Google Ads (Search, Display or YouTube Ads) as a Traffic Source
The following set of articles refers to setting up tracking for ads displayed across various Google properties, such as search engine, YouTube or Google Display Network.
Using Google as a way to promote your offers is something that most affiliates at least take into consideration. Google Ads offers you access to different advertising networks and to legions of potential customers. You can benefit from it and drive Google-sourced traffic through Voluum to your offers. Setting up your campaign funnel that works with Google Ads might take you a few moments, but it is worth it - the world's biggest search engine and the world's best tracker form a power couple.
In this guide, you will learn how to set up your campaigns in Google Ads and Voluum so Google can pass information to Voluum and back with a selected tracking method. This guide does not cover all aspects and options available when creating a campaign on these two platforms. Basic knowledge regarding setting up campaigns in Google and Voluum is required.
Disclaimer
This guide describes a working setup that is accurate for June 2019 for all new accounts. At this time parallel tracking in Google is used for all new accounts in most of Google's properties. Read the About parallel tracking article from Google's knowledge base to learn more.
If you have created your account in Google Ads prior to this date, some adjustments will have to be made along the way.
Caution
Voluum Note: Take into consideration that Google might change its policies or software solutions without any notice, so we recommend to keep up to date with their announcements to keep your campaigns going.
Methods of Tracking
Voluum offers two methods of tracking visitors: a direct one and a redirect one. However, with the introduction of parallel tracking, the direct tracking method is a recommended one, as it will work in most scenarios. If you still want to use the redirect method of tracking, take into consideration that certain browser settings and policies may prevent your campaign funnel from working.
The following set of articles describes the direct method of tracking.
In the first step, you need to create a campaign funnel in Voluum. This will provide you with a special link, called the direct tracking link, that you will use to direct and track your traffic in step 2. In order to do so, perform the following steps:
Create an offer element. Read the Add an Offer to Voluum article to learn more.
Create a lander element. Read the Add a Lander Element article to learn more.
Create a traffic source element from a template.
In Voluum, go to the Traffic sources tab.
Click the New traffic source button.
There are three templates related to different Google's properties:
Google Search and Display
Google Shopping
YouTube
The difference between those templates is in the tracking parameters used. In each template, they pass information specific to each campaign type.
Click the Next button.
Click the Save button.
Create a campaign element.
In Voluum, go to the Campaigns tab.
Click the Create button and select the Campaign Simple option from the drop-down menu.
In the GENERAL tab, select the traffic source element that you have just created from the Traffic source drop-down menu.
Provide a name for your campaign in the Campaign name text field.
Select if you want to track costs, and if so, select a cost model and provide the cost value.
Select the Private Workspace that you want this campaign to be assigned to by selecting an appropriate option from the Workspace drop-down menu.
Select the lander that you have just created.
Select the offer that you have just created.
Click the Save button.
In the TRACKING tab, select the tracking domain that you want to use from the Domain drop-down menu.
Select the lander that you want to use from the Direct tracking URL drop-down menu.
Click the Copy button next to the direct tracking URL to copy it to the clipboard and then paste it to any text editing tool.
Click the Copy button next to the direct tracking script to copy it to the clipboard and then paste it to any text editing tool.
Click the Done button.
Implement the direct tracking script that you have copied from Voluum on your landing page.
The second step is about creating a campaign in Google Ads. In order to create it, follow the steps below:
Caution
Voluum Note: The steps described below rely on the selected campaign type in Google, so they may differ if you select another type during your setup process.
Go to your Google Ads account by:
Signing up for Google Ads account by clicking the following link: Welcome to Google Ads!.
or
Signing in to your Google Ads account, by clicking the following link: Google Ads
Create a campaign with all the required budget and targeting options.
In your Google Ads dashboard, click the New Campaign button.
Select the campaign goal.
Select a campaign type.
Provide your landing page's URL as your business's website. Do not include any tracking parameters at this point, provide the plain URL:
Click the Continue button.
Provide all required information for the selected campaign goal and type. This information include:
Campaign budget.
Bid.
Targeting.
Keywords.
Ad title, images and description.
Save your campaign by clicking the Save button.
Once you have saved your campaign, go to this campaign's details.
Go to Settings.
Click the Campaign URL options.
Paste the part of the direct tracking URL that you have copied from Voluum that starts after the
?character in the Final URL suffix text field.Example:
The complete direct tracking URL that you have copied from Voluum should look like this:
https://my_lander.com/?cpid=976d4dc5-d4d3-4881-aaf7-a9272fa3112e&gclid={gclid}&campaigid={campaignid}The following part of the above URL should be pasted in the Final URL suffix text field:
cpid=976d4dc5-d4d3-4881-aaf7-a9272fa3112e&gclid={gclid}&campaigid={campaignid}
Click the Save button.
Congratulations, you have successfully set up tracking of Google traffic with Voluum. Each time a visitor clicks your ad, He or she will be directed to your landing page with Voluum's tracking parameters being passed. On a landing page, the direct tracking script will launch and send an HTTP request to Voluum with information about a visit and other information passed from Google.
Google uses GCLID value as its click identifier. On some occasions, this value may not be available. This may occur when an ad from Google Ads is viewed on some iOS 14.5 and up devices that have opted out from tracking. In such cases, Google passes either one of two values: GBRAID or WBRAID.
For that occasion, when tracking conversions from Offer to Voluum, Voluums allows its users to pass not only external ID but also External ID type values either in a postback URL or during Conversion upload. You can use the External ID type value to specify if the value passed as External ID is WBRAID or GBRAID.
Parameter names:
exid- this is the parameter name used for passing External ID valueexidt- this is the parameter name used for passing External ID type (either WBRAID or GBRAID)
Voluum tokens:
{externalid}- passes external ID{externalidparameter}- passes the type of external ID
For passing conversions from Voluum to Google, use the postback generator. It automatically ads the clickIdType={externalidparameter} parameter to the Postback URL, which defines the External ID type, specified in the exidt parameter name.
