Attribution with click IDs of Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Awin, and other tools.

When a user sees an ad or clicks an ad that is tracked via the Ingenious Platform, the tracking automatically records several data points with the interaction, such as the interaction type, the device, the browser and more.
Part of the data points that can be recorded are IDs that reference a specific user interaction in other marketing tools such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads or public affiliate networks such as Awin. Typically, such systems will assign an ID to an interaction. For example, Google Ads assigns a click ID to a click, which you may know from the parameter gclid.

The Ingenious Platform automatically records IDs of other tools if it receives them with a click request. Thereby, you can include those IDs later when you send conversions, and the Platform will use the information to connect the conversion with previously tracked clicks and perform attribution. This can be helpful for cookieless tracking in both server-to-server and browser tracking setups. If your system uses its own IDs for user interactions you can also have recording of your IDs activated in the Tracking Settings. Please contact our customer success team if you want to do so.

The following sections describe examples of how this feature can be used with the Google Ads click ID and with the Awin click checksum.

Attribution based on the Google click ID

If your traffic comes from Google Ads or Google Shopping, Ingenious tracking will automatically save the click ID parameter gclid. Later, when sending a conversion to Ingenious, you can pass one or multiple Google click IDs. The Platform will then load this click to the user journey, and also all other user interactions that have been associated with the click. This works both with redirect tracking and with Bounceless tracking.

Example with redirect tracking

A user clicks a Google Ad. As that happens, Google will send the user to the landing page of your advertiser. At the same time, sequentially or parallelly, Google will execute a tracking request.

The URL of that tracking request is based on the tracking template that you configured in Google Ads, which contains an Ingenious tracking URL. In addition, Google will append the parameter gclid to the final tracking request URL.

In case you have a setup in which you have another tracking system between Google Ads and the Ingenious platform, please make sure that the query parameter gclid is forwarded through to the Ingenious tracking request. This might be the case when you have a non-Ingenious URL in the  tracking template in Google Ads.

Finally, the URL of the tracking request executed to Ingenious will look like:

https://marketing.net.advertiser.com/ts/i3621155/tsc?amc=aff.demonet.2209.5310.5173&gclid=CjwKCAjwvZv0BRA8EiwAD9...

Ingenious will store the gclid together with the click.
The gclid value can then be passed with a conversion in the query parameter gclid or cli:

https://marketing.net.advertiser.com/ts/i1000001/tsa?cli=CjwKCAjwvZv0BRA8EiwAD9…

If you have other traffic sources apart from Google Ads, and in the moment of sending the conversion (e.g. from a server script) you cannot tell whether the click ID value that you have stored is a Google Ads click ID, we recommend to pass the value in the query parameter cli because it accepts all other click IDs as well.
(For details about how to pass click IDs with conversions, have a look at our article describing the conversion tracking tag.)

When the Ingenious system receives the conversion, it will search for all relevant user interactions based on all tracking methods that you have in use. As part of that, the system will find the click with your specified ID. The system will proceed then to attribute conversions based on the attribution settings of your advertiser.

The following diagram depicts the user interactions and the transmission of the gclid in a redirect tracking links setup:

Example with Bounceless tracking

If an advertiser is using Bounceless tracking, there is no tracking template for Ingenious in Google defined. Instead, Ingenious tracks the click when the user arrives on the landing page.
When a user clicks on a Google Ad, Google will send the user directly to the landing page of the advertiser. Thereby, Google will append the query parameter gclid to the landing page URL.

Ingenious will detect the gclid and store it together with the click.
The gclid value can then be passed with a conversion:

https://marketing.net.advertiser.com/ts/i1000001/tsa?cli=CjwKCAjwvZv0BRA8EiwAD9…

(For details about how to pass click IDs with conversions, have a look at our article describing the conversion tracking tag.)

When the Ingenious system receives the conversion, it will search for all relevant user interactions based on all tracking methods that you have in use. As part of that, the system will find the click with the specified ID. The system will proceed then to attribute conversions based on the attribution settings of your advertiser.

The following diagram depicts the user interactions and the transmission of the gclid in a Bounceless tracking links setup:

Requirements

For both variants, redirect tracking and Bounceless tracking, please assure the following points:

  • Make sure you have auto-tagging enabled in Google Ads so that the google click ID is appended to the landing page of the advertiser. Alternatively, you can use the {lpurl} GoogleAds template variable. Please read this article for further details on GoogleAds Click Tracking.

  • Make sure that the advertiser uses the newest click ID attribution mode. In case you are not certain, please contact our customer success team and we will help you to clarify open questions.

  • For Bounceless tracking, make sure that you meet all requirements of Bounceless tracking.

Attribution based on the Awin Click Checksum

If your traffic comes from Awin, Ingenious tracking will automatically save the Awin click checksum which is transmitted in the query parameter awc

Later, when sending a conversion to Ingenious, you can pass one or multiple awc values with the conversion. The Platform will then find this click to the user journey, and also all other user interactions that have been associated with the click. 

Example

The URL of the tracking request executed to Ingenious will include a query parameter named awc. The URL will look like:

When that request is executed, Ingenious will store the gclid together with the click. The gclid value can then be passed with a conversion:

(For details about how to pass click IDs with conversions, have a look at our article describing the conversion tracking tag.)

When the Ingenious system receives the conversion, it will search for all relevant user interactions based on all tracking methods that you have in use. As part of that, the system will find the click with the specified ID. The system will proceed then to attribute conversions based on the attribution settings of your advertiser.

Attribution based on other click IDs

The Ingenious tracking will store other click IDs such as the Facebook click ID fbclid if it detects them on your click.

Also you can configure other click IDs to be stored automatically. Please contact our customer success team if you want to do so.