Free guide
The full system behind Google Ads traffic in GA4. Why Display shows up as Paid Search. What dimensions you can and cannot change. And two naming conventions that give you custom channel grouping that works with auto-tagging, not against it.
This guide covers Google Ads auto-tagging (gclid). If your organization runs Display through DV360 or serves ads through Campaign Manager 360, those platforms use a separate auto-tagging system with different behavior. A DV360 + GA4 guide is coming separately.
What's inside
Each section explains one layer of the system. By the end, you know exactly what GA4 does with your Google Ads traffic and what you can do about it.
01
You run Display. GA4 says Paid Search. Both are telling the truth about different things. Here is why.
02
What Google Ads locks. What GA4 translates invisibly. What you still control through naming conventions.
03
Two separate engines. One for resolved gclids, one for manual traffic. The rules are different enough to put the same click in different channels.
04
Seven custom channel grouping conditions. Most are locked. Two carry real classification power. The full dimension map.
05
Two ready-to-use templates with seven fields each. Campaign name for the media team, utm_content for the analytics team.
06
One exploration report. Three columns. Five minutes. Every assumption about your Google Ads classification tested.
The complete system: how auto-tagging works, what you can split with custom channel grouping, and two naming conventions to make it stick. One PDF, no gate.
Download the PDF →You know the system now. Trakr helps you operationalize it. Configure your syntax once, generate URLs that follow it, hand the tools to your agency so they cannot deviate. One place to define, generate, and govern your tracking URLs. And I am building a version 2 with an API layer that catches misconfiguration at the ads platform level before the first click fires.
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