{"id":556,"date":"2024-07-03T17:29:28","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T17:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloudamp.com\/news\/?p=556"},"modified":"2024-10-29T22:42:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T22:42:25","slug":"improve-lead-quality-with-google-microsoft-or-facebook-ad-click-ids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudamp.com\/news\/improve-lead-quality-with-google-microsoft-or-facebook-ad-click-ids\/","title":{"rendered":"Improve Lead Quality with Google, Microsoft, or Facebook Ad click IDs"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

How to optimize your lead gen advertising with gclid, msclkid, and fbclid data in Salesforce Leads.<\/b><\/h2>\n

You may be familiar with advertising click IDs (such as Gclid, Msclkid, and Fbclid) that are generated when users click on your ads on platforms like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

But are you using these ad click ID values to track and optimize your online advertising?<\/span><\/p>\n

You can even connect a click ID to a specific Lead it generated in Salesforce, to finally understand which specific ads and targeting resulted in later offline conversions and sales.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this article, we are going to do a deep dive on ad click IDs: what they are, how to enable them in your advertising settings, how to capture them in Salesforce, and ways you can use them to improve your marketing results.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What are Ad Click IDs?<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  2. How to Enable Google Click IDs (gclid)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  3. How to Enable Microsoft Click IDs (msclkid)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  4. How to Enable Facebook Click IDs (fbclid)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Capturing Ad Click IDs in Your Salesforce Leads<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Using Click IDs in Salesforce Leads to Optimize Ads<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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

    What are Ad Click IDs?<\/b><\/h2>\n

    Advertising click IDs are parameters that are automatically added to your ad URLs by online advertising platforms such as Google Ads, Microsoft Adcenter, and Facebook \/ Instagram. You may also hear them referred to as tags.<\/span><\/p>\n

    For example, you will see Google add a value to the end of your landing page URLs (the links to your website from Google ads), such as:<\/span><\/p>\n

    https:\/\/yoursite.com\/?<\/span>gclid<\/b>=EAIaIQobChNIrqW8rcCYgAMVioKGCh10JA9GEYA<\/span>YASAAEgI1CfD_BwE<\/span><\/pre>\n
     <\/p>\n
    In the link above, the tag or parameter added (<\/span>gclid=<\/b>) is the Google click ID or Gclid for short. And the value that Google automatically assigned to it, EAIaIQobChNIrqW8rcCYgAMVioKGCh10JA9GEYAYASAAEgI1CfD_BwE, is the unique code that identifies a user clicking on your ad.<\/span><\/p>\n
    Note that you cannot control or reuse these id values in your links, they are automatically added by the advertising platforms to identify a user’s click on your ad.<\/span><\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n
    Why Do Ad Clicks Matter?<\/b><\/h3>\n
    What is the value of understanding ad clicks, aside from improving your general knowledge of how one part of online ad tracking works?<\/span><\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n
    Because Ad clicks help identify a particular interaction with your advertising. In the case of Google\u2019s Gclid, it helps attribute a conversion to a specific campaign, ad group, keyword, and individual ad. It is a record of what happened that can be used to improve your advertising campaigns, and prove the return on investment (ROI) of particular marketing efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n
    With advertising IDs you can see which campaigns are driving the most conversions, as well as have a way of tagging the individual conversions themselves, so you can see when they produce sales in Salesforce.<\/span>
    \n    <\/a><\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n
    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
    How to Enable Google Click IDs (gclid)<\/b><\/h2>\n
    To add Google Click IDs (gclids) to your Google Ad links, simply ensure a feature called auto-tagging is enabled. Log into your Google Ads account, and check the following:<\/span><\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n
      \n
    1. Click the <\/span>Admin<\/b> gear 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
      Google Auto-Tagging Considerations<\/b><\/h3>\n
      Auto-tagging is simple to enable, but keep in mind that gclids can be up to 100 characters long. So ensure that your website and any redirects can handle a tag value of that length. When in doubt, check with your web developer and run some tests.<\/span><\/p>\n
       <\/p>\n
      A number of years back there were also issues with enabling auto-tagging when you also had manual tags in your URLs (like utm_campaign, or content parameters unique to your website). There were issues with duplicate tracking data from combining both methods, but these have been fixed by Google.<\/span><\/p>\n
       <\/p>\n
      Today many marketers combine both Google auto-tagging and manual UTM tags, since manual UTM parameters are required for systems like CloudAmp to capture data into Salesforce, and provide a way of better structuring your tracking data.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
       <\/p>\n
      If you have Google Ads connected to Google Analytics, analytics will use the gclids to pull information about the visitor who clicked on your ad. There is even a setting on the Google Analytics side to \u201c<\/span>Allow manual tagging (UTM values) to override auto-tagging (GCLID values)<\/b>\u201d<\/span>
      \n      <\/a><\/p>\n
       <\/p>\n
      \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
      How to Enable Microsoft Click IDs (msclkid)<\/b><\/h2>\n
      Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) uses the Microsoft Click ID (MSCLKID) to track user activity via the UET tag on your website. (Note there is a K in msclkid, unlike the Google gclid and Facebook fbclid tags).<\/span><\/p>\n
       <\/p>\n
      Microsoft Ads are considered a more affordable option compared to Google Ads, so many marketers run similar campaigns on both platforms to maximize traffic and leads.<\/span><\/p>\n
       <\/p>\n
        \n
      1. From the left side menu, select <\/span>All campaigns > Settings > Account level options<\/b>.<\/span>\n
          \n
        1. Or in the new navigation, hover over <\/span>Campaigns<\/b> and select <\/span>Settings > Account level options.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
        2. Check the <\/span>Add Microsoft Click ID (MSCLKID) to URLs to allow conversion tracking<\/b> checkbox.<\/span><\/li>\n
        3. Click <\/span>Save<\/b>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
           <\/p>\n
          Universal Event Tracking (UET) is the tag on your website that records what customers do, and relays the data back to Microsoft Advertising for conversion tracking, automated bidding features, and audience targeting.<\/span><\/p>\n
           <\/p>\n
          The msclkid click ID will be included in all subsequent UET events fired whenever the same customer visits your page, thereby allowing you to track the conversion from this customer on your site.<\/span>
          \n          <\/a><\/p>\n
           <\/p>\n
          \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
          How to Enable Facebook Click IDs (fbclid)<\/b><\/h2>\n
          Facebook Click IDs (fbclid) are automatically added to your Facebook and Instagram advertising links, as well as external links in regular, non-sponsored posts.<\/span><\/p>\n
           <\/p>\n
          There is no setting to enable them, and you will not be able to create ads with fbclids in the URLs — the fbclid parameter and string of characters must be added by Facebook and is unique to that click.<\/span><\/p>\n
           <\/p>\n
          The one setup step required is making sure you have the Facebook Pixel installed on your website. This code allows you to track conversions and user behavior on your site, and sends this data back to Facebook.<\/span>
          \n          <\/a><\/p>\n
          Capturing Ad Click IDs in Your Salesforce Leads<\/b><\/h2>\n
          There are several options for recording the various advertising click IDs in your Salesforce leads, so you can see which advertising created an individual lead.<\/span><\/p>\n
           <\/p>\n
          Most importantly, capturing this data gives you visibility into offline conversions that might happen weeks or months later in Salesforce. By offline conversions, we mean sales that happen at some point in the future, long after the visit to your website from a user clicking on an advertisement.<\/span><\/p>\n
           <\/p>\n
          While Google, Microsoft and Facebook can provide tracking from sales that happen during the initial visit from an ad, such as in some eCommerce, for more considered purchases such as B2B software or higher ticket consumer items, Salesforce can help you attribute sales that happen \u201coffline\u201d to the original advertising campaign and targeting that brought that lead to you originally.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
           <\/p>\n
          You can also upload that conversion data with ad IDs back into Google and Microsoft advertising, though normally just for conversions within 90 days. So if you have a longer sales cycle, you may need to upload conversions to leads, or from leads to open opportunities, rather than click IDs with closed won opportunities. We\u2019ll get into that in more detail later in this article.<\/span><\/p>\n
           <\/p>\n
          There are three basic ways to capture ad clicks in Salesforce:<\/span><\/p>\n
            \n
          1. Custom web development<\/span><\/li>\n
          2. Google Tag Manager<\/span><\/li>\n
          3. Marketing attribution apps<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
             <\/p>\n
            Custom Web Development<\/b><\/h3>\n
            Your organization may have already developed custom code to add UTM tags and other source data in your Salesforce web-to-lead forms. If so, you should ask your web developer to begin capturing the 3 ad click parameters (gclid, msclkid, fbclid) as well.<\/span><\/p>\n
             <\/p>\n
            The ad click parameters should be able to be captured similarly to any other URL parameter, though they are a bit longer than your typical parameter value (60 – 100+ characters typically).<\/span><\/p>\n
             <\/p>\n
            Google Tag Manager<\/b><\/h3>\n
            If you are an advanced Google Tag Manager (GTM) user, you can use it to create a script that will capture Ad click ID parameters, though you will still need to do some custom work to use the values.<\/span><\/p>\n
             <\/p>\n
              \n
            1. Go to Google Tag Manager and create a new <\/span>User-Defined Variable<\/b>.<\/span><\/li>\n
            2. Choose <\/span>URL<\/b> as the variable type.<\/span><\/li>\n
            3. Set the component type to <\/span>Query<\/b> and the Query Key to “<\/span>msclkid<\/b>” (or \u201cgclid\u201d or \u201cfbclid\u201d)<\/span><\/li>\n
            4. Name the variable (e.g., “MSCLKID Variable”).<\/span><\/li>\n
            5. Create a trigger to fire on all page views.<\/span><\/li>\n
            6. Create a tag that sends the captured variable to your analytics tool or stores it in a cookie \/ local web browser storage.<\/span><\/li>\n
            7. Set up the tag to fire on the trigger you created.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
               <\/p>\n
              Marketing Attribution Apps<\/b><\/h3>\n
              Many marketers should be able to use their marketing attribution software to capture ad click parameters, though not all will have that capability, or expose the values inside Salesforce leads.<\/span><\/p>\n
               <\/p>\n
              Since we provide the CloudAmp Campaign Tracker software for Salesforce, this article will provide instructions on how to implement that software to capture click IDs. CloudAmp captures all three ad click IDs (gclid, msclkid, and fbclid) from both the first and last touch (first and last visits to your website), so you get a complete picture of how a lead interacted with your advertising.<\/span><\/p>\n
              Capturing Ad Click IDs with the Campaign Tracker<\/b><\/h3>\n
                \n
              1. Install the <\/span>CloudAmp Campaign Tracker<\/span><\/a> in Salesforce with a 30 day trial<\/span><\/li>\n
              2. Add the <\/span>tracking script<\/span><\/a> to your website footer.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
              3. For a quick overview of the process, see our <\/span>Quick Start Guide<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                Once the Campaign Tracker is installed and working, you can test to make sure the ad click parameters are successfully showing up in Salesforce. For testing, you do not need to click on one of your ads, but can use our <\/span>spreadsheet template download<\/span><\/a> to generate test URLs, and add a test gclid, msclkid, or fbclid parameter at the end of any URL in this format:<\/span><\/p>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                &gclid=<\/b>9949435394i5322urwiehr<\/span><\/pre>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                So a test URL format would be similar to:<\/span><\/p>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                https<\/span>:<\/span>\/\/www.yoursite.com?utm_campaign=CampaignOct23&utm_medium=PPC&<\/span>utm_source<\/span>=Google&utm_id=Goog_04&utm_content=Adgroup3&utm_term=Keyword3&gclid=9949435394i5322urwiehr<\/span><\/pre>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                Once you have submitted a test lead or two, check Salesforce. You will see the gclid value from your URL in either the \u201cFirst gclid\u201d or \u201cLast gclid\u201d field on the new lead. Similarly, the msclkid and fbclid values will be in the \u201cFirst msclkid\u201d or \u201cLast msclkid\u201d fields, and the fbclid in the \u201cFirst fbclid\u201d or \u201cLast fbclid\u201d fields.<\/span>
                \n                <\/a><\/p>\n
                \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
                Using Click IDs in Salesforce Leads to Optimize Ads<\/b><\/h2>\n
                When you associate click IDs with individual leads in Salesforce, you can analyze the performance of your campaigns in a much more accurate way. Not only can you understand which campaigns drive the most leads and conversions, but you can attribute offline conversions and revenue to each campaign, and calculate the return on investment (ROI).<\/span><\/p>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                Automated tools such as Google\u2019s Smart Bidding and Microsoft Advertising Bid Strategies will use Gclid and Msclkid data respectively to adjust your CPC bids dynamically based on their estimates of a click resulting in a conversion.<\/span><\/p>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                But only by connecting ad click ID data with CRM systems like Salesforce will enable you to get a holistic view of your campaigns, tracking the entire funnel from ad click to conversion to sale.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                Frustratingly, none of the advertising platforms allow you to look up the ad clicks directly in their reporting interfaces, so you cannot review the ads and keywords from individual conversions. All 3 only make the Ad IDs (gclid, msclkid, and fbclid) available via their API reporting interfaces, which requires custom coding. Google and Microsoft do allow you to import offline conversion data with ad IDs from Salesforce however.<\/span><\/p>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                So here are some specific techniques you can use with Ad click IDs in Salesforce. We\u2019ll start with general optimization strategies, and then go into specifics about how you can review Ad IDs stored in Salesforce on each advertising platform.<\/span><\/p>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                Advertising Optimization Strategies using Click IDs in Salesforce<\/b><\/h3>\n
                Inside of Salesforce, you can use conversions associated with Click IDs, as well as other campaign values such as utm_campaign or utm_term (keyword) to optimize advertising campaign performance in the following ways:<\/span><\/p>\n
                 <\/p>\n
                Keyword Optimization<\/b><\/p>\n