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Integrating with Google Ads

  • Updated

Google Ads (previously AdWords) is one of the main pay-per-click advertising platforms online, and setting up your partner tracking links from TUNE to work with Ads only takes a few steps.

Set Up Custom Tracking Domain

Before having partners start running traffic through Google Ads campaigns, we recommend updating your network’s tracking links to use a custom tracking domain. Using a custom tracking domain greatly increases the likelihood of a partner’s tracking link being approved to run in Google Ads.

Create Campaign & Ad Group in Google Ads

Once tracking links are set up with a custom tracking domain, you can create a campaign in Google Ads. An ad campaign focuses on one particular subject and can be tied to multiple ads. Provide information like campaign name, keywords, locations, languages, bidding, and budget.

Next, create an ad group in the campaign you just created. Name your ad group. An ad group is the collection of ads that are 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. In Google Ads, you can create a campaign for this offer and name it something like “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 Ad URL options (advanced) in the Google Ads ad creation form. Then fill out the following fields:

  • Headline (Example: “Free breadsticks with every pizza purchase”)
  • Description (Example: “Students save 20%!”)
  • Final URL
  • Tracking Template

For the final URL, use the preview URL from your TUNE network. You can find this in TUNE on an offer’s page. At the top right of the Details panel, click Edit and find the Preview URL field.

For tracking templates, use a tracking link from TUNE. Go to the offer’s page in TUNE and find the Generate Tracking panel. Select the partner you want to record statistics for, and copy the value in the Tracking Link field.

Enter the TUNE tracking link as the tracking template in Google Ads, and save your ad in Google Ads once you’re finished.

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

To pass values from Google Ads into your TUNE tracking links, we suggest using the source parameter when generating a tracking link. 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 methods of click and conversion tracking to handle the process. This is done primarily by also associating sessions in TUNE with the Google Click Identifier (GCLID).

To use parallel tracking with TUNE, first, take the following steps:

  1. 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.
  2. Set your offer to use the “Server Postback w/ Transaction ID” tracking protocol.

Additional steps are required in Google Ads:

  1. From the main navigation, go to Settings > Account Settings.
  2. In the “Auto-tagging” card, check the box for “Tag the URL that people click through from my ad” to turn on auto-tagging.
  3. Click Save.
  4. 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:

  1. Provide them with your TUNE conversion link as usual.
  2. Verify that your advertiser stores the “gclid” parameter from Google, and returns it via postback to TUNE in the transaction_id conversion link parameter.
  3. Then for conversion tracking in Google Ads, either:
    • Your advertiser incorporates the AdWords conversion link in addition to the TUNE conversion link.
    • Or you load conversion data into Google Ads using offline conversion tracking.

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