Google Ads (previously AdWords) is one of the main pay-per-click advertising platforms online, and setting up your TUNE tracking links to work with Ads only takes a few steps.
TUNE is an Official Google Certified Partner. You can use any go2cloud (or go2jump) tracking link for your Google Ads. If you want to use a Custom Domain, you need to apply for certification with Google here.
Create Campaign & Ad Group in Google Ads
First, you would want to create a campaign in Google Ads. An ad campaign focuses on one particular subject and can be tied to multiple ads. Provide information such as campaign name, keywords, locations, languages, bidding, and budget information.
Next, create an ad group in the campaign you just created. Name your ad group. An ad group is a collection of ads placed into a particular campaign. You can have one or more ads tied to a single campaign. Create ad groups targeting potential customers for each of your campaigns.
For example, you have an offer for Free Breadsticks in your TUNE network that you want to advertise on Google Ads. You can create a campaign for this offer in Google Ads and name it “Flamingo’s Pizza.” Then, you can create an ad group called “Breadsticks.”
Create an Ad
After setting up an ad group, you can create ads in the group and connect TUNE tracking to Google Ads. To start, click Create Ad, then fill out the fields:
- For the Final URL, use the preview URL from your TUNE account. You can find this on the offer page in the Details panel.
- Headline (Example: “Free breadsticks with every pizza purchase”)
- Description (Example: “Students save 20%!”)
- Under Ad URL options you will find the Tracking Template. Enter your TUNE tracking link as the tracking template and save your ad once you’re finished. Make sure you tick the “Google Ads” checkbox when generating your tracking link in TUNE, to make your link compatible with Google's requirements.
Note: If the Google Ads option does not appear for you, make sure the domain is Google Ads enabled under Company – Customize Application – Domain. Read more about this feature below under the Transparency Parameter headline.
Tip: To save time on entering tracking templates in Google Ads, you can set tracking templates at the account-, campaign-, and ad group levels.
Passing Google Ads Data to TUNE Tracking Links
We suggest using the source parameter when generating a tracking link to pass values from Google Ads into your TUNE tracking links. For example, if you want to track keywords being clicked on in Google Ads, set up your tracking link with {keyword}:
https://demo.go2jump.org/aff_c?offer_id=108&aff_id=26&source={keyword}
Similarly, you can pass in the ad placement value with {placement}:
https://demo.go2jump.org/aff_c?offer_id=108&aff_id=26&source={placement}
To view more optional parameters available within Google Ads, check out their documentation.
Parallel Tracking in Google Ads
Google Ads requires parallel tracking when working with measurement providers like TUNE. Using parallel tracking with TUNE involves setting up additional click and conversion tracking methods to handle the process. This is done primarily by associating TUNE sessions with the Google Click Identifier (glcid).
To use parallel tracking with TUNE, first, take the following steps:
- Contact our support team or your account manager and ask to enable the Custom Transaction ID feature. This allows TUNE to accept the GCLID as a custom transaction ID.
- Set your offer to use the “Server Postback w/ Transaction ID” tracking protocol.
Additional steps are required in Google Ads:
- From the main navigation, go to Settings > Account Settings.
- In the “Auto-tagging” card, check the box for “Tag the URL that people click through from my ad” to turn on auto-tagging.
- Click Save.
- In your Google Ads campaign, find your tracking template (your TUNE tracking link) and append &ad_id={gclid} to it.
Finally, you need to coordinate these changes with your advertiser:
- Provide them with your TUNE conversion link.
- Verify that your advertiser stores the “gclid” parameter from Google and returns it via postback to TUNE in the transaction_id conversion link parameter.
- Then, for conversion tracking in Google Ads, either:
- Your advertiser incorporates the AdWords conversion link and the TUNE conversion link.
- Or you load conversion data into Google Ads using offline conversion tracking.
Transparency Parameter
If you use Tracking Templates, Google Ads will require you to use a Transparency Parameter to specify the next immediate redirect in your click flow. For this purpose, TUNE provides a tracking link parameter named redirect_url, which complies with all Google requirements.
To have this feature turned on for one of your domains, navigate to Company – Customize Application – Domains and enable the Google Ads option.
Now when creating a tracking link for this domain, you will see a checkbox to make your link “Google Ads” compatible. This will automatically add the redirect_url parameter with your encoded Default Offer URL as the value. Example tracking link below:
https://demo.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=1&aff_id=2&redirect_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com
When a user clicks your Google Ad, TUNE will record the click and then redirect directly to the URL specified in the redirect_url parameter, while disregarding any other settings associated with the offer. Please note that this includes but is not limited to geo-targeting, advanced targeting, caps, deep links, and hide referrals.
TUNE has received certification for all go2cloud and go2jump subdomains. If you want to use a Custom Domain, you need to apply for certification with Google here.