4 simple steps to capture Google Ads data in ClickFunnels
Track how many leads & customers you're Google Ads are generating by capturing Google Ads data with each form submission in ClickFunnels
Research has found that 63% of online consumers would be more inclined to click on a Google Ad than any other form of paid ad. So, if you’re not already using Google Ads, now is the perfect time to add them to your digital marketing toolkit.
But getting the ads up and running is one thing. Tracking their performance — namely the leads, customers, and revenue you’re getting from them — is another thing entirely.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to use a tool called Attributer to capture Google Ads data with each submission of your ClickFunnels forms, and how you can use that data to run reports that show exactly how many leads & customers your Google Ads are generating.
Why it’s important to track customers & revenue from Google Ads
In order to better understand why tracking your Google Ads performance is important, let’s look at an example: let’s say you run a law firm and you’re using Google Ads to promote your service areas, such as family law and estate planning.
If you only use Google Analytics to track visitors and form completions, your data might look like this:
| Spend | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Visitors | 200 | 100 |
| Goal Completions | 20 | 10 |
If this is the only data you have, you might think that your Family Law campaign is performing much better than your Estate Planning campaign. You may then decide to invest more time, money, and other resources into the Family Law campaign.
But what if you could track the number of customers and/or the amount of revenue generated by each campaign? This is what that might look like:
| Spend | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Visitors | 200 | 100 |
| Leads | 20 | 10 |
| Customers | 2 | 5 |
| Revenue | $8,000 | $25,000 |
Thanks to this additional data, you get a clearer picture of which campaign is actually driving the most business for your company. In this case, the Estate Planning campaign was actually the stronger ad because:
- You got more customers from the Estate Planning campaign (5) compared to the Family Law campaign (4).
- The conversion rate is higher for the Estate Planning campaign (25% vs roughly 13%).
- The average customer value is higher for the Estate Planning campaign: $200 per customer compared to $150 per customer.
- Your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is lower through the Estate Planning campaign: $200 compared to $250 per customer.
- The Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is higher in the Estate Planning campaign: 100% compared to 60%.
4 simple steps to capture Google Ads data in ClickFunnels
When you use Attributer, capturing Google Ads data in ClickFunnels forms couldn’t be simpler. Below are the four steps you’ll need to follow:
1. Add UTM parameters to your ads
First, you need to add UTM parameters to your ads. Not sure what UTM parameters are? These are small bits of text added to the end of URLs to show you how users are ending up on your website.
For example, if you're sending someone to attributer.io/integrations/clickfunnels, your final URL with UTM parameters might look like this:
https://attributer.io/integrations/clickfunnels?utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=brand-campaign
You have the freedom to format your UTM parameters however you want. But this is the structure 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. Add hidden fields to your forms
The second step is adding hidden fields to your lead capture forms (i.e. the forms on your website designed to gather information from site visitors).
Below are the six hidden fields to add:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Landing Page
- Landing Page Group
Incorporating hidden fields into ClickFunnels forms is quick and easy. All you need to do is open the form you want Attributer to work with and drag-and-drop 6x ‘Input’ fields to the bottom. You then just give them a specific name and you’re done! You can see full instructions here.
3. Attributer writes the Google Ads data into the hidden fields
Once you’ve set up the UTM parameters and hidden fields, Attributer will begin tracking where your website visitors are coming from, and when people complete a form, Attributer will automatically write the information about where they came from into the hidden fields.
Consider the following example: you're a marketing executive for a local accounting firm and recently launched a Google Ad campaign promoting tax preparation services for businesses. With Attributer, this is what the hidden fields would look like (depending on what UTM parameters you put behind your ads):
- Channel = Paid search
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Google
- Channel Drilldown 2 = Tax services campaign
- Channel Drilldown 3 = Business tax prep 2024 ad
4. Google Ads data is captured in ClickFunnels forms
Finally, when a user submits a form on your site, the information will be captured in ClickFunnels. This includes the data they entered themselves (e.g., name, company, and email address) plus the Google Ads data from Attributer.
Wondering what to do with this data? Here are a few options:
- See the data in the ‘Contacts’ section of your ClickFunnels account. It lives on the Contact record under the ‘Custom Attributes’ section.
- Include it in ClickFunnels forms’ new lead notification emails to get instant updates on new leads and their sources.
- Transfer it to your CRM (e.g. Salesforce, Pipedrive, HubSpot) and use it to run reports that show how many leads & customers your ads have generated.
- Send it to a spreadsheet (like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets) and create charts in there.
Why using Attributer is the best way to capture Google Ads data in ClickFunnels forms
Here’s why Attributer is the best option for tracking leads & customers from your Google Ads:
1. Captures the source of all leads
Attributer isn't just great for capturing Google Ads data in ClickFunnels forms; it can also track ALL other lead sources (such as Organic Search, Paid Social, Organic Social, etc.).
This means that when you run reports to see where your leads and customers come from, you'll be able to identify the source of every lead.
2. Remembers the data as visitors browse your site
With most tools, UTM parameters need to be present on the exact page where the user fills out the form.
So if they navigate to a different page before submitting the form, or if they leave and come back later, the Google Ads data would be lost and you wouldn’t know where these leads are coming from.
However, this isn't the case with Attributer. Attributer stores the data in the user’s browser so no matter where or when they complete the form, you’ll still receive the Google Ads data.
3. Provides cleaner data
Using other tools to capture raw UTM parameters can lead to messy data, which makes accurate reporting a challenge.
For instance, consider if some of your Google Ads campaigns are tagged with UTM_Source= Google.com (uppercase G), others with UTM_Source= google (lowercase, no domain), and still others with UTM_Source= adwords.
If you simply captured these raw UTM parameters and tried to use them to run reports, they would look like 3 different sources of leads in your reports.
Attributer solves this issue by handling capitalisation and other inconsistencies, automatically attributing leads to the correct channel category regardless (Paid Search in this case)
4. Captures landing page data as well
Attributer not only captures UTM parameters but also records your user’s initial landing page and its category.
Let’s revisit the accounting firm example from earlier. Attributer would capture the first landing page users visited (e.g. abctaxagents.com.au/services/tax-planning/business-tax-prep) and its category (e.g. /services).
This data allows you to assess the effectiveness of your content groups (like your blog or other sections of your site) in attracting leads and customers. You can also delve deeper to analyse the performance of each individual content piece (such as each blog post or each funnel).
3 example reports you can run when you capture Google Ads data in ClickFunnels forms with Attributer
Before developing Attributer, I led marketing and analytics teams for various companies for over 15 years. During this period, I managed multi-million dollar Google Ads budgets and conducted countless reports to track lead and customer acquisition.
Over the years, I’ve developed a few favourite reports for assessing Google Ads performance. To help you get started, I have included some of those reports below (all of which can be run when you capture Google Ads data in ClickFunnels with Attributer):
1. Leads by Channel
This report provides a monthly breakdown of the leads you’ve gotten from each of your marketing channels, such as Organic Search, Paid Search, and Paid Social.
This can help you understand which channels are generating the most leads and where you should focus your time and money to generate more of them.
2. Customers by Google Ads campaign
Thanks to this chart, you can see at a glance how many customers your Google Ad campaigns are generating on a monthly basis.
It helps you identify which campaigns are truly bringing in customers for your business. This can then help you decide which campaigns to continue to invest in, and which ones can possibly be paused.
3. Revenue by Keyword
This report shows the amount of revenue generated from new customers, broken down by the individual keyword you were bidding on.
By identifying the top-performing keywords for your business, you can strategically allocate more spend to those keywords to acquire more leads and customers.
Wrap up
With Attributer and ClickFunnels, you can start to understand how your Google Ads are performing, including which campaigns, ads, keywords, etc are generating the most leads.
Additionally, because Attributer tracks all leads across every channel (e.g. Paid Social, Organic Search, Organic Social, etc.), you get a high-level view of ALL your lead sources.
Best of all, you can get started with Attributer for free and it usually takes less than 10 minutes to set up. Sign up for a complimentary 14-day trial today!
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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.