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Connect your Google Ads to Adtraction

In this article, we explain how to connect Google Ads and Adtraction. This integration sends your affiliate conversion data directly to Google Ads, enabling you to optimize campaign performance effectively.

Linus Wickberg avatar
Written by Linus Wickberg
Updated this week

Connecting Google Ads to Adtraction

This tool links your Adtraction conversions to your Google Ads campaigns, allowing you to measure your ROI and optimize your keywords and ad copy.

Conversions are automatically uploaded from Adtraction to your Google Account every night. This allows you to use Google Ads automated bidding and optimization features which use historical conversion data to drive better results from your campaigns.

Link your Adtraction and Google Ads accounts

This grants Adtraction the permission to upload conversion data directly to your Google Ads account.

  1. In your Adtraction account, navigate to Tools -> Google Ads in the left-hand menu.

  2. Click the "Sign in with Google" button.
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  3. Log in using the email address associated with your Google Ads account, and click allow to grant permissions.

  4. If you manage multiple Google Ads accounts, a list will appear. Select the account(s) you wish to connect, then click Connect.

Enable Auto-Tagging in Google Ads

Auto-tagging ensures that every ad click is tagged with a unique Google Click Identifier ($gclid$) which is essential for tracking.

  1. Log into your Google Ads account.

  2. Navigate to Admin -> Account Settings and then click the Auto-tagging section.

  3. Ensure that Auto-tagging is set to Yes. If not, select it and save your changes.

Install the Adtraction Conversion JavaScript

This script captures the $gclid$ from your landing page URL and passes it to Adtraction. The script must be installed on every page to which you send Google Ads traffic.

  1. In your Adtraction account, navigate back to the Google Ads tool page.

  2. Select the correct channel (e.g., your primary website). A unique JavaScript code is generated for each channel.

  3. Copy the generated JavaScript code.

  4. Paste the code on your website just before the closing </body> tag on all relevant pages.

Please note:

If you use link cloaking plugins (like ThirstyAffiliates or PrettyLinks) or custom redirects, they may strip the $gclid$ parameter from the URL.

  • Plugin Configuration: Configure your plugin to explicitly pass query strings to the destination URL.

  • Script Modification (for Plugins): Activate $gclid$ forwarding in your Adtraction script by appending $&links=1$ to the end of the script URL.

  • Custom Redirects: If you use custom redirect scripts (e.g., PHP), you must ensure they explicitly forward the $gclid$ value. Ready-made scripts for this are available in the Adtraction help resources.

If you're using custom redirects to hide your tracking links, you need to make sure your scripts are passing the gclid value to your Adtraction links. We provide ready-made scripts for this in JavaScript and PHP which can be found on the Google Ads setting page.

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