When you link a Google Ads and Google Analytics account, you automatically see which campaign or keyword in Google Ads a visitor came from.
Friendly Analytics does not have this direct interface. However, with a little detour you can get this info in Friendly Analytics.
You can use the tracking parameters feature for this. Google Ads (or Bing Ads) automatically adds the desired information as a parameter to the URL. Friendly Analytics can then read these parameters.
<aside> 💡 We recommend using the Matomo-specific "mtm_" parameters. You can find an overview here. The "utm_" parameters used by Google are also recognized and processed by Friendly Analytics. However, with the mtm parameters you have more different parameters to choose from.
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You can theoretically have custom parameters added to the target URLs for each individual campaign and ad group (via the URL Options feature). Or you can manually add them to the link in each ad. This gives you maximum control over which parameters you want to submit and where.
However, this is very cumbersome and easily leads to errors. It is easier to automatically activate these parameters for the entire account. To do this, go to the account settings and then to "Tracking". In the field "Suffix of the final URL" add this template:
mtm_source=google&mtm_medium=cpc&mtm_campaign={campaignid}&mtm_kwd={keyword}&mtm_content={creative}
Save the changes. Done - from now on you can evaluate the Google Ads traffic in detail in Friendly Analytics.
Important to know: the traffic from Google Ads is not displayed under "Search engines" in Friendly Analytics - only the organic traffic can be found there - but under "Campaigns".
<aside> 💡 Unfortunately, Google Ads does not offer parameters for the campaign name and the ad group name out of the box. This is a limitation of Google Ads, not of Friendly Analytics. You can find an overview of all available "ValueTrack parameters" from Google Ads here.
As a workaround, you can have these missing parameters generated via a Google Ads script. Of course, this procedure is only recommended for experienced users. You can find such a script with instructions here on Bernhard Prange's website.
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With Bing / Microsoft Ads you can activate with one click that Bing Ads automatically adds UTM parameters to the links. This is enough for Friendly Analytics to correctly assign the traffic:
Alternatively, you can set the parameters yourself via "Suffix of final URL" - e.g. with this template:
mtm_source=bing&mtm_medium=cpc&mtm_campaign={campaignid}&mtm_kwd={keyword}&mtm_content={creative}
