For the longest time, Google Ads has only been picking up about 10% of my sales, even though I know at least half of my store traffic is coming from paid traffic. Additionally, Shopify itself is missing any kind of conversion data for ~70% of my sales.
I originally set conversion tracking up with the Google & YouTube App; then switched Symprosis for conversion tracking for most of the last 12 months. Most recently, we switched to Little Data server-side tracking about 4 months ago in an attempt to solve this issue. None of it has made any difference. Both Symprosis and Little Data say their apps are working correctly sending data to Google - but perhaps the conversions are “missing some GCLID info”.
If it makes any difference, we are using Iubenda’s privacy control and cookie banner. Maybe this issue has something to do with customers accepting cookies (or maybe not…)
Last week, I connected with Google tech team themselves and they told me this:
“We checked the implementation on the website by inspecting the page through “Chrome dev tool” by (Ctrl+Shift+I) and checked the network request by (collect?v=2).
Found ‘first visit’ and “Session start” parameter not fired. We performed a GCLID test for the final URL “https://gardenhearth.co.uk/collections” used in the Google Ads account and could see that the GCLID sticks to the final URL.
However, when we picked the URL https://gardenhearth.co.uk/", we found that the GCLID dropped from the final URL and the test failed.
I would advise you to review this parameter on your website with the help of your web developer and ensure that the tags are firing correctly and that the GCLID is appended to the website across all pages.”
I’m not technical enough to understand what this means. I would be eternally grateful if someone could provide any advice, or better yet, suggest a developer I could approach to take a look at my setup.
Basically, Google is saying that when someone clicks an ad to your homepage, your site is redirecting or refreshing and wiping out the tracking code (the GCLID) from the URL. If that code vanishes before the page fully loads, Littledata and Shopify have no idea where the traffic came from.
Two things usually cause it:
A redirect on your homepage. Usually a geolocation/currency app, or a basic domain redirect (like www to non-www) that strips URL parameters.
Your Iubenda cookie banner. If it’s set to strict GDPR compliance, it blocks Google’s tags from firing until the user clicks accept. If they navigate to another page before accepting, the GCLID is lost.
Try pausing Iubenda for 10 minutes and test your homepage URL with a fake parameter like ?gclid=test1234. If it sticks, Iubenda is your culprit.
Thanks **ShopIntegrations.
**
This was good information, which led me down a rabbithole of testing (with Sidekick and GPT).
What I’ve found is the the URL parameters are intact on page load, but get stripped when clicking away to any further internal links. This happens whether the Iubenda banner is accepted or not, or completely disabled.
I also tested the Google cookie, and even though the URL parameter is stripped from the URL, the value (e.g.gclid=test123) is maintained in the Google _gcl_aw cookie even when navigating around the site, all the way through to checkout.
So, from what GPT tells me, it’s not Iubenda but some kind of script stripping the GCLID. At this point it walks me through various tests of increasing complexity. But at some point it’s just too much for me to comprehend as it involves a level of deep-dive code review on my site which is miles above my expertise
Not sure if anyone can recommend a developer who would know what they’re doing.
Thanks **ShopIntegrations
**
Just to be sure, I tried disabling every single app embed on my store; however, the URL parameter is still stripped away upon navigating to a new page.
I’ve reenabled them all except SEO-Lab, but TBH, I don’ think it can be that - SEOLab is an app installed only a month ago, whereas this conversion tracking issue has been around since we started running ads a year ago.
Also, as mentioned, although the URL patameter is stripped, the Google tag (_gcl_aw) maintains the test123 value even while navigating all around the site. I’m told that should be sufficient to track the conversion, but it just seems that somehow this isn’t getting passed to Google, and neither does Shopify backend pick it up.
Disclaimer; I barely know what I’m talking about above . All this is based on advice from Sidekick walking me through some tests.
Yes, if you could take a look that would be amazing
You can try Infinite Google Ads Tracking. It supports both options — tracking with GDPR consent or without it.
In my agency, especially with European stores, we often see that the GCLID is not triggered because of privacy consent banners. As a result, many conversions are not properly attributed in Google Ads.
Some of our clients wanted more accurate tracking, and this app helped us resolve that issue:
It has helped us improve conversion tracking accuracy for Google Ads.
Thanks Zeeshan, I was waiting for this plug to pop up
It’s possible we may try a solution like this, but we’ve already tried server-side tracking and that’s not working either, which points to the deeper issue.
And of course I’d prefer to solve the issue rather than pay for more subscriptions.
. All this is based on advice from Sidekick walking me through some tests.