Google Ads

This document covers the steps required to send conversion data from Gamesight Marketing Analytics to Google Ads. This is a two-way data sync that pushes your conversions to Google Ads enabling automated install-based optimization, in addition to pulling cost metrics in from Google which enables ROAS reporting in Gamesight.

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Create a Dedicated Google Login for Gamesight Integration

We encourage you to create/use a separate, dedicated Google login for your company that is an administrator of the Google Ads account you want to measure/link. This will keep the integration from flowing through any employee's "personal" Google account, while also preventing any disruptions that could occur due to role/personnel changes. It also allows you to restrict the Gamesight integration directly to specific accounts that you choose.

1. Link your Google Ads Account

You first will need to link your Google Ads account to your Gamesight account. You can do this by opening the drop-down by your name in the top right of the page and selecting Settings. On this page you will find a button labeled "Link Google Ads Account" which will bring you through the Google oAuth flow and request permission to your AdWords Account.

We use this information to read the conversion trackers on your account and to get access to the Offline Conversion Upload API. The account that you link must have permission to access these actions on your AdWords account or the integration will fail.

2. Create your Conversion Tracker

After you have linked your Google Ads account, you will need to setup a Conversion Tracker in Google Ads if you do not already have one.

From your Google Ads console, click "Tools and Settings" and then click on "Conversions".

Next, click on the blue "+ New Conversion Action" button to create a new Conversion.

Next, select "Import".

With "Import" selected, click Other data sources or CRMs and select Track conversions from clicks as shown below.

Now you can click "Continue" and fill out the form on the next page, followed by clicking "Create and Continue".

Now that you have your Conversion Tracker set up, go back to your Gamesight account settings. If you click on "Details" next to your linked Google Ads account, you should be able to expand the "Company" section and see the Conversion Tracker that we just created.

Please verify that the "TYPE"" next to the conversion tracker is listed as "UPLOAD_CLICKS". If it is any other value, Gamesight won't be able to write conversion data to it.

3. Share your Google Ads Account

Now that you have linked your Google Ads account and have a conversion tracker set up, you'll need to grant your other team members access to use this account. To do this press the "Manage" button next to your linked Google Ads account. This should bring up the Google Ads account management modal.

From here you can select the teams that you want to grant access to. This will allow all members in the team to create Trackers that post their conversions to your Google Ads account's conversion trackers.

4. Create your Tracker

Now that you have your account linked you should proceed to create a new Google Ads Network Tracker. You should see that your Google Ads account is automatically populated in the Account ID field on the Tracker creation screen. If it is not, you can select your Ads account and then select the appropriate Customer ID.

Now, you can click "Next" to finish setting up your tracker. Do not fill out the Campaign, Ad Group, or Ad step!

Click URL

Once you have your Tracker created, copy the click tracker URL. It should be of the following form:

https://gsght.com/c/XXXXXX?campaign={campaignid}&ad_group={adgroupid}&ad={creative}&target={targetid}&creative={creative}&keyword={keyword}&ad_type={network}&site_id={placement}&placement={adposition}&gclid={gclid}&wbraid={wbraid}&destination_url={lpurl}%3Futm_source%3Dadwords%26utm_campaign%3D{campaignid}%26utm_term%3D{adgroupid}%26utm_content%3D{creative}%26gsc%3D1%26utm_medium%3D{network}_1

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Just use the Network Tracker!

You do not need to proceed to the Campaign / Ad Group / Ad levels of the tracker creation for the Google Ads integration. Simply copy your full Network-level Click URL and use it in the Tracking Template for your placements in Google Ads. Gamesight will automatically mirror the Campaign structure that you set up in your Google Ads account.

5. Set up your Adwords Campaign

To track your AdWords campaigns, you'll need to setup a Tracking template through the AdWords campaign settings.

Click "Additional Settings" and you will find the Tracking Template under the Campaign URL options.

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Tracking Template vs Final URL

Please note that the Tracking Template field should include your Gamesight, network-level, Click URL for your Google Ads tracker.

The Final URL should be the landing page that you are sending users to.

The Tracking Template should include your Gamesight tracking link as shown in the image below.

Video Ad Tracking

The same process is followed when setting up Video Ad Tracking. You will simply need to place your Gamesight tracking link into the "Tracking Template" field for your ad as shown in the image below.

Click the test button to ensure everything is redirecting to the correct page and then save the Tracking template.

You should be ready to run your campaign now! You can use the same Tracking link for multiple Google Ads Campaigns, so if you need to create a new link you can start at Step 5.

Google Ads Conversions

It can take up to 4 hours for uploaded conversions to appear in your Google Ads dashboard. If after this amount of time you still aren't seeing successful conversion uploads, please contact support.

Additionally, Google Ads reports conversions by "Date of Click" by default. You can view this Google doc for an explanation of this behavior: Google Conversion Tracking

If you would like to change your reporting to view conversions "By Conversion Date", this Google doc will walk you through the process: Conversions By Time

Multiple Landing Pages

For Google Ads the landing page controlled directly through the "Final URL" field in the Google Ads platform. So to set up additional landing pages in Google Ads, you would simply need to update the Final URL field in your campaign configuration on Google Ads.

For example, if you wanted to set up a second campaign with a new landing page, complete the following steps:

• Create a New Campaign
• Set your Gamesight Tracking Link in the Tracking Template field.
• Set the new Landing Page URL in the Final URL field

There are no required steps in your Gamesight dashboard. Google automatically replaces the "destination_url={lpurl}" portion of your Gamesight Tracking Link with the landing page that you choose in the above steps. This campaign will automatically sync and populate in your Gamesight dashboard once it is being trafficked.

Multiple Postbacks

If you would like to set up additional postbacks from Gamesight to Google Ads, you can do so directly through your dashboard!

Please check out our Postbacks documentation for a walk-through!

Troubleshooting

In the table below, we go over some common questions surrounding Google Ads campaigns, performance, etc.