Google Ads Attribution

Capturing UTM information (and more) on the Website and sending it with form submissions

Our Prospect has clicked on a Google Ad link and is now browsing our Website. We want to do a few things here:

• Store and persist the UTM data: It's likely that a visitor will browse multiple pages on a Website before submitting their information in a form. As soon as the visitor clicks a link on the website to visit another page all of the UTM information will be lost unless we store it first.
• Ensure we have a unique user identifier: We want to be able to reference this visitor uniquely and have this user identifier known by Google Analytics so we can refer to the user when they convert.
• Capture first and last contact data: We mentioned Multi-touch attribution. If a visitor clicks on an advert on Monday then clicks on another advert on Tuesday before submitting a form it would be helpful to track the multiple steps they take so, at a later stage, we can attribute outcomes to the different campaigns that have contributed to this Lead.
• Augment the data with useful marketing metrics: In addition to the UTM data it would be helpful to get more insights about this visitor. For example: a list of all the pages they have visited on the Website and when they visited them; the country they are visiting from and their approximate location in that country and the browser they are using which can be helpful for making sure the Website content is optimised.
• Send all the data when the visitor submits a form: When the visitor decides to take the next step we want to package-up all the data we have stored and send this to our CRM system.

Automation using Website Javascript

Fortunately all of this is possible using Javascript - small blocks of code that run in the browser and enhance the website experience.

We have created a script that provides all this functionality and it's available by adding this code to each website page:

<script async src='https://a.attribution.tools/js?key=DEMO&googleTrackingId=G-XXXXXXX'></script>

Please see this link for detailed documentation on the script functionality and parameters.

To take advantage of all the data captured, the Website owner includes hidden input fields with names or identities setup to match the different data items. Hidden input fields are - as their name implies - fields that can hold data and are sent along with the rest of the form data but are not visible to the website visitor.

Marketing Data Captured

The script creates these 25 data items. Website owners include them by including hidden input fields with the names or ids shown.

'/home.html;1673093937|/products.html;1673094170|/product1.html;1673094216'

An example of hidden fields that Website owners can add to their forms:

//Using an input with the id set for the 'utm_source' data item:
<input type="hidden" id="utm_source">

//The same input but setting the input name instead:
<input type="hidden" name="utm_source">

//Using an input with the alternative id format - with 'attribution_' at the start:
<input type="hidden" id="attribution_utm_source">

//Using an input with the name set and the alternative format:
<input type="hidden" name="attribution_utm_source">

Examples of this in action

Here are three demonstration pages to show the data capture in action. You can see for the first link we are passing the UTM values shown. utm_source set to google etc. Click on the first link to see the hidden form fields being populated.

For the second link we are setting different UTM values. utm_source is set to social. Click on the second link to see how the First Contact data is saved as well as the page count and list of pages browsed.

The third link has no additional URL parameters set. When you click on this link you can see the stored parameters from the previous requests are still available. In addition the page count should increase and the pages browsed show the additional demostration page.

https://www.attribution.tools/demo1.html?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=CNY_promotion&utm_term=promotions&utm_content=promo1

https://www.attribution.tools/demo2.html?utm_source=social&utm_campaign=NewStocks&utm_term=shoes&utm_content=stock9

https://www.attribution.tools/demo3.html

Congratulations again! We've completed the second part: we can now capture the UTM information as well as other valuable marketing data and send it to the CRM System when forms are submitted. On to Part 3:

1. Adding UTM information to Google Ads links
2. Capturing visitor and campaign information on the Website
3. Storing visitor and campaign information in the CRM System
4. Passing conversion events back to Google Ads

Additional documentation on the script can be found here.