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Help! Google Ads Attribution Nightmare (B2B SAAS)

by Jimmy Davis
1 replies
  • PPC/SEM
    • |
Hi folks,

I would really appreciate some advice from some veterans here

I'm running B2B ads for SAAS to try and get users to try our software for free.

One of the issues we have is that once a user has signed up (after clicking on an ad) they get taken to a second sign-up form that strips out the GClid & UTM parameters because it is on a website hosted on a separate server (but with the same URL string e.g. they click on a google ad and get taken to xcorp.com/info this carries utm parameters and GCLids, they then click on the sign up form which also carries the utms and gclids, fill it out and then they get taken to xcorp.com (same website, hosted on a different server) and the utms and gclids are stripped out from this point onwards. From here the user can fill out the second form and choose to purchase later on if they choose to. (Because its B2B buying cycles can be a week or two or longer and involve multiple stakeholders).

When checking in GA4 it attributes a couple of paid clients to google ads but the majority are attributed to "Source = null". I've checked google and direct traffic in GA4 and they are not showing any paid conversions for these sources.

Given the server and GClid/UTM issues what do you think might be happening here? Are the ads underperforming in terms of paid clients or does it sound like there may be attribution issues? How can I figure out what source = null means? Also when I check the source of paid clients it says none of them completed any of the sign-up stages which would be a requirement of being able to pay.

I would massively appreciate any help here, thanks for reading.
#ads #attribution #b2b #google #nightmare #saas
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    Originally Posted by Jimmy Davis View Post

    Hi folks,

    I would really appreciate some advice from some veterans here, tearing my hair out trying to figure this out (apologies for the long post too)...

    I'm running B2B ads for SAAS to try and get users to try our software for free. The ads have a 15% CTR and I'm currently paying $16 per sign-up. Getting around 50 - 80 sign-ups a month. My budget is around $1800 a month.

    Since running the ads our number of paid clients has risen substantially. My boss believes this is due to word-of-mouth/organic google searches and has nothing to do with google ads. He may be right but I wanted to get your thoughts first.

    One of the issues we have is that once a user has signed up (after clicking on an ad) they get taken to a second sign-up form that strips out the GClid & UTM parameters because it is on a website hosted on a separate server (but with the same URL string e.g. they click on a google ad and get taken to xcorp.com/info this carries utm parameters and GCLids, they then click on the sign up form which also carries the utms and gclids, fill it out and then they get taken to xcorp.com (same website, hosted on a different server) and the utms and gclids are stripped out from this point onwards. From here the user can fill out the second form and choose to purchase later on if they choose to. (Because its B2B buying cycles can be a week or two or longer and involve multiple stakeholders).

    When checking in GA4 it attributes a couple of paid clients to google ads but the majority are attributed to "Source = null". I've checked google and direct traffic in GA4 and they are not showing any paid conversions for these sources.

    Given the server and GClid/UTM issues what do you think might be happening here? Are the ads underperforming in terms of paid clients or does it sound like there may be attribution issues? How can I figure out what source = null means? Also when I check the source of paid clients it says none of them completed any of the sign-up stages which would be a requirement of being able to pay.

    I would massively appreciate any help here, thanks for reading.

    Did you set up this funnel?

    If not, whoever did should be able to tell you what NULL means.

    I'm not technical enough to know about the rest of your scientific
    dilemma but you could address this problem to ChatGPT and it
    will sort that out for you.

    Copy and paste what you wrote here into ChatGPT. I would do it
    for you, but forum rules don't allow AI in comments.

    As to you not knowing where the leads are originating, you should
    send your Google Ad leads to a whole separate sign up page so
    that you are sure about their origin.
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