How to capture the GCLID in Leadpages forms
Use Attributer to capture the GCLID with every Leadpages form submission and pass it straight to your CRM and back to Google Ads.
Capturing the GCLID in Leadpages forms is simple with Attributer. Add a hidden field to your form, and automatically writes the GCLID into it every time someone submits the form. It also pulls in UTM parameters and other attribution data at the same time.
Can't work out which Google Ads campaigns are actually bringing in leads and customers? You're not alone.
Tools like Google Analytics are great at showing you how many visitors your ads are driving to your site, but they fall short when it comes to telling you which of those visitors turned into real leads or paying customers. And without that information, it's pretty hard to know whether your ad spend is working or which campaigns deserve more budget.
The good news? There's a solution.
In this article, I'll walk you through how to use Attributer to capture the GCLID with every Leadpages form submission, and then send that data to your CRM and back to Google Ads as an offline conversion.
3 steps for capturing the GCLID in Leadpages forms
Getting the GCLID into your Leadpages forms is straightforward with Attributer. Here's how it works:
1. Install Attributer on your website and add a hidden field
Sign up for a 14 day free trial of Attributer and you'll receive a small snippet of code to install on your website.
Adding it to your Leadpages landing pages is quick and easy. You can drop the code into the Analytics section of your Leadpages account settings, which will apply it across all your pages automatically.
Once the code is in place, you'll need to add a hidden field to your Leadpages forms. Just create a new hidden field and name it "GCLID". This gives Attributer somewhere to write the GCLID so it gets captured with every form submission.
If you need a hand, full step-by-step instructions are available here.
2. Attributer writes the GCLID into the hidden field
When someone clicks one of your Google Ads and arrives on your site, Attributer picks up the GCLID from the URL and stores it in their browser.
Then, when they fill out a form on your Leadpages landing page, Attributer automatically drops that GCLID into the hidden field you set up in step 1.
3. GCLID is captured with each form submission
When the form is submitted, Leadpages captures the GCLID alongside everything else the lead entered, like their name, email, and phone number.
You can then view it in the Leads section of your Leadpages dashboard, and it will be included in any lead notification emails you have set up.
From there, you can use Leadpages' native integrations or tools like Zapier or Make to send the data straight into your CRM or any other tools you need it in.
How to send the GCLID back to Google Ads and mark it as an offline conversion
Before you can send the GCLID back to Google Ads, you'll need to create a new conversion action first.
To do that, log into Google Ads and click Goals in the left sidebar, then navigate to Conversions. From there, hit the button to create a new conversion and select Imported from the options, then choose CRMs, files, or other data sources.
Then, in the final screen when it asks you to add a data source, select the option to ‘Add data source later’.
Once your conversion action is live in Google Ads, you need to figure out which stage of your sales process should trigger the GCLID being sent back. This part matters more than most people realise.
A lot of businesses wait until a deal is fully closed before sending the conversion back to Google. It sounds logical, but it can actually work against you. Google's smart bidding strategies (like Maximise Conversions, Maximise Conversion Value, or Target CPA) typically need at least 50 conversions per month to function properly.
If you're not closing 50 deals a month, you'll get better results by triggering the conversion at an earlier stage in your pipeline, like when a new deal is created in your CRM. You're still sending Google a meaningful signal (a lead your sales team has actually qualified) while giving smart bidding enough volume to work with.
Once you've decided on your trigger point, jump into Zapier and set up a new Zap. Set the trigger to match whatever moment you chose. For example, if you want the offline conversion to fire when a new deal is created in your CRM, use that as your trigger event.
Next, select Google Ads as the Action and then select the ‘Send Offline Conversion’ as the event.
Finally, you just need to map the GCLID from your CRM (or wherever you are storing it) to the correct field in Zapier.
That’s it! You have now set up offline conversions in Google Ads. It’s a good idea to test it’s working before piling money into ads, and you can read more about how to do that here.
Why Attributer is the best way to capture the GCLID in Leadpages forms
There are other ways to capture the GCLID in Leadpages forms, so what makes Attributer worth choosing over the alternatives?
Here's why it stands out:
1. Remembers the GCLID as visitors browse your site
Most other methods for capturing the GCLID only work if it's still sitting in the URL at the moment the form is submitted.
That's a real problem. Think about it: someone clicks your Google Ad and lands on your Leadpages page, but they don't fill out the form straight away. Maybe they browse around your site for a bit first, or they leave and come back a few days later. By that point, the GCLID is gone from the URL and it never gets captured.
Attributer works differently. It saves the GCLID in the visitor's browser as soon as they land on your site, so it doesn't matter how many pages they visit before submitting the form, or even if they leave and return later. The GCLID gets captured every single time.
2. Captures UTM parameters as well
Attributer doesn't stop at the GCLID. It also captures any UTM parameters you've added to your campaigns.
For example, say you're running ads for a project management software company. When someone clicks one of your Google Ads and submits a form, Attributer would write the following into the hidden fields alongside the GCLID:
- Channel = Paid Search
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Google
- Channel Drilldown 2 = Project Management Campaign
- Channel Drilldown 3 = Best Project Management Software
- Channel Drilldown 4 = Free Trial Ad
3. Captures information on users from organic channels
Attributer also captures attribution data for leads who arrive through organic channels like Organic Search, Organic Social, Referral, or Direct Traffic.
Sticking with the software company example, if someone finds your site through a regular Google search rather than a paid ad, Attributer would pass through something like this:
- Channel = Organic Search
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Google
- Channel Drilldown 2 = www.google.com (or whichever search engine domain they came from)
- Channel Drilldown 3 = Best Project Management Software (or whatever keyword they searched for, if it's available)
How Attributer helped Harris Federal Law track which Google Ads are truly generating customers & revenue
Harris Federal Law Firm is a legal practice in Washington D.C. that helps federal employees secure their benefits.
They were putting serious money into Google Ads and keeping an eye on traffic through Google Analytics, but there was a big gap in their data. They had no visibility into which of those visitors were actually converting into leads and paying clients.
That's when they found Attributer.
After getting it set up, Attributer began capturing attribution details like campaign, ad group, ad, keyword, and GCLID with every form submission on their site. That data was sent straight to their CRM alongside each lead's contact information.
For the first time, the team could run reports showing exactly which campaigns were generating real paying clients and which ones were just eating through budget without delivering anything in return.
The biggest discovery? Several of their display campaigns were pulling in plenty of traffic but converting almost nobody into actual clients. With that knowledge in hand, they shifted their budget toward the search campaigns that were genuinely driving results.
The outcome was more customers at a lower cost per acquisition.
"With Attributer we can see which campaigns are actually generating customers & revenue, rather than just website visitors. We were able to see that some of our campaigns were driving lots of visitors but few of them converted into leads and customers. Now we’re able to reinvest that budget into other campaigns that we can see are generating revenue."
Nick Child - Director of Marketing, Harris Federal Law Firm
Wrap Up
Want to capture the GCLID in your Leadpages forms and send it to your CRM so you can fire offline conversions back to Google Ads? Attributer makes it simple.
It saves the GCLID the moment a visitor lands on your site and holds onto it as they browse around, even if they leave and come back days later. That way, the GCLID gets captured with every single form submission, no matter what.
Best of all, it's free to get started and you can be up and running in under 10 minutes. Start your 14 day free trial today and start capturing the GCLID in Leadpages right away.
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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.