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Will Google Ads’ “parallel” tracking work with ClickMagick?
There’s really not much need to use Google’s “parallel” tracking template with ClickMagick. You should be using ClickMagick Campaigns to track your Google Ads, and this doesn’t require doing anything with the tracking template field when setting up your ads.
With that being said, Google’s “parallel” tracking does work just fine with ClickMagick and this article is being preserved for historical purposes if you should find the need to use it for some reason.
Keep in mind that when using the tracking template Google Ads does impose some restrictions. If you want your ad to be approved, and you want it to work correctly, take note ...
First you cannot use a custom domain with Google Ads. Because of the way parallel tracking works, people are never going to see your tracking link anyway so it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Second, you must use a secure tracking link. This isn’t an option. Google Ads requires it.
Keeping these two points in mind, when you use ClickMagick tracking links with Google Ads, always use your secure account URL:
https://www.clkmg.com/[USERNAME]/...Thirdly, before Google Ads introduced parallel tracking, there were two URLs that you needed to include with your ad: the Final URL and the Tracking Template URL.
To meet Google Ads’ guidelines, the Final URL must now point to the final page that the visitor will be taken to after clicking on the ad. Similarly, the Tracking Template URL (which points to ClickMagick) must take you to the Final URL page as well.
In the past, Google Ads didn’t really use the Final URL except to verify that the Tracking Template URL actually took you to what you said was the Final URL. If those two didn’t match, your ad wouldn’t get approved.
Now, with parallel tracking, Google Ads does use the Final URL, sending your visitor directly to the Final URL when they click on your ad. The visitor still lands on the same page.
But because some tracking systems process clicks very slowly (unlike ClickMagick which is lightning fast), Google Ads now “clicks” on the Tracking Template URL in the background where the user doesn’t see it, and doesn’t have to wait. With this setup, the visitor is taken directly to the Final URL no matter how slow the tracking system is, but the Tracking Template URL is still sent a click with exactly the same user information so that everything can be tracked properly—it just happens in the background where the visitor never sees it.
In other words, it happens in parallel…
And as long as you’ve been following Google Ads guidelines, everything should work fine.
Caution: If your tracking link redirects to a URL that is not the Final URL listed in the ad—which totally violates policies that Google Ads has had in place for a long time—then parallel tracking won’t give the same results. For example, if your tracking link uses geotargeting, mobile URL settings, repeat click settings, or any other setting that would cause a click to be redirected to a completely different URL, that breaks with parallel tracking. But that was never allowed with Google Ads in the first place, so you shouldn’t have any trouble.
Article 378 Last updated: 07/17/2020 12:32:01 PM
https://www.clickmagick.com/kb/?article=378