The easiest way to track Google Ads campaigns in SaaSOptics

Learn how to capture Google Ads data and send it into your SaaSOptics account alongside each customer, so you can see which campaigns are actually generating your customers & revenue.

Imagine if you could see the exact source of every customer, down to the exact campaign, ad group, and ad they clicked, the search keyword they used, the device they were using, etc.

If you could do this, you’d know which of your Google Ads campaigns are working and which ones aren't, and you would be able to optimize your campaigns to drive better results.

In this post, we’ll show you how to use Attributer to capture Google Ads data in SaaSOptics so you can run reports that show you the source of your customers and revenue.

Why it's important to track customers and revenue from Google Ads

Let’s pretend you own a software business that provides project management software. To spread the word about your business, you create ads on Google targeting different types of terms people may be searching for, like ‘Project management software’ and ‘Task management software.’

If you were using a tool like Google Analytics to count the number of visitors and form completions, you’d probably get something like this:

	Task Management Campaign	Project Management Campaign
Spend	$2,000	$2,000
Visitors	200	100
Goal Completions	20	10

If ‘visitors and leads from spend’ is the only data you have access to, then it would seem like your Task Management campaign was far outperforming your Project Management campaign, and you’d probably be inclined to direct more of your budget to that.

On the other hand, imagine if you could see the results of these campaigns all the way through to the number of customers and revenue generated.

You’d get something like this:

	Task Management Campaign	Project Management Campaign
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 to customers and revenue, you’ll understand the whole story.

In this situation, the Task Management Campaign is far better because:

More customers were generated from the Project Management Campaign (12) than the Task Management Campaign (2)
The free trial-to-customer conversion rate is far higher for the Project Management Campaign (60%) than the Task Management Campaign (14%)
The average customer value in the Project Management Campaign is $2,083 per customer vs. $1,142 per customer from the Task Management Campaign.
The cost of getting a customer is lower in the Project Management Campaign: $416 vs. $714

It is apparent from the analysis above that when you capture the source of every customer, you get a much better understanding of what’s effective and what isn’t.

So how do you do it?

4 simple steps to capture Google Ads data in SaaSOptics

If you're looking to track your Google Ads campaigns in SaaSOptics, Attributer can make it easy for you. Here’s how it works:

1. Add UTM parameters to your ads

The first step in capturing Google Ads data in SaaSOptics is to add UTM parameters to your campaigns.

UTM parameters are extra text that you add at the end of the URL you send to people from your campaigns.

Pretend the page you want to send someone is attributer.io/integrations/salesforce, then your final URL with UTM parameters may look like this:

attributer.io/integrations/salesforce?utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=brand-campaign

Even though you can design whatever UTM parameter structure you want, following the general best practice for Google Ads is recommended, which is something like this:

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

Putting UTM parameters beind your URLs is simple, and free tools are available on the web to help you build them.

2. Attributer stores the Google Ads data in a cookie

When the Attributer code is up and running on your site, Attributer will scan your visitors for UTM parameters, which you added to your campaigns in step 1.

If it finds the right UTM parameters, Attributer will appoint this visitor to ‘Paid Search’ and then store this information in a cookie in the user’s browser. This way, it’s always available when the user completes a form (i.e., starts a free trial of your SaaS product or purchases your subscription offering).

3. Google Ads data is sent to SaaSOptics

Now that you have everything setup, when a user enters information on your site’s form (like the signup form for your product or service), the Google Ads data is passed into SaaSOptics along with the user’s name, company, number, email address, etc.

The data can be passed to SaaSOptics in two ways:

Hidden fields in forms - You can add a series of hidden fields to your forms, and Attributer will automatically write the necessary data. Once the form is submitted, this data is passed to SaaSOptics with any other information entered in the form.
Retrieved from the cookie - A simple line of javascript can be added to your registration process so that the UTM parameters are captured from the Attributer cookie and passed into SaaSOptics. This is helpful if you give your users the option to sign up for your product or service by signing into their Google or Facebook accounts, as that removes the need for the user to complete a form.

4. Run reports in SaaSOptics (and other tools)

Now that the Google Ads data (e.g., the campaign they came from, ad group, keyword, etc.) is inside SaaSOptics alongside every customer, you can use the data to build reports.

Here are some of the reports you can run:

New Customers added each month by Campaign
New Revenue added each month by Ad Group
Average Revenue Per Customer by Ad
Customer Lifetime Value by Channel or Campaign
Customer Churn Rate by Channel or Campaign
And many more!

You can run these reports inside SaaSOptics itself, or sync your data into other analytics tools (like Looker, Profitwell and Chartmogul) to run even more detailed reports.

Why using Attributer is the best way to capture Google Ads data in SaaSOptics

There are other methods for capturing Google Ads data and sending it into SaaSOptics, so why use Attributer?

Here’s why:

1. Captures all traffic

As well as being an efficient tool for sending Google Ads data into SaaSOptics, Attributer can also track all the other sources of customers (I.e. Organic Search, Paid Social, Organic Social, etc.)

Because of this, you can run reports in SaaSOptics that show the source of ALL your customers, not just those from your Google Ads.

This can be helpful if, for example, your SEO efforts generate sign-ups and customers at a better rate than your Google Ads campaigns. You can then adjust your budget and resources to invest more in SEO and grow your business faster.

2. Remembers the data as visitors browse your site

Most other methods of tracking Google Ads campaigns in SaaSOptics require the user to complete a form on the same page they land on after clicking your Google Ads. If not, the UTM parameters you put behind your Google Ads are forgotten.

As an example, imagine someone clicks on your Google Ads and is led to a landing page for this campaign. After some deliberation, they click the ‘Start Free Trial’ button and are taken to a different page to complete a form and sign-up for your product or service. This means that the page they submit a form on differs from the one they initially landed on, so the UTM parameters are lost.

This won’t happen with Attributer because it stores the UTM parameters in a cookie in the user’s browser. This way, the UTM parameters will always be sent through, no matter what page the user completes a form on.

3. Provides cleaner data

One of the troubles when using other tools that capture raw UTM parameters is that your data can get messed up, making it difficult to build accurate reports.

For instance, 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 send these raw UTM parameters to SaaSOptics and use them to determine the number of sign-ups and customers your Google Ads campaigns have brought you, you’ll get three different sources that you must stitch together manually.

You don’t have to put up with this with Attributer because it recognizes the possibility of capitalization and other inconsistencies and would appoint leads to the Paid Search channel no matter what.

4. Captures landing page data

Do you want to be able to measure the number of leads and customers you get from your blog and other in-depth content pieces you’ve worked so hard on?

Attributer can help with this also, because aside from capturing channel data, it also captures the landing page (i.e., attributer.io/blog/capture-utm-parameters) and the landing page category (i.e., /blog).

With this, you’ll be able to see the performance of specific sections on your site (e.g., your blog) in terms of lead, customer, and revenue generation.

Since it captures both the landing page and landing page group, you can look at your blog’s performance in two ways: as a whole section and as individual blog posts.

Wrap up

If you need to track in SaaSOptics how many and customers you receive from your Google Ads, then you should check out Attributer.

It will capture the UTM parameters you place behind your Google Ad campaigns and send them into SaaSOptics, allowing you to create reports that tell you which campaigns generate customers and revenue for your SaaS product.

In addition, it will also provide you data on leads that come from other channels, so you can know the source of ALL your leads and ultimately know where to best invest to grow your business.

The best part is it’s free to get started. Begin your free trial today and experience what Attributer can do for your business.

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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.