Floodlight

Floodlight is a conversion tracking technology used within Google Marketing Platform, primarily in the Campaign Manager 360 and Display & Video 360 tools. Using code snippets (Floodlight tags) placed on a website, it measures the actions users take after interacting with an ad — purchases, sign-ups, downloads or form submissions. This lets advertisers running complex display and video campaigns precisely assess their effectiveness and assign value to individual touchpoints.

How Floodlight works

Floodlight tags are placed on landing pages or at key points in the user journey (for example on a thank-you page after a purchase). When a user who has previously seen or clicked an ad reaches such a page, the tag records a conversion event. The system logs which campaign, placement or creative contributed to the action, feeding into attribution models.

Activity types

Floodlight distinguishes two main event types: counters, which tally how many times a conversion occurred, and sales, which record the transaction value and quantity of products. This makes it possible to measure both simple actions and full campaign revenue.

Practical applications

Floodlight is essential for large advertisers and agencies running campaigns across many channels at once who need consistent conversion measurement spanning individual platforms. The collected data is used to optimise bids, assess return on investment and build audience lists for remarketing. Within Google's ecosystem, Floodlight plays a role similar to the Facebook Pixel in Meta ads, only within the Google Marketing Platform environment that powers advanced programmatic campaigns. Tag deployment today most often happens through a tag manager, which simplifies management and reduces direct changes to the site's code. Configured correctly, Floodlight ties impression and click data to users' real actions, giving the advertiser a complete picture of the journey from the first ad exposure all the way to conversion.