Collecting Google GCLID parameters and reporting them back to Google Adwords

Owned by Jonathan Tew
Last updated: Feb 21, 2022
2 min read

Deprecation Notice: this tutorial has now been replaced with a more native way of reporting back GCLID to Google that is far simpler. Please see the following guide on Google offline conversion.

 

This tutorial is going to cover the process of collecting GCLID identifiers, exporting them to a Google sheet, and then having Google Adwords automatically import them from the Google Sheet. Why is this beneficial?

  1. Not every customer makes it to the receipt where your conversion pixel is located. Some merchants have lot upsells sequences with meaningful abandon percentages. You still want to capture those conversions.

  2. Some customer’s payments initial fail, but are subsequently successful when they update their payment information or the Accounts Receivable Retry successfully bills them.

  3. Some browsers, like Safari, have ever increasing tracking prevention technology which makes it more difficult to track with cookies.

 

Collecting GCLID

The first step is collecting the gclid parameter that is on your landing. The collection is performed by UltraCart Analytics. There are two scenarios:

  1. StoreFront = no action required as UltraCart Analytics is pre-plumbed for you.

  2. Custom Checkout / Offsite Landing Page = Deploy UltraCart Analytics (see the Tracking on External Websites section).

GCLID Storage

The GCLID parameter is stored as an order property. The order property is available in the REST API and webhooks. The value can also be exported into CSV/Excel/Google Sheets. In this tutorial we’re interested in Google Sheets.

Configuring an Export to Google Sheets

Under Configuration → Order Management → Exporting Orders you will want to create a new export.

  1. Name the export.

  2. Select Google Sheets - Drive. If you don't have a profile connected then click on Connect.

  3. Select the trigger "payment processed"

  4. Set the spreadsheet name to something like "UC_ORDERS"

  5. Select "Field names in first row".

  6. Select the fields

    1. Order ID

    2. Payment Date/Time - MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS

    3. Total / Subtotal (depending upon which value you want to base your ad spend off)

    4. Google Click Id

  7. Save

When the next order happens the spreadsheet will be created. Once you see the spreadsheet in your Google Drive, continue to the next step.

Configuring Google Adwords to Import

The following Google Adwords help article discusses the format of the spreadsheet and how to configure Google Adwords to pull from your Google Sheet on a schedule. We won’t try to replicate those steps in this documentation article.

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7014069?hl=en#zippy=