The best way to capture Google Ads data in Happyforms
Learn the best way to capture Google Ads data in Happyforms so you can measure which campaigns are generating leads, customers, and revenue.
Are you finding it hard to track which of your Google Ads campaigns are actually driving leads and customers (as opposed to those that generate clicks and visits that don't actually convert)?
Just imagine how much insight you would have if you could identify the exact campaign, advertisement, and keyword that generated each lead. With this knowledge, you'd know exactly which campaigns are performing and which ones aren't, enabling you to allocate your budget more efficiently.
In this post, we'll show you how to utilize a tool called Attributer to capture exactly where each lead came from (including the campaign, ad group, ad, keyword and more) in Happyforms.
Why it's important to track customers and revenue from Google Ads
Suppose you run a business that specializes in selling and installing pool equipment. You are currently promoting your various products, such as Pool Pumps and Pool Cleaners, by running Google Ads to generate new leads and customers.
If you were relying solely on a tool like Google Analytics and you were just tracking the number of visitors and form submissions, your data would probably look something like this:
| Spend | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Visitors | 200 | 100 |
| Goal Completions | 20 | 10 |
If that was all the data you had access to, then it would look like the Pool Pumps campaign was performing better than the Pool Cleaners campaign.
But what if you could see how many customers you got from each of these campaigns? Or how much revenue?
You'd get something like this:
| Spend | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Visitors | 200 | 100 |
| Leads | 20 | 10 |
| Customers | 2 | 5 |
| Revenue | $8,000 | $25,000 |
When you're able to track how many customers and how much revenue you get from each of your Google Ad campaigns, you can start to really see what's working and what isn't.
In this case, the Pool Cleaners Campaign is actually performing better:
- You received more customers from the Pool Cleaners Campaign (5) than the Pool Pumps Campaign (2)
- Your lead-to-customer conversion rate is five times greater for the Pool Cleaners Campaign (50% vs. 10%)
- Your average customer value is higher for the Pool Cleaners Campaign: $5,000 per customer vs. $4,000 per customer from the Pool Pumps Campaign.
- Your cost of acquiring a customer is lower through the Pool Cleaners Campaign: $400 vs. $1,000
- Your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is three times higher in the Pool Cleaners Campaign
As you can see, when you can capture the source of every lead and track it through to customers and revenue, you get a much better picture of what's working and what isn't and you can adjust your approach accordingly.
4 simple steps to capture Google Ads data in Happyforms
Attributer makes it easy to capture Google Ads data in Happyforms. Here's how it works:
1. Add UTM parameters to your ads
To capture Google Ads data with each Happyforms submission forms, you must first add UTM parameters to your Google ads.
In case you're unfamiliar with UTM parameters, they are basically additional pieces of text you append to the URL where you send people from your ads.
For instance, if the usual campaign URL you send people to is attributer.io/integrations/happyforms, your ultimate URL (including UTM parameters) would be:
attributer.io/integrations/happyforms?utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=brand-campaign
You can put whatever information you want in your UTM parameters, but the general best practice for Google Ads would be something like this:
- UTM Medium = Paid search
- UTM Source = Google
- UTM Campaign = Your Google Ads campaign name
- UTM Term = The ad group name the ad is part of
- UTM Content = The keyword they searched for (which can be automatically added using ValueTrack parameters)
Luckily, adding UTM parameters to your URLs is an easy process and this article outlines the best way to do it in Google Ads.
2. Add hidden fields to your forms
Once UTM parameters have been added to your Google Ads URLs, the next step is to incorporate a series of hidden fields into your lead capture forms (such as the Contact Us or Request A Quote form on your website).
For those who are not familiar with hidden fields, they are essentially form fields that exist on your form but remain invisible to website visitors, enabling tools such as Attributer to secretly input data.
To capture the Google Ads data, you need to include the following hidden fields in your forms:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Landing Page
- Landing Page Group
Adding hidden fields into your existing Happyforms is pretty easy. You simply drag and drop a 'Hidden' field type into your form.
3. Attributer writes Google Ads data into the hidden fields
After integrating the hidden fields into your forms, Attributer will start to track where every visitor to your website comes from.
And when they complete a form on your website (such as the Contact Us or Request A Quote form), Attributer will automatically complete the hidden fields with the Google Ads data extracted from the UTM parameters you added in step 1 (including the campaign, ad group, keyword, etc., that directed them to your website).
To illustrate how this works, let's suppose you are a marketer at Dropbox, and a visitor reaches your site via one of your Google Ads campaigns.
Depending on the UTM parameters you used, Attributer could populate the hidden fields as illustrated below:
- Channel = Paid search
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Google
- Channel Drilldown 2 = Brand campaign
- Channel Drilldown 3 = Free account ad
In addition to capturing the UTM parameters, Attributer would also record the visitor's landing page (such as dropbox.com/features/cloud-storage) and the initial landing page group (such as features).
4. Google Ads data is captured in Happyforms
Once the visitor submits the form, the Google Ads data (written into the hidden fields by Attributer) is captured alongside the information the visitor entered into the form, including their name, email, company, phone number, and so on.
With this captured in Happyforms, you can:
- Include it into the new lead notification email sent by Happyforms
- Send it to your CRM, including Salesforce, Hubspot, Pipedrive and hundreds more.
- Export it to a spreadsheet and create charts and graphs that show how many leads & customers you are getting from each of your Google Ads campaigns (Or connect that spreadsheet to tools like Google Data Studio to run more advanced reports)
Why Attributer is the best way to capture Google Ads data in Happyforms
What makes Attributer the best option for capturing Google Ads data in Happyforms?
These 4 things:
1. Attributer captures all traffic sources
On top of providing data on leads generated by your Google Ads, Attributer also gives you attribution information on leads that reach your website via other channels such as Paid Social, Referral, Organic Social, Direct, or Organic Search.
Therefore, by using Attributer, you can run reports that show the source of ALL your leads and customers, not just those who clicked on your Google Ads.
2. Attributer remembers the data as visitors browse your site
Alternative methods for capturing Google Ads data (which is taken from the UTM parameters you put behind your ads) require the UTM parameters to be present in the URL of the page where the form is filled out.
This can be problematic if the visitor fills out the form on a different page from the one they initially landed on.
Consider a scenario where a visitor clicks on one of your Google Ads, arrives on your homepage, and then navigates to another page (like the Contact Us page) to fill out a form. In this case, the UTM parameters get lost as the form wasn't completed on the same page they landed on.
However, Attributer helps you solve this problem by storing the UTM parameters in a cookie in the visitor's browser. This means that the UTM parameters are captured in Happyforms irrespective of the page where the form is filled out, which ultimately means you get more accurate data on how many leads you are getting from your Google Ads.
3. Provides cleaner data
Attributer was designed to recognize inconsistencies in UTM usage and can still assign leads to the correct channel.
For instance, if you are using utm_source=google in some campaigns and utm_source=adwords in others, Attributer could still assign the lead to the correct channel (Paid Search in this case).
This ultimately helps ensure that you get more accurate data on the number of leads you're getting from your Google Ads.
4. Attributer captures landing page data
Apart from capturing Google Ads data, Attributer also captures the landing page URL (e.g., https://attributer.io/blog/capture-utm-parameters-happyforms) and the landing page group (e.g., /blog).
This allows you to run reports that show the number of leads and customers you got from specific sections of your website (such as your blog), and even drill down to see how many leads and customers each individual blog post is generating.
Wrap up
Attributer makes it easy to capture the UTM parameters you put behind your Google Ads with each new submission of your Happyforms.
And with this data, you track how many leads you are getting from your Google Ads, the campaigns they are coming from, the keywords they are using to find you, and more.
Best of all, getting started with Attributer is free! Sign up for na 14-day free trial today and see how Attributer can benefit your company.
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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.