Google Ads (AdWords)—Create web campaigns for website apps

1. In AppsFlyer, from the side menu, open Collaborate > Partner Marketplace.
2. Search for Google Ads Web and select it.
3. Click Set up integration. You are directed to the Active Integrations setup page.
4. In the app dropdown, select the web app.

5. In the Integration tab, turn on Activate Partner.

   Note

   The toggle must stay on (activated) for as long as you work with this partner.

6. Enter your Customer ID. You can retrieve it from your Google Ads Manager:
   1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
   2. In the top-right corner, click the Google account icon and scroll down to where the Customer ID is displayed.
   3. Perform one of the following: 
      • If you have multiple Google Ads accounts running campaigns for your app, use the Customer ID from a Manager (MCC) account for cross-account conversion tracking. Paste the MCC ID (and not a specific account’s Customer ID) in the Customer ID field and also in the MCC Customer ID text box (same ID in both boxes).  For more information, see Google's instructions on configuring an MCC account.
      • If you only use a single Google Ads account to run ads, simply paste the account ID in the Customer ID text box and leave the MCC Customer ID text box empty. 
7. To allow AppsFlyer to upload conversions to Google Ads, click Sign in with Google.
8. Select the admin account of the MCC account from which you retrieved the Customer ID.

9. Click Allow.

   Note

   The Missing token error message will stop appearing once you sign in with Google and allow AppsFlyer to fetch the token. If the error persists after sign-in, verify that your token has the required permissions.

Map your website events to Google Ads conversion actions. AppsFlyer sends these events to Google via OCI to power conversion-based optimization.

1. Turn on In-app event postbacks.
2. Set the In-app event postback window if needed. The window is opened at the time of the user's first website conversion event (the web equivalent of the mobile install date).
3. Click Add event.

4. In the AppsFlyer event column, select the website event you want to send (for example, purchase, sign_up).

   Note

   Visit events are excluded. Only custom web events are available in this dropdown.

5. In the Mapped to partner event column, enter the Google Ads conversion action ID. Before you can do this, you need to create the conversion action in Google Ads (see Step 2 in Part 2 below). To find the conversion action ID:
   • In Google Ads, open the conversion action page.
   • Open the Details tab.
   • From the page URL, copy the value of the ctid=* query parameter. For example, if ctid=123456789, enter 123456789.
6. In the For users from column, select This partner only, to send events attributed to Google Ads only.
7. In the Including column, select whether to include revenue values in the postback.
8. Click Save integration.

1. Log in to Google Ads and create a campaign.
2. Select the campaign objective:
   • All objectives are applicable except App promotion, which is for mobile app campaigns only.
   • We recommend Sales or Leads for optimization based on specific website conversion events.
3. Select your conversion goals. By default, you see the account-level goals. You can keep those or remove ones that are not relevant.
   • If the goal you want to optimize for is not listed, create a custom conversion action (see Step 2 below).
4. Select the campaign type:
   • All types are applicable except Shopping, which requires a product catalog and a verified domain.

For each website event you mapped in AppsFlyer, create a corresponding conversion action in Google Ads. After creating it, copy the conversion action ID and paste it into the AppsFlyer event mapping in the previous section.

1. In Google Ads, from the side menu, open Goals > Conversions > Summary.
2. Click + New conversion action.
3. Select Import as the conversion data source, then select either:
   • Manual import using API or uploads > Track conversions from clicks, OR
   • CRM, files, or other data sources > Track conversions from clicks, and under Data source, select Skip this step and set up data source later.
4. Click Continue.
5. In Conversion goal, select a conversion action category.

6. Enter a Conversion name.

   Important!

   To use the Offline Conversions API with GBRAID/WBRAID (in addition to GCLID), make sure the Count field in the conversion action is set to Every (default) and not One.

7. Enter a Conversion name and click Add.

   Note

   If you only want your campaigns to optimize to a single action, include only that action in this category. For example, if you want your campaign to optimize towards a purchase conversion action, make sure that it is the only one in its category. You can then select this category as the conversion goal for performance optimization when creating the campaign.

8. Click Save and continue, then Done without setting up data sources. Your new conversion action may initially appear as Inactive, it will change to Active once actual data is sent.
9. To map the new conversion action to the AppsFlyer postback event, retrieve the conversion action ID: In the conversion goals Summary page, click the conversion action you created and copy the value of the ctid=* query parameter from the page URL.
10. In AppsFlyer, paste the ctid value into the Mapped to partner event column of the postback event you want Google to optimize for. See: Set in-app event postbacks.

Google defines the Final URL as "the URL address of the webpage in your website that people reach after they click your ad, also known as the 'landing page.'"

1. In Google Ads, open the Campaigns > Ads page.
2. In the ad row, click the edit icon.

3. In the Final URL field, enter the URL of your landing page.

   Important!

   The Final URL cannot be an AppsFlyer URL (OneLink or a single-platform attribution URL), as this may cause your campaign to be rejected. Only use a direct web address with no redirects.

   You can add AF attribution parameters to the Final URL and map them to Google ValueTrack parameters, for example, af_c_id={campaignid}. Once the Google ad is clicked and the landing page is loaded, these parameters are available on the page. To learn about the available ValueTrack parameters, see the Google documentation.

   For example:

   https://example.com?product=1234&af_c_id={campaignid}

In Google Ads, make sure that your access token has the necessary permissions to upload offline conversions:

1. Go to the Google Developers Console.
2. Make sure that uploadClickConversions has the following OAuth scope: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords
3. In AppsFlyer, in the Integration tab, click Sign in with Google.
4. Select the admin account of the MCC account.
5. Click Allow.

If you have multiple Google Ads accounts running campaigns for your app, you must use the Customer ID of an MCC account. See Google's instructions on configuring an MCC account.

Make sure the postback in-app events are mapped to the correct conversion action ID. To find the conversion action ID in Google Ads, see Step 2: Create conversion actions.