Paying attention to your campaign analytics is a big part of Google Ads success. You want to see how different campaigns and keywords are driving clicks and conversions. In order to see that, you need to be able to track your campaigns in Google Analytics.
Fortunately, Google makes this easy, thanks to a little something called auto-tagging.
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What is auto-tagging?
When you enable auto-tagging in your Google Ads account, Google appends a parameter called GCLID to the end of your destination URL. GCLID stands for Google Click Identifier. Google Analytics uses this parameter to show you which keywords drove someone to your site, the ad they clicked on, and how much you paid for the click.
GCLID parameters contain a string of random letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores, and can be up to 100 characters long. GCLIDs appear in a Google Ads destination URL after any other parameters you may be using (designated by a question mark), and before any fragments (designated by a hashtag).
If you’re using auto-tagging, and a person clicks on one of your ads, the URL may look something like this:
- yoururl.com/product?a=b&gclid=Tester123#xyz
- yoururl.com/product?gclid=Tester123#xyz
- yoururl.com/product/?gclid=123xyz
You have to opt-in to auto-tagging. It is not turned on by default. Here’s how to see if you’re using auto-tagging, and how to turn it on if not:
- Sign in to Google Ads.
- Navigate to Settings > Account settings.
- Click Auto-tagging. If the box next to the phrase “Tag the URL that people click through from my ad” is checked, auto-tagging is turned on. If it’s not checked, you can check it to turn it on. Then click Save.
Benefits of using auto-tagging for your Google Ads campaigns
Why use auto-tagging? GCLIDs may look like a super-long typo, but they pack in a powerful set of benefits for advertisers. Take a look.
- Say hello to more efficient campaign creation. When you use auto-tagging in Google Ads, you no longer have to manually tag each destination URL with multiple UTM parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, and utm_term). GCLIDs contain all of that information in a single parameter, and Google creates it for you.
- … and goodbye to human error. Not only can you spin up new campaigns faster, but you can also ensure they launch with fewer errors. Manually adding UTM parameters to your destination URLs introduces a lot of room for typos, accidental capitalizations, and forgotten parameters. Use auto-tagging instead, and you can rest assured that your campaigns will be tracked properly in Google Analytics.
- Enjoy more comprehensive reporting. Speaking of Google Analytics, GCLID parameters provide significantly more data than regular UTM parameters do, such as hour of day, placements,display targeting, and video and shopping campaigns.
Get more from your Google campaigns
From increased efficiency to fewer errors and richer reporting, auto-tagging has a lot to offer advertisers. Auto-tagging is just one of many benefits of advertising with Google Ads. To learn more, and get actionable advice for improving your own campaigns, contact Your Marketing People now.
