a qualify-lead conversion for the same GCLID. When it becomes closed-won, send a close-lead conversion, ideally with the deal value. The GCLID captured at creation is what ties the later stages back to the original click, so getting that capture right is foundational; our guide to GCLID pass-through versus enhanced conversions covers the two ways to carry that identity.
Where the outcomes physically travel back is your existing import pipeline — this is not a replacement for it. Enhanced conversions for leads and offline conversion imports remain the mechanisms that move a CRM outcome into Google Ads; v24 simply lets you label each outcome with its funnel stage. If you have already built the pipeline described in our offline conversion stack for B2B SaaS, adopting the new types is mostly a matter of mapping your CRM stage changes to the correct conversion type rather than a single generic lead action. If you have not built that pipeline, the arrival of a clean stage taxonomy is a good reason to prioritise it, because the schema is only as useful as the outcomes you actually send.
Which stage should Smart Bidding optimise toward?
For most B2B SaaS accounts, make qualify-lead the primary optimisation signal and treat close-lead as the value anchor. The logic is about data density. Optimising to generate-lead is easy for the algorithm but rewards low-intent volume. Optimising purely to close-lead is the theoretical ideal, but closed-won events are often too sparse — especially with long cycles or low monthly deal counts — for Smart Bidding to learn from quickly. Qualified leads usually sit in the sweet spot: enough volume to train on, high enough quality to steer spend toward the right buyers. As your closed-won dataset grows, layering in close-lead conversions with values lets bidding move from lead counts toward revenue.
A subtlety worth planning for is the timing gap between stages. In B2B SaaS, qualification can lag capture by days or weeks and close can lag by a quarter, so your conversion window and attribution settings have to be long enough for the later-stage conversions to be counted against the click that earned them. If the window is shorter than your cycle, close-lead conversions simply never register in time to teach the algorithm anything — the same trap we describe in choosing the right conversion window for a long sales cycle. Native stage types make the funnel legible; correct windows make it learnable.
Getting started without over-engineering
You do not need all three stages live on day one. The pragmatic sequence is to start where you have reliable data and extend as your pipeline matures. If you already send qualified-lead outcomes, wire qualify-lead first and set it as your bidding target — that alone moves you off raw-volume optimisation. Add close-lead with values once your closed-won reporting is trustworthy and voluminous enough to matter. Keep generate-lead as a diagnostic and volume metric rather than a bidding target. This staged rollout mirrors the on-ramp logic behind the native lead management dashboard: get a quality signal flowing first, then deepen it.
The larger principle is that v24 is an enabler, not a strategy. The conversion types give you the vocabulary to represent your funnel, but the value comes from the discipline of defining stages consistently, capturing the GCLID, sending outcomes back promptly, and pointing bidding at the stage that reflects real qualification. Teams that already practise journey-aware bidding on non-biddable goals will find v24 slots neatly into what they do; teams that do not now have a cleaner, standardised reason to start. Either way, the schema change is worth adopting because it makes the right strategy the easy one to implement.