Floodlight counter vs sales tag in GTM: what sites count
A Floodlight counter tag counts how many times it fires. A sales tag also carries a revenue value and an order ID. On 9 Nov 2026 we read the public GTM containers of 159 sites that carry Floodlight (the 5 Nov study base). 136 have Floodlight tags in GTM, and 92 of those 136 (67.6%) run counter tags only. 62 of the 136 fire at least one of them on a page view with no other condition (All Pages).
Check this on your own site
Free. Public tags only. Your result opens on the scan page.
What is the difference between a counter and a sales tag?
Both are Floodlight activity tags for Campaign Manager 360 and DV360. A counter activity counts how often a page loads or an action happens. A sales activity does the same and also takes a revenue value and an order ID, so CM360 can report revenue and drop repeat orders. In GTM the two are the Floodlight Counter tag and the Floodlight Sales tag.
For a lead form this is mostly fine: a lead has no revenue. The risk is the trigger, not the tag type. A counter on a page view of any page counts visits.
What do sites count with Floodlight?
We took every Floodlight tag in each container, found the rules that fire it and sorted the conditions of each rule. A site with several tags can land in more than one row.
| What fires the tag | Sites | Share of 136 |
|---|---|---|
| A custom dataLayer event | 91 | 66.9% |
| A page URL that reads like a thank-you, signup, demo or checkout page | 84 | 61.8% |
| A page view with no other condition (All Pages) | 62 | 45.6% |
| A condition our scanner doesn't sort yet | 48 | 35.3% |
| A click | 34 | 25.0% |
| DOM Ready or Window Loaded | 25 | 18.4% |
| A form submit event | 10 | 7.4% |
| A history change (single-page app route change) | 7 | 5.1% |
The All Pages row is the one to look at. Floodlight is often used for audiences and reach, and a counter on every page is the normal way to build them. It becomes a problem when the same activity is reported in CM360 as a conversion, or when it is also sent to Google Ads. For the every-page case on the Google Ads side see conversion firing on every page.
Which counting method do they use?
The counting method decides how often one visitor can add to the number. Standard counts every fire, unique counts once per user per day, per session counts once per session. Sales tags count transactions or items sold. Of the 122 sales tags, 115 count transactions and 7 items sold. 7 counter tags also carry a transactions setting in the container, so the Transactions row is 122.
| Method | Tags | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 867 | 71.3% |
| Unique | 184 | 15.1% |
| Transactions | 122 | 10.0% |
| Per session | 36 | 3.0% |
| Items sold | 7 | 0.6% |
Standard on a trigger that can repeat is the combination that inflates counts: a reload, a back button or a route change fires it again. 115 of the 136 sites have at least one counter tag on standard counting.
Does the same trigger also fire a Google Ads conversion?
On 92 of the 136 sites (67.6%), at least one rule that fires a Floodlight tag also fires a Google Ads conversion tag. That is normal for a form success: one event, two platforms. It also means a wrong trigger is wrong in both places. If the rule is a page view of a demo page, CM360 and Google Ads both count visits. For that case see a conversion on a demo or pricing page view, and for one action counted twice duplicate conversions.
How do I check mine?
- In GTM, filter tags by type: Floodlight Counter and Floodlight Sales.
- Open each tag and read its firing trigger. A Page View trigger with no condition is All Pages (about triggers).
- Note the counting method in the tag. Standard on a repeatable trigger counts repeats.
- In Campaign Manager 360, open the activity and check whether it is used as a conversion in your reports.
- If the same trigger fires a Google Ads tag, open that tag too and check whether the Ads action is primary.
- Test in GTM Preview: reload the success page and press back. Count the Floodlight hits.
Or run the free scan. It lists Floodlight tags with their triggers next to your Google Ads conversions.
What can't we see from outside?
- What CM360 reports as a conversion. That is set per activity inside CM360 or DV360. A counter on All Pages may be used for audiences only.
- Primary or secondary for the Google Ads action on the same trigger.
- Floodlight set up in Google Ads or by a gtag snippet in the page, and server-side tags.
- Whether the tag is paused or in use. We read the container, not the reports.
FAQ
Should a B2B lead form use a Floodlight counter or a sales tag?
A counter, unless the action has a revenue value and an order ID. The trigger matters more than the type: fire it on the form success, not on a page view.
Does a Floodlight tag on All Pages inflate my conversions?
Only if CM360 reports that activity as a conversion or the same rule also fires a Google Ads conversion. As an audience tag it is normal. We can't see the CM360 setting from outside.
Run the free scan on your site.
Fireshift reads what your site tells Google Ads, GA4 and Meta from the outside. No install, takes seconds.