Enable Google Ads (New)

Overview

Google Ads is Google's advertising platform for running campaigns across Google Search, YouTube, Display, Shopping, Discovery, Performance Max, and App Campaigns. Branch's Google Ads integration tracks attribution for installs and post-install events, imports cost data, and supports SKAdNetwork (SKAN) for iOS.

Google is a self-attributing network (SAN), which means Google runs its own attribution and reports results back to Branch via API rather than receiving traditional postbacks from Branch.

For more information about integrating ad partners in general, visit our Ad Partner Integration Guide.

This guide covers Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords). If you're integrating Google Marketing Platform (Display & Video 360, Campaign Manager 360, or Search Ads 360), see the Google Marketing Platform guide instead.

Note: this guide is for new Branch

Please note that this guide is about integrating Google Ads in the new Branch experience. For information on Google Ads in legacy Branch, visit our legacy guide.

Partner capabilities

Before you begin

To set up the Google Ads integration, you need:

• Branch's Performance product enabled for your Branch account. Contact your Branch account manager or visit https://branch.io/pricing.

• A Branch account with access to Configuration > Ad Partners and admin permissions to enable and configure integrations.

• A Google Ads account with admin access.

Enable Google Ads

Setting up Google Ads in Branch requires three steps:

1. In Google Ads: Create a Link ID for each app and platform you want to track.

2. In Branch: Sign in to Google AdWords and paste the Link IDs into Account Settings.

3. (Optional) In Branch: Enable SAN API-Driven Deferred Deep Linking for App Campaigns.

Create Link IDs in Google Ads

In Google Ads, create a separate Link ID for each app and each platform you want to track with Branch. An app that runs on both iOS and Android needs two Link IDs — one for each platform.

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.

2. Select Tools in the sidebar, then select Data manager.

3. Scroll to Popular products and select Third-party app analytics.

4. Select Create link ID.

5. In the App analytics provider dropdown, select Branch.

6. Select your mobile app's platform (iOS or Android).

7. Find and select your app.

8. Complete the link configuration.

9. Copy the Link ID. You'll need it later.

10. Repeat for additional apps or platforms.

Managing campaigns across multiple Google Ads accounts

If you run campaigns for the same app from multiple Google Ads accounts, you have three options:

• Cross-account conversion tracking: Set up a Link ID at the MCC (manager account) level. Then in MCC > Settings > Sub-account settings > Google Ads Conversion account, set the sub-accounts' Conversion Account to This Manager. See Google's cross-account conversion tracking documentation for details.

• Share a single Link ID: Share one Link ID with another Google Ads account. Only the account that owns the Link ID can share it.

• Connect only the owning account: Connect just the account that owns the Link ID.

Connect Google Ads to Branch

1. In Branch, navigate to Configuration > Ad Partners > Google AdWords.

2. Select Connect with Google AdWords and sign in with Google.

   • Follow Connect with OAuth in the general Ad Partner Integration Guide for the full sign-in flow.

3. Select the Google Ads accounts you want to connect.

4. In Account Settings, paste your Link IDs into the AdWords Link ID section. Numbers and letters only (no spaces or other characters).

   • iOS Link ID: Paste the Link ID you created for your iOS app.

   • Android Link ID: Paste the Link ID you created for your Android app.

5. Select Save.

Important: Add every Google Ads account you want SKAN data for during sign-in. If you only add one account, you'll only receive SKAN data for that account.

Enable SAN API-Driven Deferred Deep Linking (optional)

To enable SAN API-Driven Deferred Deep Linking for Google App Campaigns, toggle on the feature in Account Settings:

1. On the Google AdWords page, go to Account Settings.

2. Under SAN API-Driven Deferred Deep Linking, toggle Enable SAN API-Driven DDL to on.

When enabled, Branch leverages Google's APIs to retrieve deferred deep link data at install time so users who install your app from a Google App Campaign land on the right in-app content.

Campaign support

Google Ads supports several campaign types, each with different attribution mechanisms in Branch:

Branch Ad Links are required for web event attribution. Google Ads API attribution is always considered for app events, even when Branch Ad Links are used.

Google Ads campaign identifiers

Google Ads uses several identifiers for web-to-app attribution and attribution without device IDs. Branch ingests these identifiers and forwards them in Google Ads postbacks so Google can use them for campaign optimization.

Set up Branch Ad Links for web-based campaigns

Web-based campaigns (Display, Search, Discovery, Video, Shopping, Performance Max) use a Branch Ad Link in the campaign's Tracking Template to attribute clicks and deep link users into your app when installed. Before setting these up:

• Enable Parallel Tracking in Google Ads.

• Implement the Branch Web SDK to track web events. Google doesn't ingest web events from Branch — it only uses web events tracked through its own web trackers.

In Branch, create a Branch Ad Link with Google AdWords as the ad partner (see Branch Ad Links for the full creation flow). Use the table below to pick the right Branch Ad Link type, then paste the link's Click Tracking Link into your Google Ads campaign's Tracking Template field.

Important: If you place a Branch Ad Link in the Final URL of a Search ad, replace lpurl={lpurl} with %24fallback_url={lpurl} in your link to preserve the fallback URL routing.

For web-only campaigns (no app conversion tracking), add the ~campaign and ~campaign_id tags to your Branch Ad Link. See the SAN Web Tracking guide for additional setup details.

Configure attribution

To configure attribution windows, select the Attribution windows tab on the Google Ads page.

Note that windows that differ from Google's recommendations may cause discrepancies when comparing Branch and Google reporting.

Tip: view-through conversions

Google Ads reports View-Through Conversions (VTC) in a separate column by default. If you enable impression windows in Branch, Branch attributes VTC installs and events to Google Ads when there's no matching click from another partner. VTC-attributed activity is grouped into your install and event counts in Branch and can be segmented by Last attributed touch type.

Configure events

To configure event mappings, select the Event config tab on the Google Ads page.

Follow Configure events in the general Ad Partner Integration Guide for the event mapping flow. The full Branch-to-Google event name reference is in Data mappings below.

Regardless of campaign type, Branch forwards in-app events to Google Ads for campaign optimization and receives attribution data back for reporting in Branch.

Import events to Google Ads

After configuring event mappings in Branch, import your app conversion events into Google Ads so Google can use them for campaign optimization.

Important: For first_open event conversions, enable the account default setting for your conversion goal so the conversion is tracked in your reporting. See Google's conversion goals documentation for the configuration steps.

Verify your data

After your integration is connected and events are flowing, you can verify data is reaching Google Ads and Branch:

• In Branch Liveview: confirm that events from your app appear in real time. This is the fastest way to confirm SDK events are firing.

• In Branch Analysis dashboards: review attributed installs, events, and cost data where Ad Partner Name = Google AdWords.

• In Google Ads Conversion table: navigate to Segment > Conversions > Conversion name to see the breakdown of conversions for a campaign.

• In Google Ads campaign reports: confirm that the events you imported in Branch appear in your campaign reporting.

Google privacy frameworks

SKAdNetwork

Google handles SKAN differently from most ad partners. Google does not forward individual SKAN postbacks to Branch. Instead, Google collects and validates postbacks internally and shares aggregate data with Branch through the Google Ads API.

Supported campaign types for SKAN data:

Data dimensions available via the Google Ads API:

Unlike some other SANs, Google does not require you to paste a conversion value schema URL into Google Ads. Branch's SKAN setup for Google is fully handled by the OAuth connection.

To see Google Ad’s SKAN data in the new Branch experience, use the SKAN or Unified + SKAN data source for Analysis dashboards and set Ad Partner Name = Google AdWords.

Data mappings

Campaign data

Note: advertising partner name value

The ~advertising_partner_name field populates as Google AdWords for Google Ads traffic. Use Ad Partner Name = Google AdWords when filtering in Branch dashboards or exports.

Event names

Event metadata

Valuetrack parameters for Branch Ad Links

Branch automatically captures Google Ads Valuetrack parameters on Branch Ad Links and maps Google's campaignid and network parameters to Branch's Campaign and Channel tags. Leave those Branch tags blank to enable dynamic mapping.

See Google's Valuetrack reference for additional parameters you can append.

Data limitations

Be aware of the following Google-specific data behaviors in Branch:

• iOS Search and YouTube installs not reported: As of July 2019, Google stopped sending iOS install attributions from Search inventory and YouTube inventory to any MMP, including Branch. You can still view these attributions in Google Ads, but they won't appear in Branch reports.

• UAC clicks aggregated only: For App Campaigns (UAC), Branch reports clicks in aggregate via Google's reporting API. Individual UAC clicks don't appear in Branch Liveview, webhooks, or exports. Reporting on UAC clicks updates every 3 hours.

• UAC compare-by limitations: Some Branch dashboard dimensions (Ad Name, Creative Name, Keyword, Link ID, Tags) aren't available for UAC campaigns because Google's reporting API doesn't supply them. Non-UAC campaigns like Search support the full set.

• Conversion date mismatch: Google reports conversions by click date; Branch reports by conversion date. For events that occur days after the click, Google and Branch totals for the same day can diverge by design.

• 24-hour Google reporting delay: Google Ads can delay reporting by up to 24 hours. Measure campaigns in a trailing manner.

• 60-day purge: Branch purges last-attributed Google Ads data after 60 days.

Troubleshooting

Additional resources

For more on Google Ads and Branch, see the Google Ads FAQ and Google Ads discrepancies guides.