{"id":462,"date":"2024-04-19T21:54:11","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T21:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloudamp.com\/news\/?p=462"},"modified":"2024-10-29T22:43:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T22:43:29","slug":"how-to-connect-salesforce-and-google-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudamp.com\/news\/how-to-connect-salesforce-and-google-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Connect Salesforce and Google Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you track Leads and Opportunities in Salesforce\u2019s Sales Cloud, you can link your Google Ads account to import your conversions from Salesforce into Google Ads. This will help you better measure how your online Google Ad spend is generating offline conversions and revenue, as well as allow Google to optimize your advertising using Salesforce Opportunity data if you choose.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you are using the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker to attribute advertising campaigns to your leads, you are already capturing the key that connects the two systems – the Google Click ID, or Gclid. In that case the setup is much quicker and easier than it would be otherwise, and you can skip to section 3, <\/span>Salesforce Configuration Steps<\/span><\/a>. Otherwise, read on.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\ud83d\udd99 Note: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Even if you are not using CloudAmp, these steps will help you connect Salesforce and Google Ads. Whether you use different Salesforce lead attribution software, or plan to have your web developer capture the Gclid with custom website form code, the basic steps are the same.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this guide, we\u2019ll show you how to set Salesforce to import conversions into Google Ads. Topics include everything from tagging on the Google side, to your Salesforce setup, all the way to using the conversion data in Google.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Enable Auto-tagging in Google Ads<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Capturing the Gclid In Salesforce<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Salesforce Configuration Steps<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Link Salesforce and Google Ads accounts<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Understanding Conversion Data<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Using Salesforce Conversion Data in Google<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. External Resources<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n

    Enable Auto-tagging in Google Ads<\/b><\/h2>\n

    Your first step in connecting Salesforce and Google ads is to make sure Google is adding the Gclid parameter to your ad URLs, a process known as \u201cauto-tagging\u201d. This setting may already be enabled, since it is required for connecting Google Ads to Google Analytics, as well as for Google Ads website conversion tracking. But it\u2019s best to make sure, as without the Gclid parameters, the rest of this configuration won\u2019t work.<\/span><\/p>\n

    What is a Gclid?<\/span><\/h3>\n

    When someone clicks on a link in one of your Google Ads, your website will see the Gclid, or \u201cGoogle Click ID\u201d value in the incoming URL. The Gclid is a unique, long string of letters and numbers that identifies the particular ad a visitor clicked on in Google\u2019s system.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    When that visitor submits a form on your web site, and creates a Lead in Salesforce, the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker automatically adds that Gclid to the lead record. If you use a different technology to capture UTM and other url parameters, you may be able to get the Gclid a similar way.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    When a Lead is converted, and creates an Account, Contact and Opportunity, the Gclid follows along to the Contact, as well as to the Opportunity (once you have completed the setup below).<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Google Ads will then periodically check Salesforce, to see if any of the Opportunities with Stages (as you configure during the setup) are associated with the unique Gclid IDs. If so, it will count those stages as conversions attributed to that particular Google Ad click.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    How to Turn On Auto-tagging in Google Ads<\/span><\/h3>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Enabling auto-tagging in Google Ads is easy. Once you are logged in to your Google Ads account, simply do the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Click <\/span>Admin<\/b> from the left side menu<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Click the <\/span>Account Settings<\/b> tab<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Click the <\/span>Auto-tagging<\/b> section<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. Select \u201cTag the URL that people click through from my ad.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
    5. Click <\/span>Save<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Auto-Tagging Considerations<\/span><\/h3>\n

      Auto-tagging is simple to enable, but there are a few situations where it may cause issues. If you have special redirects on your web site, be sure they can handle long parameters, as the gclid value can be up to 100 characters long.<\/span>
      \n<\/span>
      \n<\/span>In addition, some websites are not compatible with auto-tagging because they do not allow arbitrary parameters in URLs. Occasionally web servers rewrite the case of incoming URLs to all lower case letters as well, which won\u2019t cause errors but can throw off the tracking data, since gclid values can contain both uppercase and lowercase letters. Both of these situations are pretty rare, but if you have any issues during testing, you might check with your web developer.<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Manual Tags and Auto-Tagging<\/span><\/h3>\n

       <\/p>\n

      In the past it was not recommended to enable auto-tagging if you also had manual tags (like utm parameters) in your Google Ad urls. This was because in certain cases it could result in duplicate or conflicting tracking data, but that issue has been largely resolved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Many customers today use both auto-tagging and manual UTM tags, since manual UTM parameters are required for systems like CloudAmp to capture data into Salesforce, as well as providing a tracking data source independent of the Google ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Note: If you are using both manual tags and gclids via auto-tagging, on the Google Analytics side there is a setting to \u201c<\/span>Allow manual tagging (UTM values) to override auto-tagging (GCLID values).<\/b>\u201d That way your manual UTM tags can override but be supplemented the values from the gclid at the same time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      If you are using Google Analytics for conversion tracking, you may wish to have that setting disabled. That way, Google Analytics will pull its internal values from the Gclid, rather than using the manual UTM tags. The manual tags will still be available for reporting in Salesforce via CloudAmp or other systems, but there won\u2019t be any potential for conflict (such as the default medium of cpc being overridden to a value from your manual utm_medium tag). For more details, check out Google\u2019s documentation, since Google Analytics is a whole different topic, outside the scope of this guide to connecting Google Ads and Salesforce!<\/span>
      \n      <\/a><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Capturing the Gclid In Salesforce<\/b><\/h2>\n

      If you have developed custom code to populate UTM parameters and other source data in your Salesforce web-to-lead forms, then you should ask your web developer to begin capturing the GCLID value as well. Google provides some sample javascript code in its documentation for how to \u201c<\/span>Edit your website to collect and save the click ID.<\/span><\/a>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      For most marketers, your marketing attribution software should be able to automatically capture the GCLID. Since CloudAmp publishes the Campaign Tracker software for Salesforce, which automatically captures the GCLID (as well as other advertising IDs, like Microsoft\u2019s MSCLKID), we are going to provide instructions based on our own app.<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      First install the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker in Salesforce, and add the tracking script to your website footer. Setup can normally be done in minutes, depending on your ability to update your website. For a quick overview of the process, see our <\/span>Quick Start Guide<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>
      \n<\/span>
      \n<\/span>Once the Campaign Tracker is up and running, you can test to make sure the GCLID parameter is successfully showing up in Salesforce. No need to click on one of your ads, you can use our <\/span>      spreadsheet template download<\/span><\/a> to generate test URLs, and then add a test GCLID parameter at the end of any URL in this format:<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      &gclid=<\/b>9949435394i5322urwiehr<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      So a test URL format would be similar to:<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      https:\/\/www.yoursite.com?utm_campaign=CampaignOct23&utm_medium=PPC&utm_source=Google&utm_id=Goog_04&utm_content=Adgroup3&utm_term=Keyword3&gclid<\/strong>=9949435394i5322urwiehr<\/pre>\n
       <\/p>\n
      Once you have submitted a test lead or two, check Salesforce. You should see the value from your URL in either the \u201cFirst gclid\u201d or \u201cLast gclid\u201d field on the new lead:<\/span><\/p>\n
      \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
      <\/a><\/p>\n
       <\/p>\n
      Salesforce Configuration Steps<\/b><\/h2>\n
      Now that you are successfully capturing the GCLID in new Salesforce leads, it is time to add the field required by Google for linking to Salesforce. Using CloudAmp, we\u2019ll just map the CloudAmp GCLID field to the field that Google is looking for in its integration.<\/span><\/p>\n
       <\/p>\n
      1. Add GCLID field to Salesforce Opportunity<\/span><\/h3>\n
      \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
        \n
      1. Click on the <\/span>Gear<\/b> Icon and select <\/span>Setup<\/b><\/li>\n
      2. Go to <\/span>Object Manager<\/b> and select <\/span>Opportunity<\/b><\/li>\n
      3. Click <\/span>Fields & Relationships<\/b> on the left side<\/span><\/li>\n
      4. Click <\/span>New<\/b> and then select <\/span>Text<\/b> to create a custom field with the Field Name “GCLID” (in all capital letters, without the quotes).\u00a0<\/span>\n
          \n
        1. The \u201cField Label\u201d can be anything you want.<\/span><\/li>\n
        2. Set the field length to 255 characters.<\/span><\/li>\n
        3. Make this field read-only so your users don’t accidentally alter it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
          2. Check the Opportunity History Tracking<\/span><\/h3>\n
           <\/p>\n
            \n
          1. Click <\/span>Set History Tracking<\/b> button top right<\/span><\/li>\n
          2. Enable field history tracking for the “Stage” field.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
            3. Map Campaign Tracker Lead Fields to the New Opp Fields<\/span><\/h3>\n
             <\/p>\n
              \n
            1. Go to <\/span>Object Manager<\/b> and select <\/span>Lead<\/b><\/li>\n
            2. Click <\/span>Fields & Relationships<\/b> on the left side<\/span><\/li>\n
            3. Click <\/span>Map Lead Fields button <\/b>top right<\/span><\/li>\n
            4. Click <\/span>Opportunity<\/b> in the center to the right of Account and Contact columns<\/span><\/li>\n
            5. Scroll down to <\/span>First Gclid<\/b>. Select the GCLID field you just created in the right hand column<\/span><\/li>\n
            6. Click <\/span>Save<\/b> at the bottom of the page<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
              \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
              <\/a><\/p>\n
               <\/p>\n
              Link Salesforce and Google Ads accounts<\/b><\/h2>\n
               <\/p>\n
              \n\n\n\n
              Note: In early 2024, the “Linked Accounts” page under Admin was moved to “Data manager” under Tools. Google consolidated capabilities in their Ads Data Manager, which is a data import and management tool that lets you bring your customer data and activate it in Google Ads.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
              \n
              <\/h3>\n
              Connect Salesforce Opportunities to Google Ads<\/span><\/h3>\n
               <\/p>\n
                \n
              1. Sign in to your <\/span>Google Ads account<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n
              2. Click <\/span>Tools<\/b>  from the left side menu<\/span><\/li>\n
              3. Click <\/span>Data Manager <\/b>on the left side.<\/span><\/li>\n
              4. Click the <\/span>+ Connect Product<\/b> blue button<\/span><\/li>\n
              5. Choose <\/span>Salesforce<\/b> as your data source<\/span><\/li>\n
              6. Select the SObject (Saleforce object) that you wish to import data for, such as Opportunity<\/b><\/li>\n
              7. When the source fields from Salesforce appear, Edit the Field Mapping<\/span>\n