How to capture Google Ads data in Avada forms
Learn how to capture Google Ads data in Avada forms so you can track which campaigns, ads, keywords, etc are generating your leads
Did you know that roughly 63% of the world’s population has clicked on a Google Ad in their lifetime? With nearly two-thirds of the global population engaging with them, it’s clear that Google Ads should be a key part of any digital marketing strategy.
But how can you tell which of your ads are ads are actually driving leads, customers, and revenue for your business?
In this article, we’ll show you how to use a tool called Attributer to capture Google Ads data in Avada forms and send it to your CRM and other tools, so you can ultimately track how many leads & customers your Google Ads have generated.
Why it’s important to track customers & revenue from Google Ads
To understand the importance of tracking your Google Ads performance, let’s take a look at an example. Imagine you run a business that sells and installs fencing. To promote your company, you run Google Ads centred around the different types of fencing you offer, such as pool fencing and backyard fencing.
If you're only using a tool like Google Analytics to measure visitors and form completions, this is what your data might look like:
| Spend | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Visitors | 200 | 100 |
| Goal Completions | 20 | 10 |
Based on this data alone, it might seem like your Pool Fencing campaign is doing much better than your Backyard Fencing campaign. As a result, you might be inclined to invest more in that campaign.
But imagine if you could track the number of customers and revenue each campaign generated. 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 |
When you can track campaign effectiveness all the way down to customers and revenue, you get clearer insights. In this case, the Backayd Fencing campaign was actually the stronger ad because:
- You got more customers from the Backyard Fencing campaign (5) compared to the Pool Fencing campaign (4).
- The conversion rate is higher for the Backyard Fencing campaign (25% vs roughly 13%).
- The average customer value is higher for the Backyard Fencing: $200 per customer compared to $150 per customer.
- Your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is lower through the Backyard Fencing campaign: $200 compared to $250 per customer.
- The Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is higher in the Backyard Fencing campaign: 100% compared to 60%.
When you’re able to drill down and track leads, customers, and revenue more closely, you get a much better idea of what’s working and what isn’t.
4 simple steps to capture Google Ads data in Avada forms
With Attributer, it’s easy to capture Google Ads data in Avada Forms. Here are the four simple steps you’ll need to follow:
1. Add UTM parameters to your ads
The first thing you’ll need to do is add UTM parameters to your ads. Never heard of UTM parameters? Put simply, these are small snippets of text added to the end of URLs that help you see where your site visitors are coming from.
So, if you’re sending someone to attributer.io/integrations/avada-forms, then your final URL (with UTM parameters) might look like the following:
https://attributer.io/integrations/avada-forms?utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=brand-campaign
It’s up to you what information you include in your UTM parameters. However, if you’re looking for an easy-to-follow format for Google Ads, here’s what we recommend:
- 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
Next, add a set of six hidden fields to your lead capture forms. Doing so will allow you to collect even more valuable information about your leads.
Here are the hidden fields you’ll need to add:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Landing Page
- Landing Page Group
Avada Forms makes it simple to add hidden fields. To get started, open the form you want Attributer to work with in your WordPress dashboard. Next, press the ‘+ Element’ button and click ‘Hidden Field’ in the popup that appears. From here, you’ll need to configure each field as per the instructions in our help article.
3. Attributer writes Google Ads data into the hidden fields
With the UTM parameters and hidden fields in place, Attributer will now track the source of your site visitors. When these visitors submit a form on your site, Attributer will automatically populate those hidden fields with their attribution data.
Let's break it down with an example. Suppose you're a marketing executive for a local copywriting firm and recently launched a Google Ad campaign highlighting discounted rates for new clients for a limited time. With Attributer, the hidden fields would be filled in like this:
- Channel = Paid search
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Google
- Channel Drilldown 2 = New client campaign
- Channel Drilldown 3 = Discounted rate 2024 ad
4. Google Ads data is captured in Avada forms
Lastly, when a user submits a form on your site with their details (such as their name, email, phone number, etc.), all their data will be captured by Avada Forms. This includes the information they entered themselves PLUS the Google Ads data that Attributer provided.
Not sure what to do with this data? Here are a few suggestions:
- View it in your WordPress Dashboard by going to Avada > Forms in the sidebar.
- Add it to Avada Forms’ new lead notification email. That way, you’ll get a heads-up about new leads and where they came from in real-time.
- Send it to your CRM (e.g. Salesforce, Pipedrive, Hubspot, etc.) so your sales team can view the data as well.
- Create reports that show you at a glance which Google Ads campaigns are driving leads and customers.
Why using Attributer is the best way to capture Google Ads data in Avada forms
Although there are plenty of platforms for tracking your Google Ads data in Avada Forms, Attributer is the top tool available.
This is why:
1. Captures all traffic
Not only is Attributer a great tool for capturing Google Ads data in Avada forms, but it can also track all the other sources of leads as well (Organic Search, Paid Social, Organic Social, etc)
This means that when you run reports to check where your leads and customers originate from, you can identify the source of ALL your leads, not just those from your Google Ads campaigns.
2. Remembers the data as visitors browse your site
With most tools, the UTM parameters need to be present on the page where the user actually completes the form. This means that if they visit a new page (that’s different from the initial one they landed on) and submit the form from there, their data gets lost.
But not when you use Attributer. With Attributer, you can rest easy knowing this data is preserved in a cookie in the user’s browser. Thanks to this fix, the user’s UTM parameters get passed onto you no matter where they complete the form on your site.
3. Provides cleaner data
One of the problems with using other tools that capture raw UTM parameters is that you can end up with messy data that makes it difficult to run accurate reports.
As an example, imagine some of your Google Ads campaigns are tagged with UTM_Source= Google.com (capital G), others with UTM_Source= google (lowercase, no domain), and others with UTM_Source= adwords.
If you were to capture these raw UTM parameters in Avada Forms and try to use them to see how many leads your Google Ads campaigns have generated, you'll get three different sources that you would have to manually stitch together.
With Attributer, you don't have to deal with this because it takes the possibility of capitalization and other inconsistencies into account, and would ascribe leads to the Paid Search channel regardless.
4. Captures landing page data as well
Attributer doesn’t only capture UTM parameters — it also captures your user’s first landing page and that page’s category.
Consider the copywriting firm example from earlier. Attributer would capture the first landing page users visited (e.g. newagecopy.com.au/blog/best-copywriting-agencies) and the category this landing page belongs to (e.g. /blog).
With this data, you can see how effective your content groups (I.e. your blog) are at attracting leads & customers, as well as drill down and see how each individual content piece (I.e. each blog post) is performing.
3 example reports you can run when you capture Google Ads data in Avada forms
Before founding Attributer, I used to run marketing & analytics team for other companies for over 15 years.
In that time, I spent millions of dollars on Google Ads and ran hundreds of reports to track how many leads & customers we were getting.
Over time, I developed a few favourite reports that I found the most useful in tracking Google Ads performance. These are those reports:
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
Looking for a smarter way to track how many leads & customers your Google Ads are generating? Attributer could be the answer.
With Attributer and Avada Forms, you can see exactly which campaign, ad, keyword, etc each of your leads came from.
Plus, because Attributer tracks ALL your leads from ALL sources, you can also see how many leads you're getting from other channels (like Paid Social, Organic Search, Organic Social, and more).
The best part? There's a 14-day free trial and it usually takes less than 10 minutes to setup, so register for your free Attributer 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.