Google Ads

AppRefer captures the gclid from your Google ads, uploads conversions to the conversion actions you choose through Google's Data Manager API, and imports campaign spend.

1. Connect your Google Ads account

1. Copy your Customer ID, the 10-digit number at the top right of Google Ads (XXX-XXX-XXXX).
2. In Settings → Integrations → Google Ads, enter it and click Connect with Google.
3. Sign in with a Google account that has admin access to that Google Ads account and allow access (Data Manager and Google Ads). You return to AppRefer when it's done.

Access tokens last an hour; AppRefer refreshes them with the stored refresh token, so there is nothing to renew by hand.

2. Choose a conversion action per event

Google counts and bids on each conversion action separately, so AppRefer only sends an event that you have mapped to an action. There is no fallback action: an unmapped event is skipped rather than counted as the wrong kind of conversion.

• Create in Google (recommended). In Settings → Google Ads Conversion Actions, click Create in Google next to an event. AppRefer creates a click-import conversion action with a matching category and fills in its ID. Save to keep it.
• Use an existing action. In Google Ads, create an offline click-import action (Goals → Conversions → New conversion action → Import → Other data sources or CRMs → Track conversions from clicks), then paste its numeric ID next to the event.

Mappings are stored in googleConversionActions on the Google integration, keyed by event name.

3. Point your ads at AppRefer

Google can block click trackers it hasn't certified, so Google ads use a separate landing page instead of the redirect link other networks use. Create a tracking link with network google and use its /g/ URL as the ad's Final URL, with auto-tagging on:

https://apprefer.com/g/{linkId}

campaign_id={campaignid}&campaign_name={campaignname}&adgroup_id={adgroupid}&keyword={keyword}

The /g/ page is a real, crawlable app page with App Store and Google Play buttons. It doesn't redirect by itself. It shows your app's name, icon and screenshots from the store listing, or your own headline, screenshots, features and FAQs if you set them on the link. AppRefer saves the gclid when the page loads and records the click once the browser reports which store it is heading to.

Native Android App campaigns can send people straight to Google Play instead. When Google Play Install Referrer supplies a gclid, the install is attributed to Google with that gclid, with no landing page visit needed. A Play referrer with UTM tags but no gclid stays organic.

What AppRefer sends

POST https://datamanager.googleapis.com/v1/events:ingest

Each upload carries the gclid, the event time, the conversion action, the value and currency when known, and a stable transaction ID that is reused on retries. Google doesn't use IP address or user agent for this kind of match, so none is sent.

Spend sync

Once connected, AppRefer imports campaign spend, impressions and clicks for the main Customer ID and any extra IDs in customerIds. Spend is stored in each account's own currency, read from Google; an account that returns no valid currency is refused rather than assumed to be USD.

If one Google Ads account runs campaigns for several apps, add a customerOwnership rule per Customer ID, with the same shape and fail-closed behaviour as Meta's ad account ownership:

{
  "customerIds": ["123-456-7890"],
  "customerOwnership": {
    "1234567890": { "mode": "shared", "campaignIds": ["20123456789"] }
  }
}

Customer IDs match with or without dashes. A shared account with no campaign IDs or name prefixes imports nothing and records an error.

Test the connection

Test Connection sends a validate-only upload to one of your mapped conversion actions. Nothing is recorded in Google Ads. Map at least one action first.

Troubleshooting