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Google Ads and RedTrack

Estimated reading: 7 minutes

Google Ads is an online advertising solution that businesses use to promote their products and services on Google Search, YouTube, and other sites across the web. Google Ads also allows advertisers to choose specific goals for their ads, like driving phone calls or website visits. With a Google Ads account, advertisers can customize their budgets and targeting, and start or stop their ads at any time.

✓ Google Ads supports both no-redirect and parallel tracking. We do not recommend using parallel tracking unless you are 100% sure you are allowed to do that and have approval from Google. No-redirect tracking method works without any issues. Click on the corresponding Google Ads Help article for more details on technical possibility to apply parallel tracking in Google Ads.
✓ Google Ads campaigns require no-redirect tracking therefore, traffic filtering is unavailable for Google Ads. For more details go to the Traffic filtering guide.

Before you proceed with the integration, make sure to have the already added:

Step 1: Add Google Ads as a Traffic channel in RedTrack.

To do that go to Traffic channels -> New from template -> search for Google Ads (no-redirect tracking) and press Add-> Save the template:

☛ Without saving the template first, you can’t integrate your RT and Google Ads accounts.
☛ The blocked (greyed) parameters cannot be changed as these parameters are required for Google-RedTrack API integration. Leave it as is and do not change the parameters later in the tracking template.
☛ It takes about 48 hours for Google to process IOS conversions without clickid and appear in the Google Ads dashboard. However, there is a chance that Google will not attribute 100% of postbacks due to its logic or additional user settings.
☛ When setting up the Auto Cost Update Depth and Frequency for your Traffic channel know that if the type of your Campaign in Google is PerformanceMax (PMax), your costs can be updated only on the Campaign level, as such campaigns send out only their Campaign IDs. That’s why the only working Auto Cost Depth for your Traffic Channel in such cases is “Campaign“.

❢ In case of IOS trafficking due to Apple’s iOS14.5 changes if the click occurs from an iOS device and the user has opted out of tracking, RedTrack can get WBRAID and GBRAID parameters:
WBRAID is used for web-to-app measurement.
GBRAID is used for app-to-app measurement.

After the Apple’s iOS14.5 update, instead of the GCLID parameter on iOS surfaces, WBRAID parameter exists in places for clicks associated with web conversion and GBRAID parameter is for clicks associated with app conversions. The new parameters work in tandem with the modeled online conversion that does not attribute conversions to an individual user but rather offers a holistic report on conversions in compliance with user privacy. These parameters use aggregation and de-identification techniques that ensure cross-site behavior cannot be tied back to an individual user. These parameters are already embedded in the Google Ads traffic channel template as of January 11, 2023, as for the templates added before that date, you may add the parameters manually in the very template in the section Additional parameters:

In this regard:
● if you do conversions in app, you need to remove the {wbraid} parameter from the Google Ads Traffic channel template in RT;
● one-per-click counting setting may block creation of conversions with such parameters as GBRAID/WBRAID in which case an error when sending such conversions will pop up.

To resolve this issue you need to change the one-per-click setting in your Google Ads account:

Check out this article for more details on changing the one-per-click setting in Google Ads.

Step 2: Integrate Google Ads with RedTrack.

Once you’ve saved the template, the “Connect” button becomes active. But since it is a complex API integration, we need to get permission for integration from Google first.

To integrate Google Ads with RedTrack act as follows:

2.1 Scroll down to the end of the Google Ads template and press “Sign in with Google”-> Google will ask you to verify your ad account, and give RedTrack all the required permissions:

2.2 Once Google Ads accepts the integration, you will be redirected back to your RedTrack account settings. Go to your Google Ads account and copy your Customer ID:

2.3 Paste the copied ID to the field Google Ads Customer Id in your Google Ads template in RedTrack-> press Save changes to apply these changes to the template and successfully connect GA and RT accounts:

☝Although the Connected button appears right after you’ve signed in with Google, it doesn;t mean the integration is completed. For successful GA and RT integration it is crucially important to add your Google Ads Customer ID and save the template.

☝The account you’re connecting must be the same account from where you run your Google Ads Campaigns. The integration will not work if you connect the Google Ads manager account while running campaigns from sub-accounts.

☝We send conversion to Google immediately, and if the upload is not successful – retry every 4 hours for 36 hours. The statistics for conversions which are passed from RedTrack will appear in your Google Ads account within approximately 24 hours, due to the architecture of Google.

☝Conversion data is taken with the UTC time zone.

☝The switched-on toggle “Active” means the integration is up and running:


☝Full API integration gives you the following benefits:
◦ Sending conversion data back to Google and attribute it by your customised conversion types
◦ Synchronize costs
◦ Pause: campaign, placement, creative
◦ Create automated rules

Step 3: Set up conversion tracking and map the events.

To do that:

3.1 Use this guide to help you set the customized conversion types to track different conversion events separately and send them to your Google account.

3.2 Go back to your Google Ads Traffic channel settings-> scroll down to the Google API integration block -> set the mapping:

Info in the columns Conversion Type, Conversion name, and Category gets to your Google account settings by API, so you won’t need to adjust any settings related to conversions mapping in Google, just be mindful of what you are inserting in these columns in RedTrack.
Conversion type – is the custom conversion type you have set within step 3.1.
Conversion name – how this conversion type will be displayed in your Google account.
Category – Google conversion event category. You no longer need to set the category manually in Google Ads, we will send the category with the conversion.
Include in “conversions” – set yes to add this conversion type to the conversions column in the Google Ads.

Step 4: Create a Campaign in RedTrack.

To do that:

4.1 Follow this guide to help you create the Campaign in RT.

Use only a custom tracking domain and no-redirect tracking with Google. That means you will need to use a landing page or run the traffic directly to your website/product. Your no-redirect script will be generated automatically and include all the supported macros. Copy the script and add it to your landing page code.

4.2 Once the Campaign is created (saved), go to the section Tracking links and parameters and copy the tracking parameters URL:

If you use a universal script, copy the URL with tracking parameters under the Universal script tab:

For any other scripts copy the URL under the No-redirect tab:

Step 5: Set the tracking in your Google Ads account.

To do that:

5.1 Go to the list of your campaigns -> choose the target campaign -> Settings -> Account settings -> Tracking:

5.2 Add the tracking parameters you have copied within step 4.2  to the needed field depending on your Campaign integration type:

If you are working with Campaigns based on integration with Google Merchant Center (Performance Max campaign etc.) add the parameters to the Final URL suffix, but remove the {lpurl}? suffix in the beginning, plus remember to add the name of your campaign instead of the {replace} parameter in the middle of the tracking URL:

If you are working with any other Campaigns, insert the tracking parameters into the Tracking template field:

☝Always use only a custom tracking domain with Google Ads.
☝Tracking parameters for Youtube are added on the Ad level in Google Ads.

Set the automation and enjoy your journey with RedTrack!

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