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Google Ads Integration

In this guide, you will learn how to track google ads campaign with maxconv. We highly recommend integrate your google ads account with MaxConv to get following benefits:

  • Send conversions(including custom conversions) to Google Ads.
  • Sync your campaigns cost to MaxConv every one hour.
  • Manage Google Ads campaign status in MaxConv.
tip

If you want to add google ads as traffic source to run campaign without integrating with their api, click the "Skip Integration" button when adding google ads in traffic source.

Step 1. Add Google Ads to traffic source​

First, you need to add google ads as a traffic source in MaxConv, follow these steps:

  1. Go to "Traffic Sources" page in MaxConv panel, click Create button, then choose Google Ads in the list.

  2. Click the Connect to Google Ads button, a new window will pop up, sign in your google ads account, agree all the permission that MaxConv require.

flow-1.png

tip

MaxConv only require what is necessary, your ad account is 100% safe with integration.

After agree the permission, MaxConv will try to connect immediately, wait until you are forwarded to next step, then choose the ad account you want to integrate(If you have multiple ads account, you need to integrate them separately), and then click Next button to configure the integration.

flow-config.png

  • Auto Update Ad Spent: If enabled, MaxConv will fetch campaign spent data from ad network and sync it to maxconv every one hour.

  • Conversion Postback: If enabled, MaxConv will send conversions to google ads.

tip

There is no need to put something like post back url, all behavior is controlled by "Pass Conversions" switch, if the switch is on, maxconv will send conversions, if off, maxconv will not send conversions.

Choose the conversion action you want MaxConv sent to, only conversion actions with Import type are supported, read below Create Google Ads conversion action section to learn how to create a new conversion action.

If With conversion value is enabled, maxconv will also send conversion revenue and currency to google ads.

Click Save button.

Create Google Ads conversion action​

A conversion action is the destination that MaxConv send conversions to, if you don't have a conversion action, you can create a new one by following these steps:

  1. Sign in your google ads account, go to Tools and settins -> Measurement -> Conversions

  2. Click New conversion action button

conv-action-2.png

  1. Choose Import type, then choose Other data sources and Track conversions from click, click continue button.

conv-action-3.png

  1. Fill all required fields, remember the Conversion name, you will need it when creating integration.

conv-action-4.png

Then click continue button, just ignore the "What's next" form, close the creation page.

After creating new conversion action, you can click the "Reload" icon button next to the dropdown list in MaxConv, to reload the selection options.

Step 2. Add universal tracking script​

Then you need to add MaxConv universal tracking script to your landing page.

  1. Go to Settings >> Tracking, copy the universal tracking script.

  2. Open your landing page with a text editor, paste the universal tracking script between <head></head> tag.

tip

You can add your custom domain to host tracking script, however, if you don't have a domain, you can use the default domain.

  1. Modify your Call to Action (CTA) button, set your offer url as cta button href, use the {mc_click_id} as click id placeholder, tracking script will generate a click id and replace placeholder with actual click id.

For example, if you want to send click id to offer url as sub1, then your landing page source code should looks like:

lander-source-code

tip

If you want to redirect visitors to offer, or split-test multiple offers at a time, follow this guide:

Use rotator to run multiple offers

Step 3. Setting up campaign in Google Ads​

Now you should create campaign in google ads to drive traffic to your landing page.

  1. First, you need to set "Final URL suffix" in google ads. In MaxConv panel, edit google ads you have created in Step 1, copy the UTM Tracking Parameters

utm

  1. Go to your Google ads account settings, paste UTM Tracking Parameters into Tracking >> Final URL Suffix. Please make sure the Auto-tagging is enabled too.

suffix

tip

The account setting is only available in "All Campaign" page, so if you didn't see the account setting menu, switch to all campaigns view.

If you are running other campaigns with different url suffix, you can set Final URL suffix on campaign level.

  1. Then you can create new campaign in google ads, when editing Ads setting, put your landing page url into Final URL

url

That's it, you are all set now. If you want to add more campaigns, just repeat Step 3.

Manage campaign status in MaxConv​

All matched campaigns will have a platform icon next to the name:

camp-matched.png

To manage campaign status within MaxConv:

  1. Click the table setting icon on the right top of tablenm

table-setting.png

  1. Choose the Remote Status column, and holder your left click of mouse, drag it to top to change the column ordering, then save it.

remote-status.png

  1. Now you can check the current campaign status in google ads, and enable or pause it by clicking the "play" or "pause" icon next to the status.

toggle-status.png

Covnersion Discrepancies Between Google Ads and MaxConv​

After you've checked the "Postbacks" page to confirm your conversions are successfully sent to google ads, you may notice that conversions are missing from your google ads conversion reporting. You may also notice that there are other differences between your Google Ads reporting and MaxConv reporting. There are reasons for these discrepancies:

  • Differences in date range and reporting date. Any attributed conversions will appear in reporting in Google Ads organized by their impression or click time, while Maxconv report conversions by their converting time, so you may need to check google ads by converting time too, to do so, add the relevant "by conv. time" columns, such as Conversions (by conv. time) and Conv. value (by conv. time) in Google Ads, and make sure that the date range in Google Ads is wide enough to capture all the conversions, keeping in mind that the date range corresponds to the conversion Impression or Click time.

  • Expected conversion processing delays. You can expect a delay between a conversion being sent and being reported in Google Ads due to their conversion processing. Conversion processing typically takes less than 12 hours, but can take up to 72 hours if you use GBRAID and WBRAID-keyed conversions. Depending on the identifiers of conversions, you may need to wait a few days after uploading conversions before all your successful uploads are reflected in reporting.

  • Conversions not processed. Conversion Action with a count setting of "One" means only one conversion per ad interaction is counted. If multiple conversions were successfully uploaded for the same ad interaction, only one will be reported and the rest will be discarded. To check for this, add the column Repeat Rate on the "Conversion Summary" page in Google Ads. Then, if you notice a repeat rate is greater than one and has a count setting of "One", that means some conversions were discarded. If every conversion is valuable(such as purchase), we suggest to set count setting to "Every".

  • New Conversion Action. After creating a new conversion action, google ads need time to sync it to their system, the official recommended delay time is 6 hours, so after creating a new conversion action, you should wait at least 6 hour before runnning a campaign on that conversion action, otherwise, all conversions sent to it will be rejected.

  • Small Conversion Window. A conversion window is the period of time after an ad interaction (such as an ad click or video view) during which a conversion, such as a purchase, is recorded in Google Ads. If you set a small conversion window for a conversion action, for example, 7 days, then any conversion that happens more than 7 days after the ad interaction won't be recorded. This means it won't appear in your reports. We suggest to set maximum conversion window(90 days) for a conversion action.