About parallel tracking in the new Search Ads 360 experience

Parallel tracking is a technique Google Ads accounts use to enable landing pages to load more quickly while still allowing external tracking systems such as Search Ads 360 to measure clicks and conversions. When a customer clicks your ad, the engine sends the customer directly to your landing page while simultaneously sending a request to the ad's tracking URL.

For ads managed in Search Ads 360, the ad's tracking URL sends data to Search Ads 360, which uses the data to attribute visits and conversions to the ad and keyword that generated the click. Then Search Ads 360 redirects the tracking request to any third-party trackers you added to your tracking templates.

With parallel tracking

Without parallel tracking

On advertising platforms that don't use parallel tracking, a click on your ad redirects through Search Ads 360, then any third-party trackers specified in your tracking templates, and then lands on your site.

Advertising platforms that use parallel tracking

Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising are the only search engines that use parallel tracking. See the technical details for how Google Ads uses parallel trackingand learn more about parallel tracking in the Microsoft Advertising help center. 

Features in the new Search Ads 360 experience that are affected by parallel tracking

Because parallel tracking prevents clicks from redirecting through Search Ads 360, some Search Ads 360 features work differently in Google Ads accounts.

Use custom parameters instead of macros

Because clicks don't redirect through Search Ads 360, it isn't possible to provide values for macros in your landing page URLs. Instead, in Google Ads accounts Search Ads 360 automatically creates custom parameters that contain the same data as Search Ads 360 macros. If you include these custom parameters in a final URL suffix or in your final URLs, the parameters will be included in the landing page URL and will be available to the landing page when a customer clicks your ad.

Search Ads 360 does not create custom parameters for Campaign Manager 360 macros, so it isn't possible to use these macros in accounts that use parallel tracking.

Don't use tracking templates for landing page parameters

In accounts that use parallel tracking, tracking templates should only contain data intended for any third-party trackers you use in addition to Search Ads 360, plus a placeholder for your landing page URLs. Parameters in tracking templates may not be available to your landing page, depending on how you define the template.

Instead, use a final URL suffix to specify URL parameters that your landing pages require. Parameters in a final URL suffix are appended to your landing page URLs when the engine serves an ad, and are always sent to the landing page.

Duplicate gclsrc parameters

Currently, Google Ads only uses parallel tracking for some types of clicks. If a click doesn't use parallel tracking, the landing page URL may contain duplicate gclsrc parameters:

• One gclsrc parameter comes from the final URL suffix that Search Ads 360 automatically adds for all clickable items in a Google Ads account. This parameter is always included in your landing page URL, even for clicks that use parallel tracking. The value of this parameter is aw.ds.
   
• The second gclsrc parameter appears only when both of the following are true:
  • A click doesn't use parallel tracking.
  • Your tracking templates use placeholders that HTML-encode the landing page URL, such as {escapedlpurl} and {lpurl}. These placeholders encode the entire final URL, including the gclsrc=aw.ds parameter from the final URL suffix.

  When a click is redirected through Search Ads 360, Search Ads 360 doesn't recognize the encoded gclsrc parameter, so it adds the second gclsrc parameter before forwarding the click to the landing page URL. The value of this second parameter can be one of the following:

  • aw.ds: This value appears when Search Ads 360 recognizes that the clicked item belongs to a Google Ads account.
  • ds: This value appears when Search Ads 360 is unable to determine that the clicked item belongs to a Google Ads account.

To ensure that your landing page URLs do not contain duplicate gclsrc parameters, do both of the following:

1. Make sure your tracking templates in Search Ads 360 use the {unescapedlpurl} placeholder.
   
   If you use a third-party tracker that requires landing page URLs to be encoded, it isn't possible to avoid duplicate gclsrc parameters for clicks that don't use parallel tracking.
    
2. In your final URL suffix, ensure that the gclsrc=aw.ds parameter appears after another parameter. If necessary, add an ignorable parameter to the beginning of the final URL suffix. For example, create a final URL suffix that looks like this: a=b&gclsrc=aw.ds
   
   This ensures that Search Ads 360 will detect the gclsrc=aw.ds parameter and will not append gclsrc=ds for clicks that redirect through Search Ads 360.