How to capture Google Ads data in Calendly
Learn how to capture Google Ads data in Calendly so you know what campaigns are driving your leads/bookings
Did you know that 80% of web searches happen on Google? One of the best ways to reach the users lodging these searches is through Google Ads.
That said, developing Google Ads is only one piece of the puzzle. Tracking them (and the number of leads, customers, and revenue you’re getting from them) is another entirely.
Fortunately, there is a way.
In this article, we’ll show you how to use a tool called Attributer to capture Google Ads data with each new meeting booking that comes through the Calendly widgets embedded on your website.
Why it’s important to track customers & revenue from Google Ads
Imagine you're operating a digital marketing agency. To promote your firm, you run Google Ads targeting different service offerings, such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) management.
If you were only using Google Analytics to measure visitors and form completions, the data might resemble the following:
| Spend | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Visitors | 200 | 100 |
| Goal Completions | 20 | 10 |
With this limited view — tracking visitors and leads from spend alone — it may seem like your SEO campaign outperforms your PPC campaign.
However, if you’re able to track how many customers and how much revenue you get from each campaign, then the story might be a bit different. Here’s what that might look like:
| Spend | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Visitors | 200 | 100 |
| Leads | 20 | 10 |
| Customers | 2 | 5 |
| Revenue | $8,000 | $25,000 |
As you can see from the table above, the PPC Campaign is actually outperforming the SEO campaign in many ways:
- You got more clients from the PPC Campaign (5) than the SEO Campaign (2).
- Your conversion rate is higher for the PPC Campaign (approximately 33% vs 10%).
- Your average client value is higher for the PPC Campaign: $5,000 per client vs $4,000 per client from the EO Campaign.
- Your cost of acquiring a client is lower through the PPC Campaign: roughly $400 vs $1,000.
- Your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is higher in the PPC Campaign: 400% vs 1,250%.
4 simple steps to capture Google Ads data in Calendly
Capturing Google Ads data in Calendly is simple when you use Attributer. All you’ll need to do is follow these four steps:
1. Add UTM parameters to your ads
To begin, add UTM parameters to your ads.
If you haven’t heard of them before, they are small snippets of text that you add to thend of the URL’s you’re sending people to from your ads.
So if you were originally sending someone to attributer.io/integrations/calendly then the URL with UTM parameters would look like this:
https://attributer.io/integrations/calendly?utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=brand-campaign
What information you put in your UTM parameters is up to you, but this is the format we recommend for Google Ads:
- UTM Medium = Paid search
- UTM Source = Google
- UTM Campaign = The name of your Google Ads campaign
- UTM Term = The name of the ad group the ad belongs to
- UTM Content = The specific ad
2. Install Attributer on your site and configure Calendly
The second step is installing the Attributer code on your website and configuring it work with Calendly
When you sign up for a 14-day free trial of Attributer, you’ll get given a little bit of code to add to your website (instructions for various website builders can be seen here).
Once the code is added, you then need to follow these instructions to setup Attributer with the embedded Calendly widgets you have on your site.
3. Attributer passes through Google Ads data with each booking
Now that everything is set up, Attributer will start tracking where your site visitors are coming from and, when they submit book a meeting through Calendly, it will pass through the information.
Here’s an example to help you better understand how Attributer works: imagine I’m a marketing manager for a consulting agency specialising in sustainable development. I’ve recently launched a Google Ad campaign promoting my firm's environmental impact assessment services for construction companies. With Attributer, the following information would be passed through with each booking:
- Channel = Paid search
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Google
- Channel Drilldown 2 = Environmental impact assessment campaign
- Channel Drilldown 3 = Construction industry ad
4. Google Ads data is captured by Calendly
Finally, once the data is inside Calendly alongside each meeting booking (or event as they call it in Calendly), you’re able to do what you want with it.
This could include:
- Seeing it on the Event page inside your Calendly account
- Sending it to your CRM system (e.g. Salesforce, Pipedrive, Hubspot, etc.) and using your CRM’s build-in reporting tools to create charts & dashboards that show many leads & customers your Google Ads are generating.
- Sending it to a spreadsheet and seeing it in a nice, table view complete with filters, search, etc. You can even build basic charts in the spreadsheet or connect the sheet to tools like Google Data Studio or Microsoft Power BI to create more advance reports & dashboards.
Why using Attributer is the best way to capture Google Ads data in Calendly
Here’s why Attributer is your best bet for capturing Google Ads data in Calendly:
1. Captures all traffic
Attributer traces the source of ALL your leads/bookings (whatever you want to call them), not just those coming from Google Ads.
So, if someone were to book a time after coming to your site from a Facebook Ad or even an organic Google search, information on how they found you would be passed through.
This allows you to see where all your leads/bookings are coming from and, in turn, allows you to make smarter decisions about where to invest your time and budget to get more of them.
2. Remembers the data as visitors browse your site
Calendly’s native UTM-capturing functionality only works if they are in the URL of the page the user submits the booking widget on.
This means that if someone initially lands on your homepage but navigates to your ‘Book a Call’ page and submits the Calendly there, no information on how they found you would come through.
Attributer works differently though. It stores the UTM parameters in the user’s browser, which means they can browse around your site (or even leave and come back later) and the attribution information will be passed through when they submit the Calendly booking widget.
3. Captures landing page data as well
In addition to capturing Google Ads data (derived from the UTM parameters you put behind your ads), Attributer also captures each user’s initial landing page and the page’s corresponding category.
Consider the consultancy firm example from earlier. Attributer would capture data on the first landing page (e.g. ecosustainconsulting.com.au/services/environmental-impact-assessment/construction) and the page’s category (e.g. services).
This helps you measure how many leads & customers the different content on your website (like your blog) is generating.
3 example reports you can run when you capture Google Ads data in Calendly
If you capture Google Ads data with each submission of your Calendly booking widget, and you send it to your CRM or other tools, then you're able to run reports like these:
1. Leads by Channel
This report shows the number of leads you get each month broken down by the channel they came from.
This can be useful to understand which channels are bringing the most leads and where you should be investing further.
For instance, if you are getting most of your leads from Organic Search but a lot of your budget is going to Paid Search, it might be time to reconsider.
2. Customers by Google Ads campaign
This chart shows how many customers have been generated each month broken down by the Google Ads campaign they came from.
It can help you understand which campaigns are actually generating customers for your business, and helps you understand which ones to invest further in (and which ones to drop).
3. Revenue by Keyword
This report shows how much revenue you've generated from new customers, broken down by the keyword that triggered the ad to show.
This helps you understand which keywords are performing best for your business, and you can then put more budget behind those to get more leads & customers.
Wrap up
If you’ve looking for a way to track how many meeting bookings your Google Ads are generating, then Attributer could well be the solution for you.
It will remember the UTM parameters you put behind your Google Ads and pass them through each time someone submits a Calendly booking widget on your site (even if they leave your site and come back later).
On top of that, it will also pass through information on leads that come from other channels (like Facebook Ads, organic searches, etc), which means you’ll get a complete picture of where your leads & customers are coming from.
If you’re ready to get started, now is the perfect time. Attributer offers a free, 14-day trial and it usually takes less than 10 minutes to set up. Why wait? Sign up for your free Attributer trial now!
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About the Author
Aaron Beashel is the founder of Attributer and has over 15 years of experience in marketing & analytics. He is a recognized expert in the subject and has written articles for leading websites such as Hubspot, Zapier, Search Engine Journal, Buffer, Unbounce & more. Learn more about Aaron here.