Ensure your product click tracking is set up to accurately track clicks when using Google Ads tracking with third-party tools such as Adobe, Tripe Whale, or Tableau or your own internal systems as the reporting source of truth. By following the recommendations in this article, you can ensure that your third-party tool or internal systems are correctly attributing credit to the campaign responsible.
Accurate click tracking allows you to understand which campaigns are driving traffic to your website and which products are performing well. This information is crucial for optimizing your campaigns and maximizing your return on investment.
On this page
- Product feeds and multiple tracking systems
- Tracking best practices
- About tracking templates
- Options for tracking product feed clicks
Product feeds and multiple tracking systems
When you have a product feed attached to your campaigns, the ad served has a call-to-action button that will use the final URL set up in Google Ads. The product feed ad will use the final URL, as well as any tracking set up in Merchant Center, such as ads redirect [ads_redirect].
This product information is used across various campaign types, such as Performance Max, standard Shopping campaigns, and Demand Gen. If your Merchant Center tracking was primarily set up for standard Shopping campaigns, when a new campaign type with product feed is created, it can look like product clicks from these new campaigns are coming from standard Shopping campaigns. This can lead to inaccurate reporting and poor decision-making.
Tracking best practices
- Avoid hard-coded tracking parameters: Move hard-coded tracking parameters (for example, UTMs) away from the ad URL and the Merchant Center product URL. This will prevent losing the ability to track product clicks and allow flexibility as Merchant Center product URLs are shared across Google Ads and are agnostic to campaign type. Instead, use Google Ads tracking template with either or both ValueTrack and custom parameters.
- Network-level tracking: If more detailed network-level click tracking is needed (for example, YouTube, Gmail, Discover), note that there are current limitations in using ValueTrack parameters.
- Correct field selection: Make sure that you are making changes in the correct field in the Google Merchant Center, so it doesn’t impact all ad traffic, or even free listings.
About tracking templates
- A tracking template at the ad group, campaign, or account level applies to all of the ads in the corresponding ad group, campaign, or account, respectively.
- If you define multiple tracking templates at different levels, the most specific template is used. For example, the keyword tracking template is the most specific followed by the ad, ad group, campaign, then account.
- Use https:// instead of http:// in the tracking template to make sure your click measurements and redirects aren’t interrupted.
- If you use a third-party click tracker, refer to your provider for instructions on their preferred format for the tracking template.
Options for tracking product feed clicks
Choose one of the following 2 options to track product feed clicks. Although the instructions for both options are similar, they differ in steps 1 and 5.
Option 1 (recommended)
This option involves making a one-time change in Merchant Center and leveraging Google Ads tracking templates. This is the recommended approach for long-term success and maximum flexibility. Tracking parameters are not meant to be hard coded, especially now that Merchant Center feeds are used across campaign types.
Option 2
This option involves using Google Ads tracking templates to differentiate traffic sources without modifying the existing tracking parameter in the Merchant Center URL. This option involves collaboration with your third-party provider or internal tracking system to make sure the right parameter is prioritized.
Instructions
- Start with your chosen option:
- Option 1: Remove any parameters in your Merchant Center URL that are specific to a particular channel or ad format.
- Option 2: Don't modify the existing tracking parameters in your Merchant Center URL.
- Use Google Ads tracking templates to identify the campaign type and other variants you want to track.
- Add a custom parameter to the tracking template at the campaign, ad group, or ad level. For example:
- The actual parameter value is customizable and should align with your third-party or internal system. For instance, if your internal system identifies Demand Gen as "dg_1234," use that value instead of "Demand Gen."
- Add a custom parameter to the tracking template at the campaign, ad group, or ad level. For example:
- Ensure you include
{lpurl}in the tracking template at the appropriate level (for example, campaign, ad group, or ad) you want to track, as tracking otherwise breaks.- For clicks on the product image: Google fills in
{lpurl}with the Google Merchant Center URL for the product. - For clicks on the call-to-action: Google fills in
{lpurl}with the final URL setup in Google Ads for the ad.
- For clicks on the product image: Google fills in
- Use the landing page URL report or the Test function as shown below to check that your tracking works.
- Finish setting up according to your chosen option:
- Option 1: Ensure your third-party or internal system can read and correctly classify traffic based on the Google Ads tracking template parameters.
- Option 2: Enable the third-party or internal system to prioritize the Google Ads customer parameter over the parameters in the Merchant Center URL.
