How to Add Account-Wide UTM Parameters to Your Google Ads

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UTM parameters are an essential tool for tracking the performance of your Google Ads campaigns. They help marketers track the performance of individual campaigns, ad groups, and keywords, providing valuable insights into which efforts are driving the most traffic and conversions to your website. However, manually creating tracking parameter strings can be time-consuming and error-prone.

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Thankfully, there is a solution to this problem. By automating the process, marketers can save time and reduce the risk of errors. One way to automate the process is by turning on the account-level Google Click Identifier (GCLID) and setting up account-level UTM parameters. This allows you to track the performance of your campaigns at the account level, rather than having to track each individual campaign separately.

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Another way to automate the process is by using a script to create ad-group-level custom parameters. This allows you to track the performance of specific ad groups and keywords, providing even more granular insights into the performance of your campaigns.

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Tracking parameters originated from Urchin Software Corp, which Google acquired in 2005. Before then, Urchin created a process for tracking clicks on an URL called “Urchin tracking module” (UTM). Google retained that methodology. GCLID is Google's method of passing click info from Ads to Analytics. This method allows for passing more data than UTM and it's more accurate.

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By automating the process of creating tracking parameter strings, marketers can save time and reduce the risk of errors. With the right tools and a bit of planning, you can use UTM parameters and GCLID to gain valuable insights into the performance of your Google Ads campaigns, and make data-driven decisions to improve their performance.

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GCLID

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Tracking the performance of your online ad campaigns is crucial for understanding which efforts are driving the most traffic and conversions to your website. For companies that use Google Analytics to track ad performance, the Google Click Identifier (GCLID) may be the simplest way to measure ad campaign success. This URL tracking parameter uses a unique code to pass detailed information from Google Ads to Google Analytics, providing valuable insights into the performance of your campaigns.

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One of the advantages of using GCLID is that it can be enabled at the account level. This means that all of the account's campaigns and ads will include it, making it easy to track the performance of all your campaigns in one place. To turn on GCLID auto-tagging, you will need to:

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1. Open Google Ads

2. From the account level, select “Settings”

3. In the drop-down, choose “Account Settings”

4. Open the “Auto-tagging” section

5. Select “Tag the URL that people click through from my ad”

6. Save

7. Once turned on, the GCLID will be added to all ad URLs. 

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UTM Parameters

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UTM parameters are a powerful tool for tracking the performance of your online marketing campaigns. They consist of five sections that provide valuable information about the source, medium, campaign, keywords, and content of the traffic to your website. However, not all analytics tools and platforms can use or interpret the GCLID, which is a unique identifier for a click on a Google ad. But, these systems can almost certainly parse UTM parameters, which can be used as an alternative.

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UTM parameters are made up of five sections, each with its own specific function. The utm_source section describes the ad platform, social media site, or content source of the visit. Examples include “Google,” “Facebook,” or “newsletter.” The utm_medium section tracks the type of traffic. For Google Ads campaigns, this is often “ad” or “cpc.” The utm_campaign section is the campaign name or identifier. The utm_term section captures paid keywords. Finally, the utm_content section indicates something about the ad creative, such as “video” or “search” or something important about the ad, perhaps a target audience.

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One of the advantages of using UTM parameters is the ability to create account-level UTM parameters in Google Ads. This allows you to track the performance of your campaigns at the account level, rather than having to track each individual campaign separately. To create account-level UTM parameters in Google Ads, you will need to:

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1. Open Google Ads

2. From the account level, select “Settings”

3. In the drop-down, choose “Account Settings”

4. Open the “Tracking” section

5. Paste in a tracking template

6. Click “Save”

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