A form submission is easy to count. A good customer is harder to identify. Choosing the convenient measure can quietly change what your campaign is trying to achieve.
When automated bidding optimises towards an event, the definition and quality of that event matter. A completed form does not tell the system whether the enquiry is relevant, affordable to serve or likely to buy.
Agree meaningful stages with sales: enquiry, qualified opportunity and customer. Define each clearly and record outcomes consistently. Where your platform and setup support it, feed qualified or completed sales outcomes back into measurement and optimisation.
A deeper event is not automatically the right choice. Consider how reliably it is recorded, how often it happens and how long it takes to arrive. A signal that is valuable but badly maintained can be misleading.
Treat conversion tracking as part of the strategy. Before changing bids or creative, check what the campaign is being asked to find. It may be doing exactly what you rewarded, rather than what the business needed.
Further reading: Google Ads guidance on qualified and converted leads.
