How to add tracking parameters to Google Ads URLs

• Access to Account settings in the Google Ads account
• A landing page that loads with extra query parameters. Google notes a small share of sites return an error page when they get them
• The parameter names your analytics expects

1. Check auto-taggingClick the Admin icon, then Account settings, then the Auto-tagging section. The box reads “Tag the URL that people click through from my ad”. Google turns it on by default for new accounts.Auto-tagging adds a gclid parameter, the Google Click Identifier, to each click’s URL. Google Ads conversion tracking and Google Analytics both rely on it, so leave it on and add your own parameters next to it.
2. Write the suffixA suffix is a list of key=value pairs joined by ampersands. Google’s own example is written as x=y with no question mark in front. Values in single curly brackets are ValueTrack parameters, which Google fills in at click time.The useful ones for telling ads apart: {campaignid} is the campaign ID, {adgroupid} the ad group ID, {creative} a unique ID for the ad, and {keyword} the keyword from your account that matched the search. Google also offers {matchtype}, {device} and {network}.

   utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaignid}&utm_content={creative}&utm_term={keyword}&adgroupid={adgroupid}

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3. Add it at the account levelGo to Account settings within the Admin menu and select Tracking Template. Enter the parameters in the Final URL suffix field and select Save.
4. Give one campaign its own suffixGo to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu and select the Settings tab. Select the pencil icon when it appears in the Tracking template column, enter the parameters in the Final URL suffix field and select Save. Ad groups, ads, keywords and sitelinks have the same field.
5. Leave the tracking template for click trackersThe tracking template sits in the same panel and does a different job. It holds a tracking URL, usually a third-party click tracker, with {lpurl} standing in for your final URL.With parallel tracking, which Google requires for Search, Shopping, Display, Video and Performance Max campaigns, the visitor goes straight to your final URL with the suffix attached while the template is called in the background. Anything your landing page has to see goes in the suffix.

• Click one of your own ads. The landing URL should carry gclid and every key from the suffix, each with a value.
• Look for curly brackets in the address bar. A value that still reads {campaignid} was mistyped in the suffix.

{keyword} comes through empty

Google leaves it blank when the ad matched without a keyword, which it says happens with AI Max for Search, Dynamic Search Ads and Performance Max. Treat an empty utm_term as normal for those campaigns.

The landing page shows an error after the change

Some sites reject query parameters they do not know. Ask your developer to allow them, then test by clicking an ad again.

Parameters vanish on the way to the page

A redirect between the final URL and the page people land on can drop the query string. Google warns about this for gclid, and the suffix is lost the same way. Point the ad at the final address or make the redirect pass parameters through.

Google Analytics ignores your utm values

Google states that GA4 prioritizes auto-tagging over manual tags and has no override. Your utm parameters still reach the page and any other tool that reads them.

Checked on 2026-11-11 against Google Ads Help: Add a Final URL suffix, Google Ads Help: About ValueTrack parameters, Google Ads Help: About auto-tagging, Google Ads Help: About tracking in Google Ads.