Connect Google Ads with SegMetrics

SegMetrics gives you the ability to analyze your Google Ads campaign performance and connect it to other data sources.

With that information, you can easily segment that data into your leads, find the automation triggers that convert to customers, understand where your most valuable leads are coming from, and more!

In This Article

• Integration Overview
• How to connect Google Ads to SegMetrics
• How to configure Google Ads
• How much historical data is synced when you first connect Google Ads to SegMetrics?
• How to build a Report with Google Ads
• Frequently asked questions

Integration Overview

SegMetrics takes the spend from Google Ads and purchases from your payment processor then connects them to the email addresses in your email marketing platform. 

You don't need to import the orders or tag people in a special way: they just need to be in your CRM account!

How to connect Google Ads to SegMetrics

1) Click on the gear icon in the top right corner and then click "Integrations"

2) Once you're on the Integrations page, scroll down to "Available" and click on Connect next to Google Ads

This will open the Activation window, which is where Google will ask you to confirm the connection.

3) Once you have connected Google Ads, you'll want to add the tracking value to your ads so that SegMetrics can connect individual users to each click on your ads.

How to configure Google Ads

When tracking Google AdWords with SegMetrics, you will need to configure your ads with the appropriate tracking value. In order for SegMetrics to track your ad-spend effectively, you need to add  ad_id={creative}  to the Final URL Suffix in the Ad URL Options. You can also add this code at the Account, Campaign or Ad Group level to automatically apply it to all ads. Instructions for this can be found on Google's documentation or as shown below.

If you would like to automatically generate your UTM values from your ads as well, you can use the following URL Parameters to track the ad-spend as well as UTM values in SegMetrics.

Here's how to set up your ad-tracking for AdWords

1. Make sure that the SegMetrics Tracking Pixel is installed on your site & landing pages.
2. From your Integrations Page, click on "Manage Settings" for AdWords, and choose "Install Ad Tracking"
3. Here will be a list of all the ads that we've detected as currently being active, and need to be updated.
4. Log into Your Google Ads Manager
5. Click All Campaigns on the left hand menu
6. Click Settings > Account Settings on the left hand sub-menu
7. From the Settings screen, click on Tracking
8. Enter the following code under "Final URL Suffix":

utm_campaign={campaignid}&utm_source={network}&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content={placement}&utm_term={keyword}&seg_aprod={product_id}&ad_id={creative}

9. Click the Test button to confirm that your links work, and that the ad_id has been attached to all the ads.
10. Click Save to complete your setup

Performance Max Campaigns

If you're running Performance Max (PMAX) campaigns, be sure to add the following tracking parameters at the campaign level for each PMAX campaign:

seg_acam={campaignid}&utm_campaign={campaignid}&utm_source={network}&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content={placement}&utm_term={keyword}&ad_id={creative}

Google Ads Custom Experiments

If you are running Custom Experiments for your google ads, this may cause your Google ad spend to look inflated inside of SegMetrics. This is because when a custom experiment is created, the campaigns and ads will retain the same ID numbers. Since SegMetrics uses the campaigns and ad IDs to match up ad spend to individual ads or campaigns, you might see greater ad spend for your Google ads than you actually spent. 

You can determined if and ad is being duplicated because the ad spend and ad clicks will be the same as another ad. However, the duplicate will not have any leads attributed to it.

The best way to resolve this is to filter out those custom experiment campaigns in your advertising reports.

Warning about URL Shorteners

It has come to our attention that most URL Shorteners will remove all UTM and Ad Tracking from the final URL,which breaks tracking in SegMetrics, Google Analytics, Keap, and any other tracking systems that you may use. We highly recommend using your FULL URL when creating ads, or use a custom redirection service that will keep the UTM and Ad Tracking values.

You can test this by taking your link shortener, and adding ?utm_campaign=test to the end of it.

Example:

If your final URL has the UTM value still attached, then your URL shortener will work. If not, we recommend using the full URL.

(NOTE: Bit.ly USED to pass UTM values to the final page, but they discontinued that feature. Be mindful that third party systems can change at any time

How much historical data is synced when you first connect Google Ads to SegMetrics?

When you connect a new Google Ads Data Source, we import the last month of ad spend, clicks and impressions for all currently active ads. Lead attribution will start as soon as the ads are configured for tracking.

Pro Tip: Once Google Ads is connected and actively syncing data, we store the data that's collected in our own database. This allows us to accumulate more data over time as more data syncs are made so that you can report on more historical Google Ads data in your SegMetrics reports.

How to build a Report using Google Ads data

Once your data is imported from Google Ads, you can create reports with the data to see how each touchpoint influences your sales.

1) Click Ad Reporting, then save it to name it

2) Select your desired filters based on dates, tags and touchpoints

3) Save it to come back to or to include the data in a custom dashboard

Frequently Asked Questions

What time zone is Google Ads data synced in?

Google Ads data is synced in UTC. SegMetrics reports on your data based in the timezone that you set in your Account Settings. 

Why am I not seeing clicks but not any leads in SegMetrics?

This can be caused by a couple of factors, but all are easy to solve. Please go through the checklist below to make sure that the tracking is set up correctly:

1. Confirm that the Tracking Pixel is installed on all the pages, including the Landing Page that the ads are pointing to, as well as any order forms or optins after the initial landing page. You can use the Tracking Pixel Debugger to make sure that the tracking is installed.
2. Make sure that ad_id={creative} is included in the Final URL Suffix and that the ad id is being correctly passed to the landing page.
3. Confirm that the leads are entering their email address on a page that has the Tracking Pixel installed, and that if you're using any 3rd Party optin forms (like Acuity, WebinarJam, etc) that they have the tracking pixel installed as well.
4. Finally, make sure that the leads are getting added to your email marketing system. (People not getting added to the marketing is more common than you think!)
5. If you're still not seeing leads come through, please contact us at support@segmetrics.io and we'll get you up and running ASAP!

Do I need the tracking link to get the data found in my Google Ads account?

You do not need to create a Tracking Link for SegMetrics to track visitors from ads, it will still gather the UTM data. Tracking Links provide a simple way to get further detail of exactly which link they clicked for ads, email broadcasts, or campaigns.

To learn how to create a tracking link, click here to be taken to our URL builder quick walkthrough.

Popular Google Ads Metrics

Ad Spend	Ad Clicks	Ad Impressions
Return On Ad Spend	Leads	Revenue