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Understanding Google Click Identifier (GCLID) for Better Marketing Results

Understanding Google Click Identifier (GCLID) for Better Marketing Results

February 3, 2023

Google Click Identifier (GCLID) is a unique identifier that is generated by Google Ads when someone clicks on your ad and it is then passed along to your landing page. The GCLID is used to better track your user’s journey from the ad click to the website conversion, allowing you to gain a better understanding of your advertising campaigns and to make informed decisions about your ad spend.

How GCLID works

GCLID works by tracking the journey of your user from the moment they click on an ad to the moment they convert on your website. The GCLID is created when the user clicks on the ad and is then passed along to the website through a parameter in your URL string. This allows you to track the user’s journey, including the page they landed on, how long they stayed on the page, and whether they converted or not.

The GCLID is a unique string of numbers that corresponds with the exact ad the user clicked on. These details include:

Campaign ID
Ad group ID
Keyword
Search query
Time of day
Ad creative
Ad position
Device type
And more

If you capture the GCLID in your reports, you can then import these into Google Ads account and see which specific campaigns resulted in a conversion. Here’s step-by-step instructions on how to do this.

Benefits of using GCLID

There are many benefits to using GCLID, including:

Improved tracking: By tracking the user’s journey from the ad click to the website conversion, advertisers can gain a better understanding of their advertising campaigns and make informed decisions about their ad spend.
Better conversion tracking: With GCLID, advertisers can track conversions more accurately, allowing them to make better decisions about their advertising campaigns and to optimize their ad spend for better results.
Better data for optimization: The data collected through GCLID can be used to optimize advertising campaigns for better results, including higher conversion rates and lower cost per conversion.

How to add GCLID

To make sure your GCLID tracking is working, you just need to enable auto-tagging in your Google Ads account.

Here’s how to check it’s set up correctly, and enable auto-tagging:

Sign in to your Google Ads account. In the left page menu, click “Settings.”
You’ll automatically see your campaign settings. Select “Account settings” in the left-hand menu.
Click the Auto-tagging section. To enable auto-tagging, check the box next to “Tag the URL that people click through from my ad.”
Hit “Save.”

How to automatically add GCLID to your Google Ads campaigns

If you’ve done this correctly, then you should now be seeing the GCLID parameter appended to your URLs on your landing pages after someone clicks your ad. If you don’t see it, then go here to help trouble-shoot your issue.

By understanding and utilizing GCLID, you can get the most out of your advertising campaigns and achieve better results. Adding GCLID can also help us better track your campaigns for fraud detection.

Whether you’re just starting out with Google Ads or are an experienced advertiser, understanding GCLID is critical to your success.