Customize your Google Ads setup

Now that you have set up Adjust’s Google Ads integration, customize what data you record and share.

Measure Google Ads web-to-app campaigns

Note:

If you aim to drive app installs, we recommend running Google Ads App campaigns (ACI, ACE, Pre-registration). You only need to enable the Google Ads SAN integration for this. If you want to run web-to-app campaigns, follow the instructions in this section.

Google Ads might not claim attribution for certain users in web-to-app campaigns. In this case, we recommend that you generate Adjust links to use in Google Ads web-to-app campaigns so that Adjust can leverage them for attribution.

Follow these steps when you run Google Ads web-to-app campaigns:

  1. Enable the Google Ads SAN integration.
  2. Set up the final URL in Google Ads.
  3. Based on the type of Google Ads web-to-app campaign that you're running, create link URLs for each of the following partners:
  • Google Ads Search
  • Google Ads Display
  • Google Ads Video
  • Google Ads Performance Max
  • Google Ads Local
  • Google Ads Smart
  • Google Ads Discovery
  • Google Ads Hotel
  • Google Ads Shopping
  1. Use the Adjust link URL as the Tracking Template in the Google Ads web campaign dashboard. This is not mandatory, but we recommend doing it.
Important:

DO NOT change anything in the Adjust link URL or it might get rejected by Google Ads when setting up your campaign. Adjust universal links and branded links are not supported as the Tracking Template in Google Ads.

Once a user clicks your ad, the user is sent to the Final URL with the Final URL Suffix. If the user's browser supports parallel tracking, the URL is loaded and a click to the Tracking Template is fired.

If parallel tracking is not supported, Google uses sequential measurement and sends the user to the Tracking Template. Adjust then redirects the user to the Final URL.

  1. Your data is available in Datascape and is reported under the network name of the link.

Measure Google Ads re-engagement campaigns

Requirement

For Adjust to measure any Google remarketing campaigns, you must enable deep linking within the Adjust SDK. Developer instructions are listed below:

Google Ads re-engagement campaigns allow you to target your pre-existing users with personalized incentives to return to your app. To set up an official remarketing campaign on Ads, follow these steps.

  1. In the Google Ads dashboard, insert your raw deep link into the Ads Remarketing Campaign.
    • You do not need to add Adjust parameters to a raw deep link when using the Google Ads API.
  2. Confirm that you've enabled event linking for Google Ads in Campaign Lab.
Warning:
Without event linking set up, remarketing lists will not populate.
Tip:
You'll also need to ensure Google Ads matches your re-attribution window, and that the inactivity window is set to 0 days. If you do not set the inactivity window to 0 days, you'll experience data discrepancies.

For iOS and GDN campaigns, you do not have to use the official Google Ads remarketing campaign setup. Instead, you can append a deep link parameter to your Adjust link URL within the Ads Tracking Template field. This lets Adjust measure reattributions and perform deferred deeplinking.

Example:

https://app.adjust.com/f0ob4r?lpurl={lpurl}&campaign={campaignid}&adgroup={creative}&creative={placement}&google_network={network}&google_placement={placement&deep_link=myapp%3A%2F%2Fproduct1

As a reminder, for iOS version 9 and higher, you need to implement universal linking within your app.

Since Adjust automatically syncs and queries Google Ads for user re-engagement, all re-engagement campaigns will display under separate campaign sources in Adjust.

Once a user is re-engaged, all of their subsequent activity is associated with their most recent source of attribution.

Tip:
Adjust’s API integration automatically measures reattributions for all Google Ads campaigns. If you do not want to measure reattribution data for Google Ads, you can turn the Enable reattribution measurement toggle to OFF.

Measure campaigns using Google Ads App Asset

To manually create your Adjust link URLs for any Google Ad App Asset campaigns, follow these steps.

  1. Under Campaign Lab, select Partners.
  2. Select New partner.
  3. In the Partner selection screen, choose one of the folloing options:
    • Google Ads App Asset (Search): For your Search campaigns. Using these campaigns can make your ads appear on Google search results and search sites using relevant keyworks.
    • Google Ads App Asset (PMax, Local, Smart):
Note:
App assets are not available for other Google Ads campaign types, such as ACI, ACE, pre-registration, and Display.
  1. In the App selection screen, choose the app for which you want to create the link.
  2. In the Link structure screen, review the default link structure parameters provided by the network, and click Quick create.
  3. Implement your link URLs through the Google Ads App Asset UI.
  4. Once your newly created link URLs are live, all relevant campaign information will appear in Adjust.

Record Google organic search

Requirements

Google allows mobile users to download apps directly from a Google search. This means that when a search is made from a mobile device, the results can include icons for relevant mobile apps. When a user clicks an app icon, they are redirected to the Google Play Store to download the app. In Adjust, these installs are recorded as Google organic search and do not count towards your included attributions.

All installs attributed to Google's organic search will display search keywords at the Campaign level (sublevel 1).

Adjust can record up to 100,000 search terms for your app, and all keywords can be included in your Adjust install and reattribution callbacks using the {search_term} placeholder. This placeholder will be filled with the search query used by the device immediately before clicking on the download link.