Enabling Enhanced attribution improves attribution signals across the Google Marketing Platform for display and video inventory. When a user clicks on an ad, a DCLID value will automatically be appended to the end of the landing page URL.
Example
utm_source=XXXXXX&utm_medium=YYYY&utm_campaign=ZZZZZ&dclid=CJKu8LrQxd4CFQ1qwQodmJIElwOn the landing page, the Google tag will read and track the DCLID (like it does with GCLID). When a conversion event occurs, Display & Video 360 will be able to understand the click activities that led to it.
To enable Enhanced attribution:
- Start by opening an advertiser, then navigate to Resources > Floodlight from the left menu.
- Click on the Basic Details tab.
- Enable Enhanced Attribution.
- Click Save.
About gad_source parameter
Google uses conversion metadata to measure certain conversions that can't be measured using traditional methods. To support this, gad_source, which is an aggregate URL parameter, is used to identify the source of ads URLs and improve the accuracy of ads conversion measurement. This parameter is used to identify the source of the ad click and isn’t customizable.
The aggregate parameter gad_source will be added to all Campaign Manager 360 click trackers and hence included in the final landing page URL. Both legacy Campaign Manager 360 Clk (/clk) and Tracking Click Trackers (/trackclk) will incorporate this parameter. For traffic originating from sources other than Google Ads, this parameter will only be appended when enhanced attribution is enabled.
This parameter has been rolled out for all Google Ads Traffic and is being rolled out to all other slices of traffic over the next few days.