Using Google Ads auto-tagging exclusively provides several benefits over manual tagging. It:
- Saves you the work of manually tagging every final URL.
- Eliminates the errors you can introduce when you attempt to manually tag each URL. For example,
utm_source=Google
is different fromutm_source=google
. - Allows you to import Analytics goals and transactions into Google Ads Conversion Tracking.
- Offers more detailed Analytics reporting (see below).
Auto-tagging vs. manual tagging reporting
Manual tagging can provide data for only the following dimensions: Campaign, Source, Medium, Content, Keyword. When you use auto-tagging, however, you can see data for several additional dimensions, including:
- Query Match Type (How your keyword was actually matched to the search query)
- Ad Group (The ad group associated with the keyword/creative and click)
- Final URL (Google Ads Final URL)
- Ad Format (text, display, video)
- Ad Distribution Network (Google Search)
- Placement Domain (the domain on the content network where your ads were displayed)
- Google Ads Customer ID (the unique three-part number that's assigned to your Google Ads account)
When you use auto-tagging, you get richer data than with manual tagging in the following reports:
- Hour of Day
- Placements (Where your ads on the content network were placed)
- Display Targeting
- Video Campaigns
- Shopping Campaigns
In addition, any reporting features and ad-units that become available in future will only be available if you use auto-tagging.
How to tell if you're using manual tagging
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- In the page menu on the left, click Ads & extensions.
- Click the Columns icon at the top of the table, and then click Modify columns.
- Click Attributes, and select the checkbox next to Final URL.
- Click Apply.
If any of the URLs in the Final URL column contains one or more of the following query parameters, you are using manual tagging:
- utm_source
- utm_medium
- utm_campaign
- utm_content
- utm_term
For example, if your final URL is example.com, then the manually tagged version would look something like:
http://example.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=camp1&utm_term=keyword&utm_content=creative