Data Manager API in practice: how Laiki already sends conversions and audiences to Google

In the previous text we explained why Google changed the way it receives conversion data and why this topic became urgent in 2026. Here we go straight to the practical point: the Data Manager API is the single route Google is building to receive conversion events and audience data from advertisers, following the IAB Tech Lab's ECAPI (Event and Conversions API) standard. And Laiki already operates this integration in real customer accounts, sending conversions and audiences to Google Ads every day.

Why the Data Manager API became the default path

Until recently, each Google product had its own entry point for conversion data. Google Ads received offline conversion imports through one path, Enhanced Conversions for Leads through another, and Floodlight, used by Campaign Manager 360 and Display & Video 360, through a third. Each entry point had its own rules for format, authentication and volume limits, and every rule change forced whoever maintained the integration to review everything again.

The change consolidated those entry points into a single API. According to Google itself, the new structure offers a unified and secure setup to connect, manage and activate audiences and measurement across the main ad products (Google's official announcement about the Data Strength updates). In practice, whoever handles conversions and audiences for Google now talks to a single interface, whether the destination is Google Ads, Analytics or Display & Video 360.

One standard for conversion and audience: what ECAPI solves

ECAPI is not a Google invention. It is an industry standard, maintained by the IAB Tech Lab, for describing a conversion event in a way that any ad platform understands. Google adopted this standard as the basis of the API: whoever already sends data in the ECAPI format to one network can reuse much of the integration structure, instead of starting from scratch.

This changes the routine of those who send conversions and audiences to Google in two ways. The technical one: fewer endpoints to maintain, fewer payload formats to validate, fewer credentials scattered across systems. The operational one: the same data flow now feeds Google Ads conversions, Google Analytics events and Display & Video 360 audiences, instead of three parallel integrations and three different points of failure to monitor.

What has already stopped working on the old Google Ads API routes

This is not a shutdown notice for something that is still going to happen. Part of the migration is already a done deal. Customer Match stopped accepting uploads through the old Google Ads API route in April 2026. Offline conversion import and Enhanced Conversions for Leads followed the same path in June.

Anyone whose integration pointed to those routes had to migrate to the Data Manager API to keep recording this data in Google. Without the migration, the conversion simply stopped counting, silently, with no alert in the Google Ads interface. We already covered this specific point in the article about GCLID, when Optimized Conversions for Leads were blocked on the old API.

If you have not yet checked whether your own account has migrated, you can check three points:

• Whether the offline conversions report in Google Ads shows volume over the last 30 days.
• Whether the Customer Match integration used for the custom audience still updates the list.
• Whether the technical team responsible for the integration can say which API is being called today.

An uncertain “yes” on any of the three is a reason to investigate before the account loses signal without anyone noticing.

How Laiki already operates this, in practice

Here is the difference between this article and the previous one. Laiki does not treat the Data Manager API as a distant novelty. The platform's Workflows, still in Beta, already send conversion events and audience data to Google Ads through this API, running in real customer accounts. This means that a lead who closes a deal in the CRM becomes an offline conversion correctly recorded in the ad account, without anyone opening a spreadsheet and uploading the file by hand.

The design is straightforward. A Workflow, the platform's no-code builder, listens for the event in the CRM (deal closed, proposal signed, meeting booked), organizes the data in the format the API expects and triggers the send to Google Ads. The same design works to update an audience: when a lead changes stage in the funnel, it leaves a prospecting audience and joins a remarketing one directly in the ad account, without manual export.

A real example of use: in an account with a longer sales cycle, the Workflow follows the lead from the first click to the contract signature, weeks later. When the contract is signed in the CRM, the event triggers two actions at the same time: the conversion goes to Google Ads and the contact leaves the prospecting audience. The paid media team does not need to remember to update anything by hand, because the trigger is the business event itself.

It is worth being clear about what this operation is not. Laiki has no certification, badge or officially announced partnership with Google for this integration. What exists is a technical implementation of the Data Manager API running in production, tested and adjusted in the accounts of customers who already use this Workflow, inside a vertical marketing and sales data platform. And, because it is in Beta, the Workflow keeps evolving, with no promise of a formal SLA, a point we prefer to state explicitly rather than hide.

What changes for those who manage ad accounts today

For marketing managers and performance analysts, the direct gain is signal quality. A conversion that arrives quickly and with first-party data, such as a hashed email or phone, helps the bidding algorithm optimize for those who actually became customers, not just for those who clicked. Google itself reported, based on internal data between April 2025 and June 2026, that accounts that turned on the direct Data Manager API integration in Analytics and Display & Video 360 saw, on average, a 26% increase in incremental ROAS (return on advertising spend). It is a figure declared by the company itself, not an independent market benchmark, and it varies with the quality of each account's data base.

For a mature agency managing several client accounts, the gain is scale. Instead of building a custom integration for each client, the same Laiki Workflow for Google Ads serves as a template and is replicated for another account by changing only the credential and the field mapping. Anyone who has asked whether the operation needs a platform like Laiki finds a concrete case here: automating an integration that, done by hand, consumes hours of the whole team every month, repeated for each managed account.

Ignoring this kind of migration costs more than it seems at first sight. An account that loses part of its conversion signal without noticing tends to see its cost per result rise gradually, with no single event that explains the decline. It is the kind of problem that only shows up when someone compares the volume of conversions recorded in Google Ads with the real volume of deals closed in the CRM, and the difference between the two numbers is usually the first sign that an old integration stopped working.

Frequently asked questions about the Data Manager API

Do I need to rewrite the whole integration if I already use the Google Ads API? Only the part that used the discontinued routes, such as Customer Match, offline conversion and Enhanced Conversions for Leads. The rest of the API keeps working normally.

Does the Data Manager API replace the Google Tag? It does not. The Google Tag keeps capturing events on the website. The Data Manager API is the server-side channel that complements this data with information that does not pass through the browser, such as a deal closed days later inside the CRM.

Is Laiki's Workflow for this integration already stable? It is in Beta and running in real customer accounts, but it keeps evolving. That does not prevent its use, it only means behavior adjustments can still happen as new cases appear.

Conclusion: from concept to routine

Whoever has made it this far already knows what the Data Manager API solves, what stopped working on the old routes and what changes in the day-to-day of those who handle paid media. The practical conclusion is that sending conversions and audiences to Google stopped being manual work and became a Workflow running in the background, and that is already a reality in Laiki customer accounts, not a promise for the future.

Want to see how this kind of automation fits into your company's paid media operation? See how Laiki's Workflows work or discover the platform before talking to the sales team.