Fix Microsoft Clarity Google Ads Integration to Track Sessions
Microsoft Clarity has an integration to import Google Ads performance data and filter by Ad sessions. This can be done from within Clarity from either:
Settings > Integrations
Settings > Setup
Select the Google Ads account to link and that is it almost configured….
Missing Sessions From Advertising Dashboard?
Not seeing any sessions?
The setup documentation does mention having to ensure Google Ads campaign level utm data is attached for this integration to actually work properly but it’s not that obvious what to do about it.
As no advertiser relies on this for google ads tracking between Google Ads and GA4, chances are Google Ads has not been setup for this.
What UTM Parameters Does Clarity Accept From Google Ads?
Microsoft Clarity supports:
utm_source
utm_medium
utm_campaign
This can be confirmed (and checked to see if this gets updated in the future) by navigation to the Filter section and looking at “Traffic” section. Referring site is included as a default browser parameter the others are defined from their respective UTM parameter. Hovering over Channel tooltip reveals that “UTM Channel: A friendly name for a grouping of UTM Source and UTM Medium”.
Note that if it does not have a Filter and so it does not accept any other UTM Parameters e.g. utm_content, utm_term, utm_id
For more information on when and where to use utm parameters on non-Google channels is in this linked post.
Update Google Ads Final URL Suffix
Tracking parameters can be added to Final URLs in Google Ads at Account, Campaign, Ad Group and Keyword level. As Clarity only accepts campaign data then we need to add this to Campaign URL tracking options in Campaign Settings > Additional Settings > Campaign URL Options > Final URL suffix (for every Campaign in the Account)
utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=manually write campaign name here (case sensitive)
Clarity should now be able to associate ad metrics with session data for further analysis.
Not Seeing Performance Max Campaigns in the Advertising Dashboard?
No, me neither. Assume this a “bug” that will be rectified by Microsoft at some point.
Assuming the GA4 integration is enabled then campaign name from Google Ads should be available from this side of the integration but not directly from the Google Ads integration.
