How to capture Google Ads data in Acuity Scheduling
Need to track which Google Ads campaigns are driving leads & customers for your company? Here’s how to do it with Acuity Scheduling.
Are you trying to grow your business with the help of Google Ads but struggling to see which campaigns are most effective?
Although you may be able to see how many clicks a campaign is getting, there are other metrics that you’ll need to track, including how many leads & customers you’re getting from each ad.
That’s where Acuity Scheduling and a tool called Attributer come in.
In this guide, we’ll explain how you can use Attributer to capture Google Ads data in Acuity Scheduling so you can better assess what ads are really working for your business.
Why it’s important to track customers & revenue from Google Ads
To help you understand why it’s so crucial to monitor your Google Ads performance, let’s take a quick look at an example.
Imagine you run a law firm that specialises in corporate law. To promote your firm, you run ads on Google targeting different types of services you offer, such as Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and Intellectual Property (IP) law.
If you were only using Google Analytics to measure visitors and form completions, your data would look a little something like this:
| Spend | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Visitors | 200 | 100 |
| Goal Completions | 30 | 20 |
If this was the only data you could see — visitors and leads from spend — then it would look like your M&A campaign was a much stronger performer than your IP Law campaign. You may then decide to direct more of your budget to that.
That said, imagine if you could drill down all the way down to the number of clients and the earnings generated. This is what that might look like:
| Spend | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Visitors | 200 | 100 |
| Leads | 30 | 20 |
| Customers | 5 | 7 |
| Revenue | $50,000 | $91,000 |
When you’re able to dive deeper into your Google Ads data, you get the full picture of how your campaigns are performing.
In this case, the IP Law Campaign is the stronger campaign because:
- You got more clients from the IP Law Campaign (7) than the M&A Campaign (5).
- Your conversion rate is higher for the IP Campaign (approximately 35% vs 16%).
- Your average client value is higher for the IP Law Campaign: $13,000 per client vs $10,000 per client from the M&A Campaign.
- Your cost of acquiring a client is lower through the IP Law Campaign: roughly $285 vs $400.
- Your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is higher in the IP Law Campaign: 2,500% vs 4,650%.
4 simple steps to capture Google Ads data in Acuity Scheduling
Thanks to Attributer, capturing Google Ads data in Acuity Scheduling is quick and easy. Below are the four steps you’ll need to follow:
1. Add UTM parameters to your ads
Step one is adding UTM parameters to your ads. If you’re not familiar with UTM parameters, these are small bits of text added to the end of URLs that help you identify where your site visitors are coming from.
So if you were originally sending someone to attributer.io/integrations/acuity-scheduling then the URL with UTM parameters would look like this:
https://attributer.io/integrations/acuity-scheduling?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. Add hidden fields to your Acuity Scheduling widgets
Next, you’ll need to add a set of hidden fields to your lead capture forms. This step will allow you to gather more valuable information about your leads.
These are the six hidden fields you’ll need to add:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Landing Page
- Landing Page Group
Adding hidden fields to Acuity Scheduling widgets is incredibly straightforward. However, if you need a step-by-step walkthrough, we recommend checking out our comprehensive guide.
3. Attributer passes through Google Ads data with each booking
With the UTM parameters and hidden fields set up, Attributer will start to track where your website visitors are coming from.
Once these visitors fill out a form on your site, Attributer will automatically add their attribution data to those hidden fields.
Let's illustrate this with an example. Picture this: you're a marketing executive for an accounting firm and you’ve launched a Google Ad campaign promoting its tax planning services for small businesses. With Attributer, the hidden fields would look something like this:
- Channel = Paid search
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Google
- Channel Drilldown 2 = Tax planning campaign
- Channel Drilldown 3 = Small business segment ad
4. Google Ads data is captured by Acuity Scheduling
Once a user submits the booking widget on your website, Acuity Scheduling will capture their details — such as their name, email, and phone number — along with the attribution information provided by Attributer.
Below are a few ideas of what you can do with this data:
- See it in your Acuity Scheduling account. Simply go to the Clients section, select a client, and it will be there on their Client record.
- Incorporate it into Acuity’s new lead notification email. This ensures you receive instant alerts about new leads, including where they came from.
- Integrate it with your CRM system (e.g. Salesforce, Pipedrive, Hubspot, etc.) so that your sales team can access and use the data efficiently.
- Generate reports that tell you which Google Ads campaigns are driving leads and conversions.
Why using Attributer is the best way to capture Google Ads data in Acuity Scheduling
When it comes to capturing your Google Ads data in Acuity Scheduling, you may be wondering: what sets Attributer apart?
Let’s take a look at four key reasons:
1. Captures attribution information on all leads
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
Most other options for capturing UTM parameters with each booking only work if the user completes the booking on the same page they originally landed on.
This means that if someone initially lands on your homepage but navigates to your ‘Book a Call’ page and submits the booking form there, no information on how they found you would come through.
Attributer solves this problem 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 booking widget.
3. Captures landing page data as well
Attributer goes beyond capturing UTM parameters; it also records your lead’s initial landing page and its corresponding category.
Let's revisit the accounting firm example from earlier. Attributer would gather data on the first landing page users accessed (e.g. smithsaccounting.com/services/tax-planning/small-business) and the category to which this landing page belongs (e.g. services).
This enables you to see how many leads & customers you're getting from certain content on your website (I.e., your blog) as well as break it down and see how many leads & customers you're getting from each content piece (I.e. each individual blog post)
3 example reports you can run when you capture Google Ads data in Acuity Scheduling
If you use Attributer to capture Google Ads data each time someone makes a booking through your website, and you send that data to your CRM or other tools, then you'll be able to run reports that show how your Google Ads are really performing (beyond just measuring clicks & visits).
Below, I have included a few example reports to help you get an understanding of what's possible when you use Attributer to capture Google Ads data in Acuity Scheduling:
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
Attributer + Acuity Scheduling is a great way to track how many bookings, leads & customers you are getting from your Google Ads.
It will remember the UTM parameters you put behind your Google Ads and pass them through each time someone submits an Acuity Scheduling 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.
The best part is it's free to try! Attributer offers a free, 14-day trial and it usually takes less than 10 minutes to set up, so 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.